This is a docker container for hadoop. By default it uses data replication "2". To change it edit the hdfs-site.xml file. To start the namenode run docker run --name namenode -h bde2020/hadoop-namenode To start two datanodes on the same host run docker run --name datanode1 --link namenode:namenode bde2020/hadoop-datanode docker run --name datanode2 --link namenode:namenode bde2020/hadoop-datanode More info is comming soon on how to run hadoop docker using docker network and docker swarm All data are stored in /hdfs-data, so to store data in a host directory datanodes as docker run --name datanode1 --link namenode:namenode -v /path/to/host:/hdfs-data bde2020/hadoop-datanode docker run --name datanode2 --link namenode:namenode -v /path/to/host:/hdfs-data bde2020/hadoop-datanode By default the namenode formats the namenode directory only if not exists (hdfs namenode -format -nonInteractive). If you want to mount an external directory that already contains a namenode directory and format it you have to first delete it manually. Hadoop namenode listens on hdfs://namenode:8020 To access the namenode from another container link it using "--link namenode:namenode" and then use the afformentioned URL. More info on how to access it using docker network coming soon.