Sorting in MapReduce Hadoop - hadoop

I have few basic questions in Hadoop MapReduce.
Assume if 100 mappers were executed and zero reducer. Will it
generate 100 files? All individual are sorted? Across all mapper
output are sorted?
Input for reducer is Key -> Values. For each key, all values are sorted?
Assume if 50 reducers were executed. Will it generate 50 files? All individual files are sorted? Across all reducer output are sorted?
Is there any place where guaranteed sorting happens in MapReduce?

1.Assume if 100 mappers were executed and zero reducer. Will it generate 100 files?
Yes.
All individual are sorted?
No. If no reducers are used, then the output of mappers are not sorted. Sorting only takes place when there is a reduce phase.
Across all mapper output are sorted?
No, for the same reason, as above.
2.Input for reducer is Key -> Values. For each key, all values are sorted?
No. However, the keys are sorted. After the shuffling phase, in which the reducer gets the output of the mappers, it merge-sorts the sorted output keys of the mappers (since there IS a reduce phase) and when it starts reducing, the keys are sorted.
3.Assume if 50 reducers were executed. Will it generate 50 files?
Yes. (unless you use MultipleOutputs)
All individual files are sorted?
No. The sorted input does not guarantee a sorted output. The output depends on the algorithm that you use in the reduce method.
Across all reducer output are sorted?
No, for the same reason as above. However, if you use an Identity Reducer, i.e., you just write the input of the reducer as you get it, the reducer's output will be sorted PER REDUCER, not globally.
Is there any place where guaranteed sorting happens in MapReduce?
Sorting takes place when there is a reduce phase and it is applied in the output keys of each mapper and the input keys of each reducer. If you want to globally sort the input of the reducer, you can either use a single reducer, or a TotalOrderPartitioner, which is a bit tricky...

Related

Output of using 2 reducers in a word count program

Let's say the key-value pairs with the keys “the”, “sound”, “is” are processed by reducer 1 and the key-value pairs with the keys “it”, “right”, “sounds” are processed by reducer 2.
What would be the outputs of the two reducers?
Would the output file of each reducer be sorted then combined then sorted again?
When the reducer receives them is it already sorted alphabetically so that reducer 1 receives “is”, “it”, “right” and reducer 2 receives “the”, “sound”, “sounds”?
To answer your queries:
Output of the reducer would be the word and count of its occurrence.
The output of reducer working on different keys are never combined. There is no such phase in mapreduce.
The output of the mapper is sorted and fed into reducer; but different reducer emits its output randomly and the output of the all the reducers is Not sorted again. There is no such phase in mapreduce.
Even though reducers are getting keys in sorted order, think each reducer running into a separate JVM and a separate process. They output the data without "knowing" that there are more reducer running.

n-Records to reducer after Shuffle and Sort

I would like to move only the first 10 records of the output after sort/shuffle to the reducer. Is this possible?
The reason is this: I am to find the least 10 items with the largest count in a file. However, I know that the results of the mapping phase will be arrive at the reducer already sorted. Hence, instead of sorting in the mappers, I'd like to just pass only the first 10 lines after 'shuffle and sort' to the reducer. this will allow the reducer sort only a subset of the original record.
Is there any way to do this?
You can achieve this by writing a custom Combiner for the job.
The different stages in the MapReduce job are:
Mapper -> Partitioner -> Sorting -> Combiner -> Reducer.
Now Combiner logic only read the first 10 (n) records and discord all the other. The Reducer will receive only 10 records from each Mapper/Combiner.
Comment provided by #K246:
From haodop definitive guide (4th ed) : Before it writes to disk, the thread first divides the data into partitions corresponding to the reducers that they will ultimately be sent to. Within each partition, the background thread performs an in-memory sort by key, and if there is a combiner function, it is run on the output of the sort.
When you say least 10 in the file...Is it for each mapper or for the entire input.
If for each mapper, then you have to aggregate the again at reducer from all mappers. Then as #YoungHobbit pointed out, Combiner will do the work.
If you need least 10 from entire input file, then I think, you need to handle it with a single reducer and output accordingly.
Also, you said in the last line, that reducer will sort only subset. Do you mean you are sorting again in Reducer or that some logic is performed in reducer for only subset of the input.

is the output of map phase of the mapreduce job always sorted?

