One-time gphdfs Protocol Installation (Deprecated)

Install and configure Hadoop for use with gphdfs as follows:

1. Install Java 1.7 or later on all Greenplum Database hosts: master, segment, and standby master.

2. Install a compatible Hadoop distribution on all hosts. The distribution must be the same on all hosts. For Hadoop installation information, see the Hadoop distribution documentation.

   See the Greenplum Database Release Notes for information about compatible Hadoop distributions.

3. After installation, ensure that the Greenplum system user (gpadmin) has read and execute access to the Hadoop libraries or to the Greenplum MR client.

4. Set the following environment variables on all segments:

   • JAVA_HOME – the Java home directory
   • HADOOP_HOME – the Hadoop home directory For example, add lines such as the following to the gpadmin user .bashrc profile.

   export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default
   export HADOOP_HOME=/usr/lib/gphd
   

   The variables must be set in the ~gpadmin/.bashrc or the ~gpadmin/.bash_profile file so that the gpadmin user shell environment can locate the Java home and Hadoop home.

5. Set the following Greenplum Database server configuration parameters and restart Greenplum Database.

   Configuration Parameter	Description	Default Value	Set Classifications
   gp_hadoop_target_version	The Hadoop target. Choose one of the following: cdh hadoop hdp mpr	hadoop	master session reload
   gp_hadoop_home	This parameter specifies the installation directory for Hadoop.	NULL	master session reload

   For example, the following commands use the Greenplum Database utilities gpconfig and gpstop to set the server configuration parameters and restart Greenplum Database:

   gpconfig -c gp_hadoop_target_version -v 'hdp'
   gpstop -u
   

   For information about the Greenplum Database utilities gpconfig and gpstop, see the Greenplum Database Utility Guide.

6. If needed, ensure that the CLASSPATH environment variable generated by the $GPHOME/lib/hadoop/hadoop_env.sh file on every Greenplum Database host contains the path to JAR files that contain Java classes that are required for gphdfs.

   For example, if gphdfs returns a class not found exception, ensure the JAR file containing the class is on every Greenplum Database host and update the $GPHOME/lib/hadoop/hadoop_env.sh file so that the CLASSPATH environment variable created by file contains the JAR file.

Parent topic: Accessing HDFS Data with gphdfs (Deprecated)

About gphdfs JVM Memory

When Greenplum Database accesses external table data from an HDFS location with gphdfs protocol, each Greenplum Database segment on a host system starts a JVM for use by the protocol. The default JVM heapsize is 1GB and should be enough for most workloads

If the gphdfs JVM runs out of memory, the issue might be related to the density of tuples inside the Hadoop HDFS block assigned to the gphdfs segment worker. A higher density of tuples per block requires more gphdfs memory. HDFS block size is usually 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB depending on the Hadoop cluster configuration.

You can increase the JVM heapsize by changing GP_JAVA_OPT variable in the file $GPHOME/lib/hadoop/hadoop_env.sh. In this example line, the option -Xmx1000m specifies that the JVM consumes 1GB of virtual memory.

export GP_JAVA_OPT='-Xmx1000m -XX:+DisplayVMOutputToStderr'

The $GPHOME/lib/hadoop/hadoop_env.sh must be updated for every segment instance in the Greenplum Database system.

Important: Before increasing the gphdfs JVM memory, ensure that you have sufficient memory on the host. For example, 8 primary segments consume 8GB of virtual memory for the gphdfs JVM when using default. Increasing the Java -Xmx value to 2GB results in 16GB allocated in that environment of 8 segments per host.