Hi there,

Apache HBase can be installed in the following three modes :

1. Standalone mode
2. Pseudo Distributed mode
3. Fully Distributed mode

This blog is to setup HBase in standalone mode on your Ubuntu machine without any hassle. You can search for blogs on Pseudo Distributed or Fully Distributed mode installation of HBase on Findnerd.

Prerequisite for HBase installation

• Java >= 7

Use this reference to install Java on your machine

http://findnerd.com/account#url=/list/view/Install-Oracle-JDK-with-apt-get/2944/

Apache Zookeeper should be installed on machine, to know about Zookeeper follow this tutorial

http://findnerd.com/account/#url=/list/view/Apache-Zookeeper-installation-in-Ubuntu-for-Standalone-mode/20129/

Ensure that both are properly installed on your machine.

Installation part for Apache HBase.

Download a stable release form apache mirrors for HBase. In my case I downloaded hbase-1.1.5-bin.tar.gz to ~/Downloads.

Extract the downloaded package

tar -zxvfhbase-1.1.5-bin.tar.gz

Move the extracted package to a location of your choice, I picked /usr/local/hbase

sudo mv ~/Downloads/hbase-1.1.5/ /usr/local/hbase

Open your .bashrc file an append the hbase variables into it.

gedit ~/.bashrc

#hbase
export HBASE_HOME=/usr/local/hbase
export HBASE_CONF_DIR=$HBASE_HOME/conf
export HBASE_CLASS_PATH=$HBASE_CONF_DIR
export PATH=$HBASE_HOME/bin:$PATH

save your .bashrc and execute the source command on it.

source ~/.bashrc

Go to hbase's conf directory

cd /usr/local/hbase/conf/

Open hbase-env.sh and put your Java path here .

sudo gedit hbase-env.sh

remove comment on the Java Home variable and update your Java home path.

Now edit your hbase-site.xml

sudo gedit hbase-site.xml

put the following lines inside <configuration></configuration> tags.

//Set the path where you want HBase to store its file
   <property>
      <name>hbase.rootdir</name>
      <value>file:///home/{username}/HBase/HFiles</value>
   </property>
	
   //set the path defined for zookeeper files earlier.
   <property>
      <name>hbase.zookeeper.property.dataDir</name>
      <value>/home/{username}/zookeeper</value>
   </property>

now the stage is set and you only need to start HBase.

start-hbase.sh

to use hbase shell execute

start-hbase.sh

and HBase will provides Extensible jruby-based (JIRB) shell as a feature to execute some commands

Now i will create a table naming testTable

create 'testTable','info','content'

and its output will be

0 row(s) in 3.4630 seconds

 => Hbase::Table - testTable 

to list all the table use list

list

its output will contain your newly created testTable

TABLE                                                                                                                                                     
blog                                                                                                                                                      
test                                                                                                                                                      
testTable                                                                                                                                                 
3 row(s) in 0.0730 seconds

 => ["blog", "test", "testTable"]

to put values inside your table

put 'testTable','row1','info:auther','Abhishek'

put 'testTable','row1','content:xyz','Abhishek'

put 'testTable','row2','content:xyz','abcd'

to scan your table

scan 'testTable'

and the response will be

ROW                                     COLUMN+CELL                                                                                                       
 row1                                   column=content:xyz, timestamp=1464173663187, value=Abhishek                                                       
 row1                                   column=info:auther, timestamp=1464173632288, value=Abhishek                                                       
 row2                                   column=content:xyz, timestamp=1464173714201, value=abcd                                                           
2 row(s) in 0.0210 seconds

to exit from shell type exit and return

exit

to stop hbase

stop-hbase.sh

You can use the HBase GUI using the address http://localhost:16010/ while HBase server is running. A snapshot of HBase GUI is given here.

HBase Java API will be explained in further blogs.

Thanks,