3. Decommission DataNodes

Use the following instructions to decommission DataNodes in your cluster:

  • On the NameNode host machine, edit the <HADOOP_CONF_DIR>/dfs.exclude file and add the list of DataNodes hostnames (separated by a newline character).

    where <HADOOP_CONF_DIR> is the directory for storing the Hadoop configuration files. For example, /etc/hadoop/conf.

  • Update the NameNode with the new set of excluded DataNodes. On the NameNode host machine, execute the following command:

    su <HDFS_USER> 
    hdfs dfsadmin -refreshNodes

    where <HDFS_USER> is the user owning the HDFS services. For example, hdfs.

  • Open the NameNode web UI (http://<NameNode_FQDN>:50070) and navigate to the DataNodes page. Check to see whether the state has changed to Decommission In Progress for the DataNodes being decommissioned.

  • When all the DataNodes report their state as Decommissioned (on the DataNodes page, or on the Decommissioned Nodes page at http://<NameNode_FQDN>:8088/cluster/ nodes/decommissioned), all of the blocks have been replicated. You can then shut down the decommissioned nodes.

  • If your cluster utilizes a dfs.include file, remove the decommissioned nodes from the <HADOOP_CONF_DIR>/dfs.include file on the NameNode host machine, then execute the following command:

    su <HDFS_USER> 
    hdfs dfsadmin -refreshNodes
    [Note]Note

    If no dfs.include file is specified, all DataNodes are considered to be included in the cluster (unless excluded in the dfs.exclude file). The dfs.hosts and dfs.hosts.exclude properties in hdfs-site.xml are used to specify the dfs.include and dfs.exclude files.