Chuan Liu created HADOOP-8564:
---------------------------------

             Summary: Create a Windows native InputStream class to address 
datanode concurrent reading and writing issue
                 Key: HADOOP-8564
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-8564
             Project: Hadoop Common
          Issue Type: Bug
          Components: io
    Affects Versions: 1-win
            Reporter: Chuan Liu
            Assignee: Chuan Liu


HDFS files are made up of blocks. First, let’s look at writing. When the data 
is written to datanode, an active or temporary file is created to receive 
packets. After the last packet for the block is received, we will finalize the 
block. One step during finalization is to rename the block file to a new 
directory. The relevant code can be found via the call sequence: 
FSDataSet.finalizeBlockInternal -> FSDir.addBlock.
{code} 
        if ( ! metaData.renameTo( newmeta ) ||
            ! src.renameTo( dest ) ) {
          throw new IOException( "could not move files for " + b +
                                 " from tmp to " + 
                                 dest.getAbsolutePath() );
        }
{code}

Let’s then switch to reading. On HDFS, it is expected the client can also read 
these unfinished blocks. So when the read calls from client reach datanode, the 
datanode will open an input stream on the unfinished block file.

The problem comes in when the file is opened for reading while the datanode 
receives last packet from client and try to rename the finished block file. 
This operation will succeed on Linux, but not on Windows .  The behavior can be 
modified on Windows to open the file with FILE_SHARE_DELETE flag on, i.e. 
sharing the delete (including renaming) permission with other processes while 
opening the file. There is also a Java bug ([id 
6357433|http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6357433]) reported a 
while back on this. However, since this behavior exists for Java on Windows 
since JDK 1.0, the Java developers do not want to break the backward 
compatibility on this behavior. Instead, a new file system API is proposed in 
JDK 7.


As outlined in the [Java forum|http://www.java.net/node/645421] by the Java 
developer (kbr), there are three ways to fix the problem:
# Use different mechanism in the application in dealing with files.
# Create a new implementation of InputStream abstract class using Windows 
native code.
# Patch JDK with a private patch that alters FileInputStream behavior.

For the third option, it cannot fix the problem for users using Oracle JDK.

We discussed some options for the first approach. For example one option is to 
use two phase renaming, i.e. first hardlink; then remove the old hardlink when 
read is finished. This option was thought to be rather pervasive.  Another 
option discussed is to change the HDFS behavior on Windows by not allowing 
client reading unfinished blocks. However this behavior change is thought to be 
problematic and may affect other application build on top of HDFS.

For all the reasons discussed above, we will use the second approach to address 
the problem.

If there are better options to fix the problem, we would also like to hear 
about them.


--
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
If you think it was sent incorrectly, please contact your JIRA administrators: 
https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ContactAdministrators!default.jspa
For more information on JIRA, see: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira


Reply via email to