https://community.cloudera.com/t5/Support-Questions/How-to-reduce-the-replication-factor-in-a-HDFS-directory-and/m-p/189170#M151263 <P>We are using Hortonworks HDP 2.1 (HDFS 2.4), with replication factor 3. We have recently decommissioned a datanode and that left a lot of under replicated blocks in the cluster. </P><P>Cluster is now trying to satisfy the replication factor by distributing under replicated blocks among other nodes. </P><OL><LI>How do I stop that process. I am OK with some files being replicated only twice. If I change the replication factor to 2 in that directory, will that process be terminated?</LI><LI>What's the impact of making the replication factor to 2 for a directory which has files with 3 copies. Will the cluster start another process to remove the excess copy for each file with 3 copies?</LI></OL><P>Appreciate your help on this</P> Wed, 19 Jul 2017 14:42:10 GMT nvsajeeva 2017-07-19T14:42:10Z