There are multiple ways you can perform various operations on HDFS. You can choose any of the below approach as per your need.
1) Command Line
Most of users use command line to interact with HDFS. HDFS CLI is easy to use. Its easy to automate with scripts. However, HDFS CLI need hdfs client installed on the host.
2) Java Api
If you are familiar with Java and Apache Apis, You can choose to use Java api to communicate with HDFS Cluster.
3) Webhdfs
This is rest api way of accessing HDFS. This approach does not require hdfs client to be installed on host. You can use this api to connect to remote HDFS cluster too.