src/docbkx/getting_started.xml

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  <title>Getting Started</title>

  <section>
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <para><xref linkend="quickstart" /> will get you up and
    running on a single-node instance of HBase using the local filesystem. 
    <xref linkend="configuration" /> describes setup
    of HBase in distributed mode running on top of HDFS.</para>
  </section>

  <section xml:id="quickstart">
    <title>Quick Start</title>

    <para>This guide describes setup of a standalone HBase instance that uses
    the local filesystem. It leads you through creating a table, inserting
    rows via the HBase <command>shell</command>, and then cleaning
    up and shutting down your standalone HBase instance. The below exercise
    should take no more than ten minutes (not including download time).</para>

    <section>
      <title>Download and unpack the latest stable release.</title>

      <para>Choose a download site from this list of <link
      xlink:href="http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/hbase/">Apache Download
      Mirrors</link>. Click on suggested top link. This will take you to a
      mirror of <emphasis>HBase Releases</emphasis>. Click on the folder named
      <filename>stable</filename> and then download the file that ends in
      <filename>.tar.gz</filename> to your local filesystem; e.g.
      <filename>hbase-<?eval ${project.version}?>.tar.gz</filename>.</para>

      <para>Decompress and untar your download and then change into the
      unpacked directory.</para>

      <para><programlisting>$ tar xfz hbase-<?eval ${project.version}?>.tar.gz
$ cd hbase-<?eval ${project.version}?>
</programlisting></para>

      <para>At this point, you are ready to start HBase. But before starting
      it, you might want to edit <filename>conf/hbase-site.xml</filename> and
      set the directory you want HBase to write to,
      <varname>hbase.rootdir</varname>. <programlisting>

&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
&lt;?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="configuration.xsl"?&gt;
&lt;configuration&gt;
  &lt;property&gt;
    &lt;name&gt;hbase.rootdir&lt;/name&gt;
    &lt;value&gt;file:///DIRECTORY/hbase&lt;/value&gt;
  &lt;/property&gt;
&lt;/configuration&gt;

</programlisting> Replace <varname>DIRECTORY</varname> in the above with a
      path to a directory where you want HBase to store its data. By default,
      <varname>hbase.rootdir</varname> is set to
      <filename>/tmp/hbase-${user.name}</filename> which means you'll lose all
      your data whenever your server reboots (Most operating systems clear
      <filename>/tmp</filename> on restart).</para>
    </section>

    <section xml:id="start_hbase">
      <title>Start HBase</title>

      <para>Now start HBase:<programlisting>$ ./bin/start-hbase.sh
starting Master, logging to logs/hbase-user-master-example.org.out</programlisting></para>

      <para>You should now have a running standalone HBase instance. In
      standalone mode, HBase runs all daemons in the the one JVM; i.e. both
      the HBase and ZooKeeper daemons. HBase logs can be found in the
      <filename>logs</filename> subdirectory. Check them out especially if
      HBase had trouble starting.</para>

      <note>
        <title>Is <application>java</application> installed?</title>

        <para>All of the above presumes a 1.6 version of Oracle
        <application>java</application> is installed on your machine and
        available on your path; i.e. when you type
        <application>java</application>, you see output that describes the
        options the java program takes (HBase requires java 6). If this is not
        the case, HBase will not start. Install java, edit
        <filename>conf/hbase-env.sh</filename>, uncommenting the
        <envar>JAVA_HOME</envar> line pointing it to your java install. Then,
        retry the steps above.</para>
      </note>
    </section>

    <section xml:id="shell_exercises">
      <title>Shell Exercises</title>

      <para>Connect to your running HBase via the <command>shell</command>.</para>

      <para><programlisting>$ ./bin/hbase shell
HBase Shell; enter 'help&lt;RETURN&gt;' for list of supported commands.
Type "exit&lt;RETURN&gt;" to leave the HBase Shell
Version: 0.90.0, r1001068, Fri Sep 24 13:55:42 PDT 2010

hbase(main):001:0&gt; </programlisting></para>

      <para>Type <command>help</command> and then
      <command>&lt;RETURN&gt;</command> to see a listing of shell commands and
      options. Browse at least the paragraphs at the end of the help emission
      for the gist of how variables and command arguments are entered into the
      HBase shell; in particular note how table names, rows, and columns,
      etc., must be quoted.</para>

  <para>Create a table named <varname>test</varname> with a single column family named <varname>cf</varname>.
      Verify its creation by listing all tables and then insert some
      values.</para>

      <para><programlisting>hbase(main):003:0&gt; create 'test', 'cf'
0 row(s) in 1.2200 seconds
hbase(main):003:0&gt; list 'test'
..
1 row(s) in 0.0550 seconds
hbase(main):004:0&gt; put 'test', 'row1', 'cf:a', 'value1'
0 row(s) in 0.0560 seconds
hbase(main):005:0&gt; put 'test', 'row2', 'cf:b', 'value2'
0 row(s) in 0.0370 seconds
hbase(main):006:0&gt; put 'test', 'row3', 'cf:c', 'value3'
0 row(s) in 0.0450 seconds</programlisting></para>

      <para>Above we inserted 3 values, one at a time. The first insert is at
      <varname>row1</varname>, column <varname>cf:a</varname> with a value of
      <varname>value1</varname>. Columns in HBase are comprised of a column family prefix --
      <varname>cf</varname> in this example -- followed by a colon and then a
      column qualifier suffix (<varname>a</varname> in this case).</para>

      <para>Verify the data insert.</para>

      <para>Run a scan of the table by doing the following</para>

      <para><programlisting>hbase(main):007:0&gt; scan 'test'
ROW        COLUMN+CELL
row1       column=cf:a, timestamp=1288380727188, value=value1
row2       column=cf:b, timestamp=1288380738440, value=value2
row3       column=cf:c, timestamp=1288380747365, value=value3
3 row(s) in 0.0590 seconds</programlisting></para>

      <para>Get a single row as follows</para>

      <para><programlisting>hbase(main):008:0&gt; get 'test', 'row1'
COLUMN      CELL
cf:a        timestamp=1288380727188, value=value1
1 row(s) in 0.0400 seconds</programlisting></para>

      <para>Now, disable and drop your table. This will clean up all done
      above.</para>

      <para><programlisting>hbase(main):012:0&gt; disable 'test'
0 row(s) in 1.0930 seconds
hbase(main):013:0&gt; drop 'test'
0 row(s) in 0.0770 seconds </programlisting></para>

      <para>Exit the shell by typing exit.</para>

      <para><programlisting>hbase(main):014:0&gt; exit</programlisting></para>
    </section>

    <section xml:id="stopping">
      <title>Stopping HBase</title>

      <para>Stop your hbase instance by running the stop script.</para>

      <para><programlisting>$ ./bin/stop-hbase.sh
stopping hbase...............</programlisting></para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Where to go next</title>

      <para>The above described standalone setup is good for testing and
          experiments only. Next move on to <xref linkend="configuration" /> where we'll go into
      depth on the different HBase run modes, requirements and critical
      configurations needed setting up a distributed HBase deploy.</para>
    </section>
  </section>

</chapter>