I am a bit confused with the output I get from Mapper.
For example, when I run a simple wordcount program, with this input text:
hello world
Hadoop programming
mapreduce wordcount
lets see if this works
12345678
hello world
mapreduce wordcount
this is the output that I get:
12345678 1
Hadoop 1
hello 1
hello 1
if 1
lets 1
mapreduce 1
mapreduce 1
programming 1
see 1
this 1
wordcount 1
wordcount 1
works 1
world 1
world 1
As you can see, the output from mapper is already sorted. I did not run Reducer at all.
But I find in a different project that the output from mapper is not sorted.
So I am totally clear about this..
My questions are:
Is the mapper's output always sorted?
Is the sort phase integrated into the mapper phase already, so that the output of map phase is already sorted in the intermediate data?
Is there a way to collect the data from sort and shuffle phase and persist it before it goes to Reducer? A reducer is presented with a key and a list of iterables. Is there a way, I could persist this data?
Is the mapper's output always sorted?
No. It is not sorted if you use no reducer. If you use a reducer, there is a pre-sorting process before the mapper's output is written to disk. Data gets sorted in the Reduce phase. What is happening here (just a guess) is that you are not specifying a Reducer class, which, in the new API, is translated into using the Identity Reducer (see this answer and comment). The Identity Reducer just outputs its input. To verify that, see the default Reducer counters (there should be some reduce tasks, reduce input records & groups, reduce output records...)
Is the sort phase integrated into the mapper phase already, so that the output of map phase is already sorted in the intermediate data?
As I explained in the previous question, if you use no reducers, mapper does not sort the data. If you do use reducers, the data start getting sorted from the map phase and then get merge-sorted in the reduce phase.
Is there a way to collect the data from sort and shuffle phase and persist it before it goes to Reducer. A reducer is presented with a key and a list of iterables. Is there a way, I could persist this data?
Again, shuffling and sorting are parts of the Reduce phase. An Identity Reducer will do what you want. If you want to output one key-value pair per reducer, with the values being a concatenation of the iterables, just store the iterables in memory (e.g. in a StringBuffer) and then output this concatenation as a value. If you want the map output to go straight to the program's output, without going through a reduce phase, then set in the driver class the number of reduce tasks to zero, like that:
job.setNumReduceTasks(0);
This will not get your output sorted, though. It will skip the pre-sorting process of the mapper and write the output directly to HDFS.
Point 1: output from mapper is always sorted but based on Key.
i.e. if Map method is doing this: context.write(outKey, outValue); then result will be sorted based on outKey.
Following would be some explanations to your questions
Heading ##Does the output from mapper is always sorted?
Already answered by #SurJanSR
Heading ##Does the sort phase integrated with mapper phase already, so that the output of map phase is already sorted in the intermediate data?
In a Mapreduce Job, as you know, Mapper runs on individual splits of data and across nodes where data is persisting. The result of Mapper is written TEMPORARILY before it is written to the next phase.
In the case of a reduce operation, the TEMPORARILY stored Mapper output is sorted, shuffle based on the partitioner needs before moved to the reduce operation
In the case of Map Only Job, as in your case, The temorarily stored Mapper output is sorted based on the key and written to the final output folder (as specified in your arguments for the Job).
Heading ##Is there a way to collect the data from sort and shuffle phase and persist it before it goes to Reducer. A reducer is presented with a key and a list of iterables. Is there a way, I could persist this data?
Not sure what your requirement is. using a IdentityReducer would just persist the output. I'm not sure if this answers your question.
I support the answer of vefthym.
Usually the Mapper output is sorted before storing it locally on the node. But when you are explicitely setting up numReduceTasks to 0 in the job configuration then the mapper o/p will not be sorted and written directly to HDFS.
So we cannot say that Mapper output is always sorted!
1. Is the mapper's output always sorted?
2.Is the sort phase integrated into the mapper phase already, so that the output of map phase is already sorted in the intermediate data?
From Apache MapReduceTutorial:
( Under Mapper Section )
All intermediate values associated with a given output key are subsequently grouped by the framework, and passed to the Reducer(s) to determine the final output.
The Mapper outputs are sorted and then partitioned per Reducer. The total number of partitions is the same as the number of reduce tasks for the job
( Under Reducer Section )
Reducer NONE
It is legal to set the number of reduce-tasks to zero if no reduction is desired.
In this case the outputs of the map-tasks go directly to the FileSystem, into the output path set by FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(Job, Path). The framework does not sort the map-outputs before writing them out to the FileSystem.
3. Is there a way to collect the data from sort and shuffle phase and persist it before it goes to Reducer? A reducer is presented with a key and a list of iterables. Is there a way, I could persist this data?
I don't think so. From Apache condemnation on Reducer:
Reducer has 3 primary phases:
Shuffle:
The Reducer copies the sorted output from each Mapper using HTTP across the network.
Sort:
The framework merge sorts Reducer inputs by keys (since different Mappers may have output the same key).
The shuffle and sort phases occur simultaneously i.e. while outputs are being fetched they are merged.
Reduce:
The output of the reduce task is typically written to a RecordWriter via TaskInputOutputContext.write(Object, Object).
The output of the Reducer is not re-sorted.
As per the documentation, the shuffle and sort phase is driven by framework
If you want to persist the data, set number of reducers to Zero, which causes persistence of Map output into HDFS but it won't sort the data.
Have a look at related SE question:
hadoop: difference between 0 reducer and identity reducer?
I did not find IdentityReducer in Hadoop 2.x version:
identityreducer in the new Hadoop API

