Start and test your HBase cluster

Use the jps command to ensure that HBase is not running.

Kill HMaster, HRegionServer, and HQuorumPeer processes, if they are running.

Start the cluster by running the start-hbase.sh command on node-1.

Your output is similar to this:

$ bin/start-hbase.sh
node-3.test.com: starting zookeeper, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-zookeeper-node-3.test.com.out
node-1.example.com: starting zookeeper, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-zookeeper-node-1.test.com.out
node-2.example.com: starting zookeeper, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-zookeeper-node-2.test.com.out
starting master, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-master-node-1.test.com.out
node-3.test.com: starting regionserver, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-regionserver-node-3.test.com.out
node-2.test.com: starting regionserver, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-regionserver-node-2.test.com.out
node-2.test.com: starting master, logging to /home/hbuser/hbase-0.98.3-hadoop2/bin/../logs/hbase-hbuser-master-node2.test.com.out

ZooKeeper starts first, followed by the Master, then the RegionServers, and finally the backup Masters.

Run the jps command on each node to verify that the correct processes are running on each server.

Example1. node-1 jps Output

$ jps
20355 Jps
20071 HQuorumPeer
20137 HMaster

Example 2. node-2 jps Output

$ jps
15930 HRegionServer
16194 Jps
15838 HQuorumPeer
16010 HMaster

Example 3. node-3 jps Output

$ jps
13901 Jps
13639 HQuorumPeer
13737 HRegionServer

ZooKeeper Process Name

You might see additional Java processes running on your servers as well, if they are used for any other purposes.

The HQuorumPeer process is a ZooKeeper instance which is controlled and started by HBase. If you use ZooKeeper this way, it is limited to one instance per cluster node and is appropriate for testing only. If ZooKeeper is run outside of HBase, the process is called QuorumPeer. For more about ZooKeeper configuration, including using an external ZooKeeper instance with HBase, see the zookeeper project site.

Browse to the Web UI and test your new connections.

You should be able to connect to the UI for the Master http://node-1.test.com:16010/ or the standby master at http://node-2.test.com:16010/. If you can connect through localhost but not from another host, check your firewall rules. You can see the web UI for each of the RegionServers at port 16030 of their IP addresses, or by clicking their links in the web UI for the Master.

Web UI Port Changes

In HBase newer than 0.98.x, the HTTP ports used by the HBase Web UI changed from 60010 for the Master and 60030 for each RegionServer to 16010 for the Master and 16030 for the RegionServer.