Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR) Overview and Setup Guide

Learn about Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), a web service for processing large amounts of data using frameworks like Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, and Presto. Discover how to set up and benefit from EMR.

Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR)

Amazon EMR is a web service that simplifies the processing of large data sets using popular frameworks such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, and Presto. As a managed service, EMR handles the complexity of running these frameworks, making it easier to analyze data, index the web, manage data warehouses, perform financial analyses, and conduct scientific simulations.

How to Set Up Amazon EMR

Step 1: Sign In and Prepare

  1. Log in to your AWS account and navigate to the Amazon EMR section on the AWS Management Console.

Step 2: Create an S3 Bucket

You’ll need an Amazon S3 bucket to store your cluster logs and output data. For instructions on creating an S3 bucket, refer to the Amazon S3 documentation.

Step 3: Launch an EMR Cluster

  1. Open the Amazon EMR console.
  2. Click "Create cluster" and provide the necessary details on the Cluster Configuration page.

Cluster Configuration

  1. Leave the Tags section with default settings.
  2. For Software configuration, keep the default settings unless specific changes are required.
  3. For File System Configuration, use the default settings for EMRFS, which allows your EMR clusters to store data on Amazon S3.
  4. In the Hardware Configuration section, choose m3.xlarge as the EC2 instance type and leave other settings as default. Click "Next."
  5. In the Security and Access section, select your EC2 key pair from the list and leave other settings as default.
  6. For Bootstrap Actions, use the default settings. These actions are scripts that run during setup before Hadoop starts on each cluster node.
  7. Leave the Steps section with default settings and proceed.

Step 4: Create the Cluster

  1. Click the "Create Cluster" button. The Cluster Details page will open, where you can run Hive scripts and use the Hue web interface for querying data.

Step 5: Run the Hive Script

  1. In the Amazon EMR console, select your cluster.
  2. Go to the Steps section, expand it, and click "Add step."
  3. Fill in the required fields in the Add Step dialog box and click "Add."

Step 6: View Output

  1. Go to the Amazon S3 console and select the S3 bucket used for output data.
  2. Open the output folder where the Hive script results are stored. The results will be in a text file that you can download.

Benefits of Amazon EMR

Easy to Use

Setting up clusters, configuring Hadoop, and provisioning nodes are straightforward with Amazon EMR.

Reliable

EMR retries failed tasks and automatically replaces poorly performing instances, ensuring high reliability.

Elastic

Scale the number of instances up or down based on your data processing needs with ease.

Secure

EMR configures EC2 firewall settings, controls network access, and launches clusters in Amazon VPC for enhanced security.

Flexible

Have full control over your clusters with root access to each instance. Install additional applications and customize the cluster as needed.

Cost-Efficient

EMR offers straightforward pricing, charging hourly for each instance used, making it a cost-effective solution for data processing.