@gerasimos
There are different approaches. First let us see, the available options and their pros & cons then you can choose (or) if possible combine them as needed
1. Cloudera Manager -> Backup Menu option (or) distcp option
Pros:
a. Easy to take backup
Cons:
a. It will support between two different clusters, so it may not be suitable for your requirement
2. Export/Import Option.
Step1: Execute the below command from HDFS and export the working db.table to HDFS path and move to local as needed. It will export both data & metadata
> hive -S -e "export table $schema_file1.$tbl_file1 to '$HDFS_DATA_PATH/$tbl_file1';"
Step2: Run the below import command twice, First import will through an error as table doesn't exist and it will create table but the Second import will import the data too
> hive -S -e "import table $schema_file1.$tbl_file1 from '$HDFS_DATA_PATH/$tbl_file1';"
Note: You can hard code $ with actual path/file/table
Pros:
a. Export/Import will take care of both data & metadata. so you don't need to handle metadata separately
Cons:
a. I've used it long back for non-partitioned tables, not sure how it will support partition tables, pls double check
b. Need to apply import/export for each table
3. Move HDFS data to local and local to tape & take metadata backup separately. Ex: Mysql - so many links available online about how to take mysql backup
pros:
a. Metadatabackup is possible for entire db
Cons:
a. May Need to take hdfs file by file depends upon your local FS capacity
There could be other options too, please update below if you/anyone find something