What is the purpose of shuffling and sorting phase in the reducer in Map Reduce Programming?

In Map Reduce programming the reduce phase has shuffling, sorting and reduce as its sub-parts. Sorting is a costly affair.
What is the purpose of shuffling and sorting phase in the reducer in Map Reduce Programming?
First of all shuffling is the process of transfering data from the mappers to the reducers, so I think it is obvious that it is necessary for the reducers, since otherwise, they wouldn't be able to have any input (or input from every mapper). Shuffling can start even before the map phase has finished, to save some time. That's why you can see a reduce status greater than 0% (but less than 33%) when the map status is not yet 100%.
Sorting saves time for the reducer, helping it easily distinguish when a new reduce task should start. It simply starts a new reduce task, when the next key in the sorted input data is different than the previous, to put it simply. Each reduce task takes a list of key-value pairs, but it has to call the reduce() method which takes a key-list(value) input, so it has to group values by key. It's easy to do so, if input data is pre-sorted (locally) in the map phase and simply merge-sorted in the reduce phase (since the reducers get data from many mappers).
Partitioning, that you mentioned in one of the answers, is a different process. It determines in which reducer a (key, value) pair, output of the map phase, will be sent. The default Partitioner uses a hashing on the keys to distribute them to the reduce tasks, but you can override it and use your own custom Partitioner.
A great source of information for these steps is this Yahoo tutorial (archived).
A nice graphical representation of this is the following (shuffle is called "copy" in this figure):
Note that shuffling and sorting are not performed at all if you specify zero reducers (setNumReduceTasks(0)). Then, the MapReduce job stops at the map phase, and the map phase does not include any kind of sorting (so even the map phase is faster).
UPDATE: Since you are looking for something more official, you can also read Tom White's book "Hadoop: The Definitive Guide". Here is the interesting part for your question.
Tom White has been an Apache Hadoop committer since February 2007, and is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, so I guess it is pretty credible and official...
Let's revisit key phases of Mapreduce program.
The map phase is done by mappers. Mappers run on unsorted input key/values pairs. Each mapper emits zero, one, or multiple output key/value pairs for each input key/value pairs.
The combine phase is done by combiners. The combiner should combine key/value pairs with the same key. Each combiner may run zero, once, or multiple times.
The shuffle and sort phase is done by the framework. Data from all mappers are grouped by the key, split among reducers and sorted by the key. Each reducer obtains all values associated with the same key. The programmer may supply custom compare functions for sorting and a partitioner for data split.
The partitioner decides which reducer will get a particular key value pair.
The reducer obtains sorted key/[values list] pairs, sorted by the key. The value list contains all values with the same key produced by mappers. Each reducer emits zero, one or multiple output key/value pairs for each input key/value pair.
Have a look at this javacodegeeks article by Maria Jurcovicova and mssqltips article by Datta for a better understanding
Below is the image from safaribooksonline article
I thought of just adding some points missing in above answers. This diagram taken from here clearly states the what's really going on.
If I state again the real purpose of
Split: Improves the parallel processing by distributing the processing load across different nodes (Mappers), which would save the overall processing time.
Combine: Shrinks the output of each Mapper. It would save the time spending for moving the data from one node to another.
Sort (Shuffle & Sort): Makes it easy for the run-time to schedule (spawn/start) new reducers, where while going through the sorted item list, whenever the current key is different from the previous, it can spawn a new reducer.
Some of the data processing requirements doesn't need sort at all. Syncsort had made the sorting in Hadoop pluggable. Here is a nice blog from them on sorting. The process of moving the data from the mappers to the reducers is called shuffling, check this article for more information on the same.
I've always assumed this was necessary as the output from the mapper is the input for the reducer, so it was sorted based on the keyspace and then split into buckets for each reducer input. You want to ensure all the same values of a Key end up in the same bucket going to the reducer so they are reduced together. There is no point sending K1,V2 and K1,V4 to different reducers as they need to be together in order to be reduced.
