One of the core strengths of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) is its fault tolerance. In a world of distributed computing, failures are not rare—they’re expected. HDFS tackles this by using block-level replication to ensure that data is never lost, even when individual nodes fail.

What Is Replication in HDFS?

When a file is stored in HDFS, it’s broken into blocks (default size: 128MB or 256MB). Each block is then replicated across multiple DataNodes. The default replication factor is 3, meaning:

• Each block exists on three different machines.

This provides both redundancy and availability.

How It Works

During a Write

1. A client writes a file to HDFS.
2. The file is split into blocks.
3. For each block, HDFS:
   • Chooses three different DataNodes (based on rack awareness).
   • Writes the block to the first DataNode.
   • That node forwards it to the second.
   • The second forwards it to the third.

This is known as pipelined replication.

During a Failure

Let’s say one DataNode crashes:

• The NameNode detects the failure through missed heartbeats.
• It identifies which blocks were stored on the failed node.
• For each under-replicated block, the NameNode:
  • Selects a healthy replica.
  • Instructs another DataNode to copy the block from that replica.

This ensures the replication factor is quickly restored.

Benefits of Replication

• High Availability: Data is accessible even if some nodes are down.
• Read Optimization: Clients can read from the nearest replica, reducing latency.
• Scalability: Replicas can be rebalanced across the cluster as new nodes are added.

Trade-Offs

• Storage Cost: A 100GB file becomes 300GB in raw storage with a replication factor of 3.
• Write Overhead: More time is needed to write and replicate blocks across the network.

However, for large-scale data systems, the trade-off is worth the reliability.

Summary

HDFS uses replication to guard against data loss and enable fault tolerance. By storing multiple copies of each block across different nodes (and racks), HDFS ensures that hardware failures do not result in lost data—just temporary inconvenience.