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NameNode
The HDFS namespace is a hierarchy of files and directories. Files and directories are represented on the NameNode by inodes. Inodes record attributes like permissions, modification and access times, namespace and disk space quotas. The file content is split into large blocks (typically 128 megabytes, but user selectable file-by-file), and each block of the file is independently replicated at multiple DataNodes (typically three, but user selectable file-by-file). The NameNode maintains the namespace tree and the mapping of blocks to DataNodes. The current design has a single NameNode for each cluster. The cluster can have thousands of DataNodes and tens of thousands of HDFS clients per cluster, as each DataNode may execute multiple application tasks concurrently.
Image and Journal
The inodes and the list of blocks that define the metadata of the name system are called the image. NameNode keeps the entire namespace image in RAM. The persistent record of the image stored in the NameNode’s local native filesystem is called a checkpoint. The NameNode records changes to HDFS in a write-ahead log called the journal in its local native filesystem. The location of block replicas are not part of the persistent checkpoint.
Each client-initiated transaction is recorded in the journal, and the journal file is flushed and synced before the acknowledgment is sent to the client. The checkpoint file is never changed by the NameNode; a new file is written when a checkpoint is created during restart, when requested by the administrator, or by the CheckpointNode described in the next section. During startup the NameNode initializes the namespace image from the checkpoint, and then replays changes from the journal. A new checkpoint and an empty journal are written back to the storage directories before the NameNode starts serving clients.
For improved durability, redundant copies of the checkpoint and journal are typically stored on multiple independent local volumes and at remote NFS servers. The first choice prevents loss from a single volume failure, and the second choice protects against failure of the entire node. If the NameNode encounters an error writing the journal to one of the storage directories it automatically excludes that directory from the list of storage directories. The NameNode automatically shuts itself down if no storage directory is available.
The NameNode is a multithreaded system and processes requests simultaneously from multiple clients. Saving a transaction to disk becomes a bottleneck since all other threads need to wait until the synchronous flush-and-sync procedure initiated by one of them is complete. In order to optimize this process, the NameNode batches multiple transactions. When one of the NameNode’s threads initiates a flush-and-sync operation, all the transactions batched at that time are committed together. Remaining threads only need to check that their transactions have been saved and do not need to initiate a flush-and-sync operation.
DataNodes
Each block replica on a DataNode is represented by two files in the local native filesystem. The first file contains the data itself and the second file records the block’s metadata including checksums for the data and the generation stamp. The size of the data file equals the actual length of the block and does not require extra space to round it up to the nominal block size as in traditional filesystems. Thus, if a block is half full it needs only half of the space of the full block on the local drive.
During startup each DataNode connects to the NameNode and performs a handshake. The purpose of the handshake is to verify the namespace ID and the software version of the DataNode. If either does not match that of the NameNode, the DataNode automatically shuts down.
The namespace ID is assigned to the filesystem instance when it is formatted. The namespace ID is persistently stored on all nodes of the cluster. Nodes with a different namespace ID will not be able to join the cluster, thus protecting the integrity of the filesystem. A DataNode that is newly initialized and without any namespace ID is permitted to join the cluster and receive the cluster’s namespace ID.
After the handshake the DataNode registers with the NameNode. DataNodes persistently store their unique storage IDs. The storage ID is an internal identifier of the DataNode, which makes it recognizable even if it is restarted with a different IP address or port. The storage ID is assigned to the DataNode when it registers with the NameNode for the first time and never changes after that.
A DataNode identifies block replicas in its possession to the NameNode by sending a block report. A block report contains the block ID, the generation stamp and the length for each block replica the server hosts. The first block report is sent immediately after the DataNode registration. Subsequent block reports are sent every hour and provide the NameNode with an up-to-date view of where block replicas are located on the cluster.
During normal operation DataNodes send heartbeats to the NameNode to confirm that the DataNode is operating and the block replicas it hosts are available. The default heartbeat interval is three seconds. If the NameNode does not receive a heartbeat from a DataNode in ten minutes the NameNode considers the DataNode to be out of service and the block replicas hosted by that DataNode to be unavailable. The NameNode then schedules creation of new replicas of those blocks on other DataNodes.
Heartbeats from a DataNode also carry information about total storage capacity, fraction of storage in use, and the number of data transfers currently in progress. These statistics are used for the NameNode’s block allocation and load balancing decisions.
The NameNode does not directly send requests to DataNodes. It uses replies to heartbeats to send instructions to the DataNodes. The instructions include commands to replicate blocks to other nodes, remove local block replicas, re-register and send an immediate block report, and shut down the node.
These commands are important for maintaining the overall system integrity and therefore it is critical to keep heartbeats frequent even on big clusters. The NameNode can process thousands of heartbeats per second without affecting other NameNode operations.
HDFS Client
User applications access the filesystem using the HDFS client, a library that exports the HDFS filesystem interface.
Like most conventional filesystems, HDFS supports operations to read, write and delete files, and operations to create and delete directories. The user references files and directories by paths in the namespace. The user application does not need to know that filesystem metadata and storage are on different servers, or that blocks have multiple replicas.
