从官网找到这么一段
Determines where on the local filesystem an DFS data node should store its blocks. If this is a comma-delimited list of directories, then data will be stored in all named directories, typically on different devices. The directories should be tagged with corresponding storage types ([SSD]/[DISK]/[ARCHIVE]/[RAM_DISK]) for HDFS storage policies. The default storage type will be DISK if the directory does not have a storage type tagged explicitly. Directories that do not exist will be created if local filesystem permission allows.
大意:用来指示DFS在哪里存放它的blocks,如果指定了多个目录,数据就会存放到这些目录中。如果目录不存在,就会被创建,前提是有权限。