The first step to set up the Hadoop framework is to install Linux. You will need to get a copy of a Linux operating system. There are many flavors of Linux. You can choose whichever version you like, however, this chapter was written using CentOS 7 because most of the tools you will be installing have also been tested on CentOS. CentOS is a Red Hat-based version of Linux. You can download an ISO at: https://www.centos.org/. Select Get CentOS Now. Then, select DVD image. Choose a mirror to download the ISO.

After downloading the image, you can burn it to a disk using Windows. Once you have burned the disk, place it in the machine that will run Linux and start it. The installation will prompt you along the way. Two steps to pay attention to are the software selection step and the partitioning. For software selection, choose GNOME Desktop. This will provide a sufficient base system with a popular GUI. If you have another file system on the computer, you can overwrite it or select the free space on the partitioning screen.

For a more detailed explanation of how to install Linux, Google is your friend. There are many excellent walkthroughs and YouTube videos that will walk you through it. Unfortunately, it looks as though the CentOS website does not have an installation manual for CentOS 7.