When an application reads a file, the HDFS client first asks the NameNode for the list of DataNodes that host replicas of the blocks of the file. The list is sorted by the network topology distance from the client. The client contacts a DataNode directly and requests the transfer of the desired block. When a client writes, it first asks the NameNode to choose DataNodes to host replicas of the first block of the file. The client organizes a pipeline from node-to-node and sends the data. When the first block is filled, the client requests new DataNodes to be chosen to host replicas of the next block. A new pipeline is organized, and the client sends the further bytes of the file. Choice of DataNodes for each block is likely to be different.
Unlike conventional filesystems, HDFS provides an API that exposes the locations of a file blocks. This allows applications like the MapReduce framework to schedule a task to where the data are located, thus improving the read performance. It also allows an application to set the replication factor of a file. By default a file’s replication factor is three. For critical files or files which are accessed very often, having a higher replication factor improves tolerance against faults and increases read bandwidth.
CheckpointNode
The NameNode in HDFS, in addition to its primary role serving client requests, can alternatively execute either of two other roles, either a CheckpointNode or a BackupNode. The role is specified at the node startup.
The CheckpointNode periodically combines the existing checkpoint and journal to create a new checkpoint and an empty journal. The CheckpointNode usually runs on a different host from the NameNode since it has the same memory requirements as the NameNode. It downloads the current checkpoint and journal files from the NameNode, merges them locally, and returns the new checkpoint back to the NameNode.
Creating periodic checkpoints is one way to protect the filesystem metadata. The system can start from the most recent checkpoint if all other persistent copies of the namespace image or journal are unavailable. Creating a checkpoint also lets the NameNode truncate the journal when the new checkpoint is uploaded to the NameNode. HDFS clusters run for prolonged periods of time without restarts during which the journal constantly grows. If the journal grows very large, the probability of loss or corruption of the journal file increases. Also, a very large journal extends the time required to restart the NameNode. For a large cluster, it takes an hour to process a week-long journal. Good practice is to create a daily checkpoint.
BackupNode
A recently introduced feature of HDFS is the BackupNode. Like a CheckpointNode, the BackupNode is capable of creating periodic checkpoints, but in addition it maintains an in-memory, up-to-date image of the filesystem namespace that is always synchronized with the state of the NameNode.
The BackupNode accepts the journal stream of namespace transactions from the active NameNode, saves them in journal on its own storage directories, and applies these transactions to its own namespace image in memory. The NameNode treats the BackupNode as a journal store the same way as it treats journal files in its storage directories. If the NameNode fails, the BackupNode’s image in memory and the checkpoint on disk is a record of the latest namespace state.
The BackupNode can create a checkpoint without downloading checkpoint and journal files from the active NameNode, since it already has an up-to-date namespace image in its memory. This makes the checkpoint process on the BackupNode more efficient as it only needs to save the namespace into its local storage directories.
The BackupNode can be viewed as a read-only NameNode. It contains all filesystem metadata information except for block locations. It can perform all operations of the regular NameNode that do not involve modification of the namespace or knowledge of block locations. Use of a BackupNode provides the option of running the NameNode without persistent storage, delegating responsibility of persisting the namespace state to the BackupNode.
Upgrades and Filesystem Snapshots
During software upgrades the possibility of corrupting the filesystem due to software bugs or human mistakes increases. The purpose of creating snapshots in HDFS is to minimize potential damage to the data stored in the system during upgrades.
The snapshot mechanism lets administrators persistently save the current state of the filesystem, so that if the upgrade results in data loss or corruption it is possible to rollback the upgrade and return HDFS to the namespace and storage state as they were at the time of the snapshot.
The snapshot (only one can exist) is created at the cluster administrator’s option whenever the system is started. If a snapshot is requested, the NameNode first reads the checkpoint and journal files and merges them in memory. Then it writes the new checkpoint and the empty journal to a new location, so that the old checkpoint and journal remain unchanged.
During handshake the NameNode instructs DataNodes whether to create a local snapshot. The local snapshot on the DataNode cannot be created by replicating the directories containing the data files as this would require doubling the storage capacity of every DataNode on the cluster. Instead each DataNode creates a copy of the storage directory and hard links existing block files into it. When the DataNode removes a block it removes only the hard link, and block modifications during appends use the copy-on-write technique. Thus old block replicas remain untouched in their old directories.
The cluster administrator can choose to roll back HDFS to the snapshot state when restarting the system. The NameNode recovers the checkpoint saved when the snapshot was created. DataNodes restore the previously renamed directories and initiate a background process to delete block replicas created after the snapshot was made. Having chosen to roll back, there is no provision to roll forward. The cluster administrator can recover the storage occupied by the snapshot by commanding the system to abandon the snapshot; for snapshots created during upgrade, this finalizes the software upgrade.
System evolution may lead to a change in the format of the NameNode’s checkpoint and journal files, or in the data representation of block replica files on DataNodes. The layout version identifies the data representation formats, and is persistently stored in the NameNode’s and the DataNodes’ storage directories. During startup each node compares the layout version of the current software with the version stored in its storage directories and automatically converts data from older formats to the newer ones. The conversion requires the mandatory creation of a snapshot when the system restarts with the new software layout version.
