Build Java applications for Apache HBase

Article
04/08/2024

Learn how to create an Apache HBase application in Java. Then use the application with HBase on Azure HDInsight.

The steps in this document use Apache Maven to create and build the project. Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool that allows you to build software, documentation, and reports for Java projects.

Prerequisites

An Apache HBase cluster on HDInsight. See Get started with Apache HBase.
Java Developer Kit (JDK) version 8.
Apache Maven properly installed according to Apache. Maven is a project build system for Java projects.
An SSH client. For more information, see Connect to HDInsight (Apache Hadoop) using SSH.
If using PowerShell, you need the AZ Module.
A text editor. This article uses Azure Notepad.

Test environment

The environment used for this article was a computer running Windows 10. The commands were executed in a command prompt, and the various files were edited with Notepad. Modify accordingly for your environment.

From a command prompt, enter the following commands to create a working environment:

IF NOT EXIST C:\HDI MKDIR C:\HDI
cd C:\HDI

Create a Maven project

Enter the following command to create a Maven project named hbaseapp:
```
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.microsoft.examples -DartifactId=hbaseapp -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false

cd hbaseapp
mkdir conf
```
This command creates a directory named hbaseapp at the current location, which contains a basic Maven project. The second command changes the working directory to hbaseapp. The third command creates a new directory, conf, which can be used later. The hbaseapp directory contains the following items:
- pom.xml: The Project Object Model (POM) contains information and configuration details used to build the project.
- src\main\java\com\microsoft\examples: Contains your application code.
- src\test\java\com\microsoft\examples: Contains tests for your application.
Remove the generated example code. Delete the generated test and application files AppTest.java, and App.java by entering the following commands:
```
DEL src\main\java\com\microsoft\examples\App.java
DEL src\test\java\com\microsoft\examples\AppTest.java
```

Update the Project Object Model

For a full reference of the pom.xml file, see https://maven.apache.org/pom.html. Open pom.xml by entering the following command:

notepad pom.xml

Add dependencies

In pom.xml, add the following text in the <dependencies> section:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
    <artifactId>hbase-shaded-client</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.phoenix</groupId>
    <artifactId>phoenix-core</artifactId>
    <version>4.14.1-HBase-1.1</version>
</dependency>

This section indicates that the project needs hbase-client and phoenix-core components. At compile time, these dependencies are downloaded from the default Maven repository. You can use the Maven Central Repository Search to learn more about this dependency.

Important

The version number of the hbase-client must match the version of Apache HBase that is provided with your HDInsight cluster. Use the following table to find the correct version number.

HDInsight cluster version	Apache HBase version to use
3.6	1.1.2
4.0	2.0.0

For more information on HDInsight versions and components, see What are the different Apache Hadoop components available with HDInsight.

Build configuration

Maven plug-ins allow you to customize the build stages of the project. This section is used to add plug-ins, resources, and other build configuration options.

Add the following code to the pom.xml file, and then save and close the file. This text must be inside the <project>...</project> tags in the file, for example, between </dependencies> and </project>.

<build>
    <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
    <resources>
    <resource>
        <directory>${basedir}/conf</directory>
        <filtering>false</filtering>
        <includes>
        <include>hbase-site.xml</include>
        </includes>
    </resource>
    </resources>
    <plugins>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.8.1</version>
        <configuration>
            <source>1.8</source>
            <target>1.8</target>
        </configuration>
        </plugin>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.2.1</version>
        <configuration>
        <transformers>
            <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ApacheLicenseResourceTransformer">
            </transformer>
        </transformers>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
            <goal>shade</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

This section configures a resource (conf/hbase-site.xml) that contains configuration information for HBase.

Note

You can also set configuration values via code. See the comments in the CreateTable example.

This section also configures the Apache Maven Compiler Plugin and Apache Maven Shade Plugin. The compiler plug-in is used to compile the topology. The shade plug-in is used to prevent license duplication in the JAR package that is built by Maven. This plugin is used to prevent a "duplicate license files" error at run time on the HDInsight cluster. Using maven-shade-plugin with the ApacheLicenseResourceTransformer implementation prevents the error.

