Minor Description
The below is no longer true, we can link to http://hadoop.apache.org/docs/stable/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-common/SingleCluster.html
Hadoop Configuration
This procedure assumes that you have configured Hadoop and HDFS on your local system and or a remote system, and that they are running and available. It also assumes you are using Hadoop 2. Currently, the documentation on the Hadoop website does not include a quick start for Hadoop 2, but the guide at link:http://www.alexjf.net/blog/distributed-systems/hadoop-yarn-installation-definitive-guide is a good starting point.