MLFlow Projects throw JSONDecode error when run - mlflow

Question

I'm trying to get MLFlow Projects to run using the MLFlow CLI and its following the tutorial leads to an error. For any project I try to run from the CLI, I get the following error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/rbc/.local/bin/mlflow", line 11, in <module>
sys.exit(cli())
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 764, in __call__
return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 717, in main
rv = self.invoke(ctx)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1137, in invoke
return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 956, in invoke
return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 555, in invoke
return callback(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/cli.py", line 139, in run
run_id=run_id,
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/projects/__init__.py", line 230, in run
storage_dir=storage_dir, block=block, run_id=run_id)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/projects/__init__.py", line 88, in _run
active_run = _create_run(uri, experiment_id, work_dir, entry_point)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/projects/__init__.py", line 579, in _create_run
active_run = tracking.MlflowClient().create_run(experiment_id=experiment_id, tags=tags)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/tracking/client.py", line 101, in create_run
source_version=source_version
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/store/rest_store.py", line 156, in create_run
response_proto = self._call_endpoint(CreateRun, req_body)
File "/home/rbc/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/mlflow/store/rest_store.py", line 66, in _call_endpoint
js_dict = json.loads(response.text)
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 354, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 339, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 357, in raw_decode
raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Here's an example of the type of command I'm using to start the run, which comes directly from the tutorial
mlflow run https://github.com/mlflow/mlflow#examples/sklearn_elasticnet_wine -m databricks -c cluster-spec.json --experiment-id 72647065958042 -P alpha=2.0 -P l1_ratio=0.5
I've traced the error to something involving MLFLow returning empty when it tries to start a run but I can successfully run MLFlow experiments using the Databricks environment I'm connecting to so I'm not sure where the problem is, I'm running MLFlow 0.9.1 on Ubuntu 18.04

Answer 1

not sure if you have solved your issue, but here is how I fixed it:
the databricks-cli work with the following config without problem:
host = https://xxx.databricks.net/?o=<org_id>
token=dapixxx
but mlflow not quit happy about that, change it to:
host = https://xxx.databricks.net
username = token
password = dapixxx