The custom init script reads jdk.sh after bigtop.
Our servers have java 7 installed by default using the java cookbook which sets JAVA_HOME and also install java8 in /opt/jdks using java_ark
If we set JAVA_HOME to /opt/jdks/java8 it will just get set back to java7
Java home before bigtop /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle-amd64
Java home after bigtop and before jdk.sh /opt/jdks/oracle-jdk8-x86_64
Java home after jdk.sh /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle-amd64
Not sure what we can do at this point but shouldn't jdk.sh be read before /etc/default/bigtop-utils and then bigtop-utils overrides anything set in jdk.sh?
This has been merged and will be in the next cookbook release. You can follow the hadoop cookbook on the Chef Supermarket to get notifications on updates, or follow the GitHub repository, as we publish all releases there, too. It's your choice.