Example minimal ORC file writing. Non-distributed (not require YARN) and can run in off-cluster process, with appropriate HDFS and ORC client libs installed.

Driver.java

// Example - MINIMAL IMPLEMENTATION - of simple ORC file writing.
// Non-distributed (not require YARN) and can run in off-cluster process.
// Requires that the host has appropriate HDFS and ORC client libs installed, plus connectivity to the cluster.

package org.dkaiser.orctest;

import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.CompressionKind;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.OrcFile;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.OrcFile.EncodingStrategy;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.Writer;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.objectinspector.ObjectInspector;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.objectinspector.ObjectInspectorFactory;

public class Driver {

	public static class Row {
	    Integer int1;
	    Long long1;
	    String firstName;
	    String lastName;
	    String city;
	    String state;
	    String zip9;

	    public Row(int val, long l, String fn, String ln, String c, String s, String z) {
	      this.int1 = val;
	      this.long1 = l;
	      this.firstName = fn;
	      this.lastName = ln;
	      this.city = c;
	      this.state = s;
	      this.zip9 = z;
	    }
	  }
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		Configuration conf = new Configuration(false);
		conf.set("fs.defaultFS", "hdfs://sandbox.hortonworks.com:8020");
		
		ObjectInspector inspector;

		synchronized (Driver.class) {
	      inspector = ObjectInspectorFactory.getReflectionObjectInspector(
	          Row.class, ObjectInspectorFactory.ObjectInspectorOptions.JAVA);
	    }

		try {
			FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(conf);
			Path path = new Path("/tmp/file.orc");
			if (fs.exists(path)) {
				fs.delete(path, true);
			}			

		  Writer writer = OrcFile.createWriter(path,
	           OrcFile.writerOptions(conf)
	           .fileSystem(fs)
	           .inspector(inspector)
	           .blockPadding(false)
	           .compress(CompressionKind.NONE)
	           .encodingStrategy(EncodingStrategy.SPEED)
//	           .stripeSize(100000)
//	           .bufferSize(10000)
      );
		
		  writer.addRow(new Row(111, 1111L, "John", "Doe", "Buffalo", "NY", "12345-6789"));
		  writer.addRow(new Row(112, 2222L, "Henry", "Ford", "Detroit", "MI", "12345-6789"));
		  writer.addRow(new Row(113, 3333L, "Walter", "Cronkite", "New York", "NY", "12345-6789"));
			writer.addRow(new Row(114, 4444L, "Al", "Gore", "Nashville", "TN", "12345-6789"));
			writer.close();
		} catch (IOException ex) {
			System.err.println("Error: Failure writing values to OrcFile.");
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}