Comment 1 for bug 1401229

This error shows up during create unique index which is done as part of constraint creation.
During create index, a bulk load statement is executed to insert rows into index from base table.
Looks like temp hfile has some permission issue when it is being created in hdfs.
This error does not show up on empty table since create index does not do any load in that case.

Are you able to do a 'create unique index' on that same column?