NameNode : is the core of HDFS that manages the metadata—the information of which file maps to which block locations and which blocks are stored on which DataNode. In simple terms, it’s the data about the data being stored. NameNode supports a directory tree-like structure consisting of all the files present in HDFS on a Hadoop cluster. It uses the following files for namespace:
* fsimage file : It keeps track of the latest checkpoint of the namespace.
* edits file : It is a log of changes that have been made to the namespace since Checkpoint.
Checkpoint NameNode : has the same directory structure as NameNode and creates Checkpoints for namespace at regular intervals by downloading the fsimage, editing files, and margining them within the local directory. The new image after merging is then uploaded to NameNode. There is a similar node like Checkpoint, commonly known as the Secondary Node, but it does not support the ‘upload to NameNode’ functionality.
Backup Node : provides similar functionality as Checkpoint, enforcing synchronization with NameNode. It maintains an up-to-date in-memory copy of the file system namespace and doesn’t require getting hold of changes after regular intervals. The Backup Node needs to save the current state in-memory to an image file to create a new Checkpoint.
