首先 dfs.replication这个参数是个client参数，即node level参数。需要在每台datanode上设置。
其实默认为3个副本已经够用了，设置太多也没什么用。

一个文件，上传到hdfs上时指定的是几个副本就是几个。以后你修改了副本数，对已经上传了的文件也不会起作用。可以再上传文件的同时指定创建的副本数
hadoop dfs -D dfs.replication=1 -put 70M logs/2

可以通过命令来更改已经上传的文件的副本数：
hadoop fs -setrep -R 3 /

查看当前hdfs的副本数
hadoop fsck -locations
FSCK started by hadoop from /172.18.6.112 for path / at Thu Oct 27 13:24:25 CST 2011
....................Status: HEALTHY
Total size: 4834251860 B
Total dirs: 21
Total files: 20
Total blocks (validated): 82 (avg. block size 58954290 B)
Minimally replicated blocks: 82 (100.0 %)
Over-replicated blocks: 0 (0.0 %)
Under-replicated blocks: 0 (0.0 %)
Mis-replicated blocks: 0 (0.0 %)
Default replication factor: 3
Average block replication: 3.0
Corrupt blocks: 0
Missing replicas: 0 (0.0 %)
Number of data-nodes: 3
Number of racks: 1
FSCK ended at Thu Oct 27 13:24:25 CST 2011 in 10 milliseconds
The filesystem under path '/' is HEALTHY

某个文件的副本数，可以通过ls中的文件描述符看到
hadoop dfs -ls
-rw-r--r-- 3 hadoop supergroup 153748148 2011-10-27 16:11 /user/hadoop/logs/201108/impression_witspixel2011080100.thin.log.gz

如果你只有3个datanode，但是你却指定副本数为4，是不会生效的，因为每个datanode上只能存放一个副本。
hadoop fsck -locations 可以看到相应的提示信息，可以看到副本丢失率为33.33%：
/user/hadoop/logs/test.log: Under replicated blk_-45151128047308146_1147. Target Replicas is 4 but found 3 replica(s).
Status: HEALTHY
Total size: 4834251860 B
Total dirs: 21
Total files: 20
Total blocks (validated): 82 (avg. block size 58954290 B)
Minimally replicated blocks: 82 (100.0 %)
Over-replicated blocks: 0 (0.0 %)
Under-replicated blocks: 82 (100.0 %)
Mis-replicated blocks: 0 (0.0 %)
Default replication factor: 3
Average block replication: 3.0
Corrupt blocks: 0
Missing replicas: 82 (33.333332 %)
Number of data-nodes: 3
Number of racks: 1
FSCK ended at Thu Oct 27 13:22:14 CST 2011 in 12 milliseconds