The File Browser

Minimum Required Role:BDR Administrator (also provided by Full Administrator and Cluster Administrator)

The File Browser tab on the HDFS service page lets you browse and search the HDFS namespace and manage your files and directories. The File Browser page initially displays the root directory of the HDFS file system in the gray panel at the top and its immediate subdirectories below. Click any directory to drill down into the contents of that directory or to select that directory for available actions.

Searching Within the File System

To search the file system, click Custom report in the Reports section. The Choose drop down lets you select from custom search criteria such as filename, owner, file size, and so on. The file and directory listings are taken from the fsimage stored on the NameNode, so the listings will be only as current as the last checkpoint. Typically the checkpoint interval is (by default) once per hour, but if checkpoints are not being performed as frequently, the listings may not be up to date.

To search the file system:

  1. From the HDFS service page, select the File Browser tab.
  2. Click Choose and do one of the following:
    • Select a predefined query. Depending on what you select, you may be presented with different fields to fill in or different views of the file system. For example, selecting Size will provide a choice of arithmetic operators and fields where you provide the size to be used as the search criteria.
      1. Select a property in the Choose... drop-down.
      2. Select an operator.
      3. Specify a value.
      4. Click to add another criteria (all of which must be satisfied for a file to be considered a match) and repeat the preceding steps.
  3. Click the Generate Report button to generate a custom report containing the search results.

If you search within a directory, only files within that directory will be found. For example, if you browse /user and do a search, you might find /user/foo/file, but you will not find /bar/baz.

Enabling Snapshots

To enable snapshots for an HDFS directory and its contents, see Managing HDFS Snapshots.

Setting Quotas

To set quotas for an HDFS directory and its contents, see Setting HDFS Quotas.

Designating Directories to Include in Disk Usage Reports

  1. To add or remove directories from the directory-based Disk Usage reports, navigate through the file system to see the directory you want to add. You can include a directory at any level without including its parent.
  2. Check the checkbox Include this directory in Disk Usage reports. As long as the checkbox is checked, the directory appears in the usage reports. To discontinue inclusion of the directory in Disk Usage reports, clear the checkbox.