Safemode for Namenode is a read-only mode for the HDFS cluster, where it

does not allow any modifications to file system or Blocks HDFS cluster is in
safemode state during start up because the cluster needs to validate all the
blocks and their locations.
Once validated, safemode is then disabled.
Other possible reasons for namenode going to safemode are-
1) Unreported datanodes which will cause missing blocks and if the missing
blocks are greater than a limit, namenode will go to safemode
2) If the storage of some datanodes got cleared accidently and if no blocks are
available in the cluster for those data, namenode will go to safemode, because
the metadata corresponding to those blocks will be present in the namenode
and it will wait for those blocks to report. Till that time it can’t provide this data
to users, so it will be in safemode
3) If the storage of namenode is full. Then namenode will go to safemode
4) If the namenode lacks physical memory, it will enter into safemode
5) If the cluster storage is full, namenode will enter into safemode
Switch to hdfs user using below command –
su -hdfs
Execute below commands as hdfs user –
Command to enter safe mode –
hdfs dfsadmin -safemode enter
Command to leave safe mode –
hdfs dfsadmin -safemode leave
Command to get safe mode –
hdfs dfsadmin -safemode get

Safe Mode in Hadoop is a maintenance state of Name Node during which Name
Node doesn’t allow any changes to the file system. During safe mode Hadoop
is read only and doesn’t allow the replication or deletion of blocks.

• 1.Name Node automatically enters into safe mode when its startup.

• 2 . To leave safe mode , name node need to collect reports for at least a
specified threshold percentage of blocks and these blocks should satisfy min
replication condition.

• 3. Once threshold is reached , safe mode will be extended for a configured

amount of time to get remaining data nodes to check in. so that name node can
starts replicating missing data blocks or deleting over replicated blocks.

• 4. Once all the blocks reports are collected and namenode done with block
replication and adjustment it will leave the safe mode automatically.
Even though Name node can also be enter manually to do some administration
activities by using below HDFS command:
1. Command to enter into safe mode :-

hdfs dfsadmin -safemode enter

2. Command to leave safe mode :-

hdfs dfsadmin –safemode leave

3. Command to get the current status of safemode:-

hdfs dfsadmin -safemode get

 HDFS Commands
•

HDFS is the primary or major component of the Hadoop ecosystem which is

responsible for storing large data sets of structured or unstructured data across
various nodes and thereby maintaining the metadata in the form of log files. To
use the HDFS commands, first you need to start the Hadoop services using the
following command:
sbin/start-all.sh
To check the Hadoop services are up and running use the following command:
jps

Commands:

1. ls: This command is used to list all the files. Use lsr for recursive approach.
It is useful when we want a hierarchy of a folder.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -ls <path>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -ls /
It will print all the directories present in HDFS. bin directory contains
executables so, bin/hdfs means we want the executables of hdfs
particularly dfs(Distributed File System) commands.
2. mkdir: To create a directory. In Hadoop dfs there is no home directory by
default. So let’s first create it.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -mkdir <folder name>

creating home directory:

hdfs/bin -mkdir /user

hdfs/bin -mkdir /user/username -> write the username of your
computer
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -mkdir /punam => '/' means absolute path
bin/hdfs dfs -mkdir punam2 => Relative path -> the folder will
be
created relative to the home
directory.
3. touchz: It creates an empty file.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -touchz <file_path>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -touchz /punam/myfile.txt
4. copyFromLocal (or) put: To copy files/folders from local file system to hdfs
store. This is the most important command. Local filesystem means the files
present on the OS.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -copyFromLocal <local file path> <dest(present on
hdfs)>
Example: Let’s suppose we have a file AI.txt on Desktop which we want to
copy to folder punam present on hdfs.
bin/hdfs dfs -copyFromLocal ../Desktop/AI.txt /punam

(OR)

bin/hdfs dfs -put ../Desktop/AI.txt /punam

5. cat: To print file contents.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -cat <path>
Example:
// print the content of AI.txt present
// inside punam folder.
bin/hdfs dfs -cat /punam/AI.txt ->
6. copyToLocal (or) get: To copy files/folders from hdfs store to local file
system.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -copyToLocal <<srcfile(on hdfs)> <local file dest>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -copyToLocal /punam ../Desktop/hero

(OR)

bin/hdfs dfs -get /punam/myfile.txt ../Desktop/hero

myfile.txt from punam folder will be copied to folder hero present on Desktop.

Note: Observe that we don’t write bin/hdfs while checking the things present
on local filesystem.
7. moveFromLocal: This command will move file from local to hdfs.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -moveFromLocal <local src> <dest(on hdfs)>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -moveFromLocal ../Desktop/cutAndPaste.txt /punam
8. cp: This command is used to copy files within hdfs. Lets copy
folder punam to punam_copied.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -cp <src(on hdfs)> <dest(on hdfs)>
Example:
bin/hdfs -cp /punam /punam_copied
9. mv: This command is used to move files within hdfs. Lets cut-paste a
file myfile.txt from punam folder to punam_copied.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -mv <src(on hdfs)> <src(on hdfs)>
Example:
bin/hdfs -mv /punam/myfile.txt /punam_copied
10. rmr: This command deletes a file from HDFS recursively. It is very useful
command when you want to delete a non-empty directory.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -rmr <filename/directoryName>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -rmr /punam_copied -> It will delete all the content
inside the
directory then the directory
itself.
11. du: It will give the size of each file in directory.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -du <dirName>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -du /punam
12. dus:: This command will give the total size of directory/file.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -dus <dirName>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -dus /punam
13. stat: It will give the last modified time of directory or path. In short it will
give stats of the directory or file.
Syntax:
bin/hdfs dfs -stat <hdfs file>
Example:
bin/hdfs dfs -stat /punam
14. setrep: This command is used to change the replication factor of a
file/directory in HDFS. By default it is 3 for anything which is stored in HDFS
(as set in hdfs core-site.xml).
Example 1: To change the replication factor to 6 for punam.txt stored in
HDFS.
bin/hdfs dfs -setrep -R -w 6 punam.txt
Example 2: To change the replication factor to 4 for a
directory punamInput stored in HDFS.
bin/hdfs dfs -setrep -R 4 /punam
Note: The -w means wait till the replication is completed. And -R means
recursively, we use it for directories as they may also contain many files and
folders inside them.
You can check out the list of dfs commands using the following command:
bin/hdfs dfs