Requests hang when using Hiveserver2 Thrift Java client
Not sure if you're still experiencing this issue, but since i've confronted the same problem and resolved it (perhaps bypassed is more accurate description), i'll post a solution here just in case someone else needs it.
This is because the thrift server is expecting to authenticate via SASL when you open your transport connection. Hive Server 2 defaults to using SASL - unfortunately, PHP lacks a version of TSaslClientTransport (which is used as a wrapper around another TTransport object) which handles the SASL negotiation when you open your transport connection.
The easiest solution for now is to set the following property in your hive-site.xml
<property><name>hive.server2.authentication</name><value>NOSASL</value></property>