Create an instance and write data with the HBase shell

Create an instance and write data with the HBase shell

This page explains how to use the HBase shell to connect to a Cloud Bigtable instance, perform basic administrative tasks, and read and write data in a table.

Note: You can perform Bigtable operations at the command line using either the HBase shell or the cbt tool. Use the HBase shell if you are accustomed to it and prefer to use it. Otherwise, we recommend that you use the cbt CLI, which has fewer dependencies and installation steps. The cbt CLI is a component of the Google Cloud CLI.

If you do not want to use the HBase shell, follow the quickstart using the cbt tool instead.

This quickstart uses Cloud Shell in the Google Cloud console to run the HBase shell. For improved performance, you can install the HBase shell on your own machine instead.

Before you begin

1. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

   Important: The name you use must be between 4 and 30 characters. When you type the name, the form will suggest a project ID, which you can edit. The project ID you use must be between 6 and 30 characters, with a lowercase letter as the first character. You can use a dash, lowercase letter, or digit for the remaining characters, but the last character cannot be a dash. You should be aware that some resource identifiers (such as project IDs) might be retained beyond the life of your project. For this reason, avoid storing sensitive information in resource identifiers.
   ...see naming guidelines

2. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

3. Enable the Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Bigtable Admin APIs.

   Enable the APIs

Create a Bigtable instance

1. Open the Create Instance page in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the Create Instance page

   

2. For Instance name, enter Quickstart instance.

3. For Instance ID, enter quickstart-instance.

4. For Storage type, select SSD.

5. For Cluster ID, enter quickstart-instance-c1.

6. For Region, select us-east1.

7. For Zone, select us-east1-c.

8. Click Create to create the instance.

Connect to your instance

1. Open a terminal window in Cloud Shell.

   Open in Cloud Shell

2. To use the HBase shell with the Cloud Bigtable HBase client for Java, you must install a Java 8 runtime environment. Other versions of Java are not supported. Install and set up the Java 8 environment by running the following commands:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk-headless
   export JAVA_HOME=$(update-alternatives --list java | tail -1 | sed -E 's/\/bin\/java//')

3. Clone the repository that contains the HBase shell files, then change to the directory for the HBase shell:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/cloud-bigtable-examples.git
   cd cloud-bigtable-examples/quickstart

   Note: Before you run ./quickstart.sh, make sure you don't have a configured hbase-site.xml file.

4. Start the HBase shell:

   ./quickstart.sh

   Note: If you are prompted for an instance ID, type the number next to quickstart-instance and press Enter.

Now you're connected!

Read and write data

Bigtable stores data in tables, which contain rows. Each row is identified by a row key.

Data in a row is organized into column families, which are groups of columns. A column qualifier identifies a single column within a column family.

There can be multiple time-stamped cells at the intersection of a row and column.

1. Create a table named my-table, with one column family named cf1:

   create 'my-table', 'cf1'
   

   The shell displays output similar to the following:

   0 row(s) in 1.5210 seconds
   
   => Hbase::Table - my-table
   

2. List your tables:

   list
   

   The shell displays output similar to the following:

   TABLE
   my-table
   1 row(s) in 1.3580 seconds
   
   => ["my-table"]
   

3. Put the values test-value1 and test-value2 in the row r1, using the column family cf1 and the column qualifier c1:

   put 'my-table', 'r1', 'cf1:c1', 'test-value1'
   put 'my-table', 'r1', 'cf1:c1', 'test-value2'
   

4. Use the scan command to scan the table and read the latest two versions of the data you added:

   scan 'my-table', {VERSIONS => 2}
   

   The shell displays output similar to the following:

   ROW      COLUMN+CELL
    r1      column=cf1:c1, timestamp=1679495055049, value=test-value1
    r1      column=cf1:c1, timestamp=1679494856213, value=test-value2
   1 row(s) in 1.2120 seconds
   

   Two timestamped values are stored for the same column in row r1.

   Note: In this quickstart you set only two cells, but Bigtable lets you set up to 10,000 cells in a single write request.

5. Delete the table my-table:

   disable 'my-table'
   drop 'my-table'
   

6. Type exit and press Enter to exit the HBase shell. You will see a series of log messages after you exit, which is normal.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click Quickstart instance.
3. Click Delete instance.

   

4. Type quickstart-instance, then click Delete to delete the instance.

What's next

• Work through a Bigtable codelab.
• Look at code samples.
• See sample source code for a fraud detection use case.
• Write a Hello World application in C#, C++, Go, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, or using the HBase client for Java.