5.3 Getting Started with Perfect Balance

Take the following steps to use Perfect Balance:

  1. Ensure that your application meets the requirements listed in "Application Requirements."
  2. Log in to the server where you will submit the job.
  3. Run the examples provided with Perfect Balance to become familiar with the product. All examples shown in this chapter are based on the shipped examples and use the same data set. See "About the Perfect Balance Examples."
  4. Set the following variables using the Bash export command:

    • BALANCER_HOME: Set to the Perfect Balance installation directory, such as /opt/oracle/orabalancer-<version>-h2 on Oracle Big Data Appliance (optional). The examples in this chapter use this variable, and you can also define it for your convenience. Perfect Balance does not require BALANCER_HOME.

    • HADOOP_CLASSPATH: PREPEND ${BALANCER_HOME}/jlib/orabalancer-<version>.jar and ${BALANCER_HOME}/jlib/commons-math-2.2.jar to the existing value. Also prepend the JAR files for your application.

  5. Run Job Analyzer without the balancer and use the generated report to decide whether the job is a good candidate for using Perfect Balance.
  6. Decide which configuration properties to set. Create a configuration file or enter the settings individually in the hadoop command.
  7. Run the job using Perfect Balance.
  8. Use the Job Analyzer report to evaluate the effectiveness of using Perfect Balance. See "Reading the Job Analyzer Report."
  9. Modify the job configuration properties as desired before rerunning the job with Perfect Balance. See "About Configuring Perfect Balance."