Tried explaining it as simply as possible
Shuffling is the process by which intermediate data from mappers are transferred to 0,1 or more reducers. Each reducer receives 1 or more keys and its associated values depending on the number of reducers (for a balanced load). Further the values associated with each key are locally sorted.
Because of its size, a distributed dataset is usually stored in partitions, with each partition holding a group of rows. This also improves parallelism for operations like a map or filter. A shuffle is any operation over a dataset that requires redistributing data across its partitions. Examples include sorting and grouping by key.
A common method for shuffling a large dataset is to split the execution into a map and a reduce phase. The data is then shuffled between the map and reduce tasks. For example, suppose we want to sort a dataset with 4 partitions, where each partition is a group of 4 blocks.The goal is to produce another dataset with 4 partitions, but this time sorted by key.
In a sort operation, for example, each square is a sorted subpartition with keys in a distinct range. Each reduce task then merge-sorts subpartitions of the same shade.
The above diagram shows this process. Initially, the unsorted dataset is grouped by color (blue, purple, green, orange). The goal of the shuffle is to regroup the blocks by shade (light to dark). This regrouping requires an all-to-all communication: each map task (a colored circle) produces one intermediate output (a square) for each shade, and these intermediate outputs are shuffled to their respective reduce task (a gray circle).
The text and image was largely taken from here.
There only two things that MapReduce does NATIVELY: Sort and (implemented by sort) scalable GroupBy.
Most of applications and Design Patterns over MapReduce are built over these two operations, which are provided by shuffle and sort.
This is a good reading. Hope it helps. In terms of sorting you are concerning, I think it is for the merge operation in last step of Map. When map operation is done, and need to write the result to local disk, a multi-merge will be operated on the splits generated from buffer. And for a merge operation, sorting each partition in advanced is helpful.
Well,
In Mapreduce there are two important phrases called Mapper and reducer both are too important, but Reducer is mandatory. In some programs reducers are optional. Now come to your question.
Shuffling and sorting are two important operations in Mapreduce. First Hadoop framework takes structured/unstructured data and separate the data into Key, Value.
Now Mapper program separate and arrange the data into keys and values to be processed. Generate Key 2 and value 2 values. This values should process and re arrange in proper order to get desired solution. Now this shuffle and sorting done in your local system (Framework take care it) and process in local system after process framework cleanup the data in local system.
Ok
Here we use combiner and partition also to optimize this shuffle and sort process. After proper arrangement, those key values passes to Reducer to get desired Client's output. Finally Reducer get desired output.
K1, V1 -> K2, V2 (we will write program Mapper), -> K2, V' (here shuffle and soft the data) -> K3, V3 Generate the output. K4,V4.
Please note all these steps are logical operation only, not change the original data.
Your question: What is the purpose of shuffling and sorting phase in the reducer in Map Reduce Programming?
Short answer: To process the data to get desired output. Shuffling is aggregate the data, reduce is get expected output.

Is it possible to disable sorting in hadoop?

My job dosn't require sorting, just aggregation information per key. So I think if it possible to disable sorting of all information in order of increasing performance.
Note: I can't set reducers count to zero because I need to aggregate data between many mappers. I just not interested in sorted result withing one reducer.
One of the main purpose to sort the map output is, when the tuples reaches reducer, reducer has to make ) to invoke reducer task, with the sorted map output list it can make the list just by sequential scan (when it sees different key then just make new list), if the map output is not sorted then it has to scan the whole list to form the list with same key.
No, Sorting in MapReduce is essentially performed for internal purposes and not for the end results to be sorted.
Sorted input ensures good performance when creating list of values for unique keys, which are fed as Values> arguments when calling the reduce() function.
Shuffling and sorting in Hadoop MapReduce are not performed at all if you specify zero reducers (setNumReduceTasks(0)).
and
The number of reducer can be set to 0 in driver class by job.setNumreduceTasks(0).This shows that there is no reducer phase and has only map phase.It is called as a map-only job.

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