Overview

HBase is the Hadoop database. Think of it as a distributed, scalable Big Data store.

Use HBase when you need random, realtime read/write access to your Big Data. This project's goal is the hosting of very large tables -- billions of rows X millions of columns -- atop clusters of commodity hardware. Learn more at hbase.apache.org.

This charm deploys version 1.1.9 of the HBase master, regionserver, and thrift components from Apache Bigtop.

Deploying

This charm requires Juju 2.0 or greater. If Juju is not yet set up, please follow the getting-started instructions prior to deploying this charm.

An HBase deployment consists of HBase Masters and HBase RegionServers. In a distributed HBase environment, one master and one regionserver are deployed on each unit. HBase ensures that only one master is active with the rest in standby mode in case the active master fails.

Because HBase requires HDFS, this charm is recommended to be deployed as part of the hadoop-hbase bundle:

juju deploy hadoop-hbase

This will deploy an Apache Bigtop Hadoop cluster with 3 HBase units colocated on 3 Hadoop DataNodes. More information about this deployment can be found in the bundle readme.

This charm also supports the Thrift client API for HBase. Thrift is both cross-platform and more lightweight than REST for many operations.

Network-Restricted Environments

Charms can be deployed in environments with limited network access. To deploy in this environment, configure a Juju model with appropriate proxy and/or mirror options. See Configuring Models for more information.

Verifying

Status

Apache Bigtop charms provide extended status reporting to indicate when they are ready:

juju status

This is particularly useful when combined with watch to track the on-going progress of the deployment:

watch -n 2 juju status

The message column will provide information about a given unit's state. This charm is ready for use once the status message indicates that it is ready.

Smoke Test

This charm provides a smoke-test action that can be used to verify the application is functioning as expected. Run the action as follows:

juju run-action hbase/0 smoke-test

Watch the progress of the smoke test actions with:

watch -n 2 juju show-action-status

Eventually, the action should settle to status: completed. If it reports status: failed, the application is not working as expected. Get more information about a specific smoke test with:

juju show-action-output <action-id>

HBase web interfaces

The HBase Master service provides a web console that can be used to verify information about the cluster. To access it, find the PUBLIC-ADDRESS of any hbase unit and expose the application:

juju status hbase
juju expose hbase

The HBase Master web interface will be available at the following URL:

http://HBASE_PUBLIC_IP:16010

The HBase RegionServer and Thrift services also provide web interfaces that are accessible at the following URLs:

http://HBASE_PUBLIC_IP:16030
http://HBASE_PUBLIC_IP:9095

Using

Actions

Once HBase is ready, there are a number of actions available in this charm.

Run a performance test (as described in the Benchmarking section):

juju run-action hbase/0 perf-test
juju show-action-output <id>  # <-- id from above command

Run a smoke test (as described in the Verifying section):

juju run-action hbase/0 smoke-test
juju show-action-output <id>  # <-- id from above command

Start/Stop/Restart all HBase services on a unit:

juju run-action hbase/0 [start|stop|restart]
juju show-action-output <id>  # <-- id from above command

Start/Stop the HBase Master service on a unit:

juju run-action hbase/0 [start|stop]-hbase-master
juju show-action-output <id>  # <-- id from above command

Start/Stop the HBase RegionServer and Thrift services on a unit:

juju run-action hbase/0 [start|stop]-hbase-regionserver
juju show-action-output <id>  # <-- id from above command

HBase Shell

HBase includes a shell that can be used to interact with the cluster. Access it from any hbase unit (e.g. hbase/0) as follows:

$ juju ssh hbase/0
$ hbase shell
HBase Shell; enter 'help<RETURN>' for list of supported commands.
Type "exit<RETURN>" to leave the HBase Shell
Version 1.1.3, rUnknown, Wed Mar 29 07:39:44 UTC 2017

hbase(main):002:0> exit

Configuring

Charm configuration can be changed at runtime with juju config. This charm supports the following config parameters.

Heap

The default heap size for the the HBase master JVM is 1024MB. Set a different value (in MB) with the following:

juju config hbase heap=4096

Benchmarking

This charm provides a perf-test action to gauge the performance of the HBase cluster:

$ juju run-action hbase/0 perf-test
Action queued with id: 339cec1f-e903-4ee7-85ca-876fb0c3d28e

$ juju show-action-output 339cec1f-e903-4ee7-85ca-876fb0c3d28e
results:
  meta:
    composite:
      direction: asc
      units: secs
      value: "90"
    raw: /opt/hbase-perf-results/1495562300.log
    start: 2017-05-23T17:58:20Z
    stop: 2017-05-23T17:59:50Z
  outcome: success
status: completed
timing:
  completed: 2017-05-23 17:59:51 +0000 UTC
  enqueued: 2017-05-23 17:58:16 +0000 UTC
  started: 2017-05-23 17:58:20 +0000 UTC

Limitations

Restarting an HBase cluster is potentially disruptive. Be aware that the following events will cause a restart of all HBase services:

• Adding or removing HBase units
• Adding or removing Zookeeper units
• Changing charm configuration with juju config
• Upgrading this charm

Issues

Apache Bigtop tracks issues using JIRA (Apache account required). File an issue for this charm at:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/CreateIssue!default.jspa

Ensure Bigtop is selected as the project. Typically, charm issues are filed in the deployment component with the latest stable release selected as the affected version. Any uncertain fields may be left blank.

Contact Information

• bigdata@lists.ubuntu.com

Resources

• Apache HBase home page
• Apache Bigtop home page
• Apache Bigtop issue tracking
• Apache Bigtop mailing lists
• Juju Big Data
• Juju Bigtop charms
• Juju mailing list