This is the particular error we get... it happens actually in pig .11 and pig .12.
It appears to not really give us any useful information: What could be the cause? Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 3.149 sec <<< FAILURE! testPigETL(org.bigtop.bigpetstore.pigtest.TestPig) Time elapsed: 3.106 sec <<< ERROR! org.apache.pig.impl.logicalLayer.FrontendException: ERROR 1066: Unable to open iterator for alias uniqcnt at org.apache.pig.PigServer.openIterator(PigServer.java:836) at org.bigtop.bigpetstore.etl.PigETL.numberOfProductsByProduct(PigETL.java:99) at org.bigtop.bigpetstore.pigtest.TestPig.runPig(TestPig.java:61) at org.bigtop.bigpetstore.pigtest.TestPig.testPigETL(TestPig.java:51) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:47) at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:44) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:271) at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:70) at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:50) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:309) at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.execute(JUnit4Provider.java:252) at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.executeTestSet(JUnit4Provider.java:141) at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.invoke(JUnit4Provider.java:112) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.apache.maven.surefire.util.ReflectionUtils.invokeMethodWithArray(ReflectionUtils.java:189) at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ProviderFactory$ProviderProxy.invoke(ProviderFactory.java:165) at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ProviderFactory.invokeProvider(ProviderFactory.java:85) at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.runSuitesInProcess(ForkedBooter.java:115) at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.main(ForkedBooter.java:75) Caused by: java.io.IOException: Job terminated with anomalous status FAILED at org.apache.pig.PigServer.openIterator(PigServer.java:828) ... 32 more