The maven-shade-plugin also produces an uber jar that contains all the dependencies required by the application.

Download the hbase-site.xml

Use the following command to copy the HBase configuration from the HBase cluster to the conf directory. Replace CLUSTERNAME with your HDInsight cluster name and then enter the command:

scp sshuser@CLUSTERNAME-ssh.azurehdinsight.cn:/etc/hbase/conf/hbase-site.xml ./conf/hbase-site.xml

Create the application

Implement a CreateTable class

Enter the following command to create and open a new file CreateTable.java. Select Yes at the prompt to create a new file.

notepad src\main\java\com\microsoft\examples\CreateTable.java

Then copy and paste the following Java code into the new file. Then close the file.

package com.microsoft.examples;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HBaseAdmin;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableName;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Put;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;

public class CreateTable {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    Configuration config = HBaseConfiguration.create();

    // Example of setting zookeeper values for HDInsight
    // in code instead of an hbase-site.xml file
    //
    // config.set("hbase.zookeeper.quorum",
    //            "zookeepernode0,zookeepernode1,zookeepernode2");
    //config.set("hbase.zookeeper.property.clientPort", "2181");
    //config.set("hbase.cluster.distributed", "true");
    //
    //NOTE: Actual zookeeper host names can be found using Ambari:
    //curl -u admin:PASSWORD -G "https://CLUSTERNAME.azurehdinsight.cn/api/v1/clusters/CLUSTERNAME/hosts"

    //Linux-based HDInsight clusters use /hbase-unsecure as the znode parent
    config.set("zookeeper.znode.parent","/hbase-unsecure");

    // create an admin object using the config
    HBaseAdmin admin = new HBaseAdmin(config);

    // create the table...
    HTableDescriptor tableDescriptor = new HTableDescriptor(TableName.valueOf("people"));
    // ... with two column families
    tableDescriptor.addFamily(new HColumnDescriptor("name"));
    tableDescriptor.addFamily(new HColumnDescriptor("contactinfo"));
    admin.createTable(tableDescriptor);

    // define some people
    String[][] people = {
        { "1", "Marcel", "Haddad", "marcel@fabrikam.com"},
        { "2", "Franklin", "Holtz", "franklin@contoso.com" },
        { "3", "Dwayne", "McKee", "dwayne@fabrikam.com" },
        { "4", "Rae", "Schroeder", "rae@contoso.com" },
        { "5", "Rosalie", "burton", "rosalie@fabrikam.com"},
        { "6", "Gabriela", "Ingram", "gabriela@contoso.com"} };

    HTable table = new HTable(config, "people");

    // Add each person to the table
    //   Use the `name` column family for the name
    //   Use the `contactinfo` column family for the email
    for (int i = 0; i< people.length; i++) {
        Put person = new Put(Bytes.toBytes(people[i][0]));
        person.add(Bytes.toBytes("name"), Bytes.toBytes("first"), Bytes.toBytes(people[i][1]));
        person.add(Bytes.toBytes("name"), Bytes.toBytes("last"), Bytes.toBytes(people[i][2]));
        person.add(Bytes.toBytes("contactinfo"), Bytes.toBytes("email"), Bytes.toBytes(people[i][3]));
        table.put(person);
    }
    // flush commits and close the table
    table.flushCommits();
    table.close();
    }
}

This code is the CreateTable class, which creates a table named people and populate it with some predefined users.

Implement a SearchByEmail class

Enter the following command to create and open a new file SearchByEmail.java. Select Yes at the prompt to create a new file.

notepad src\main\java\com\microsoft\examples\SearchByEmail.java

Then copy and paste the following Java code into the new file. Then close the file.

package com.microsoft.examples;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Scan;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ResultScanner;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Result;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.RegexStringComparator;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.SingleColumnValueFilter;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.filter.CompareFilter.CompareOp;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
import org.apache.hadoop.util.GenericOptionsParser;

public class SearchByEmail {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    Configuration config = HBaseConfiguration.create();

    // Use GenericOptionsParser to get only the parameters to the class
    // and not all the parameters passed (when using WebHCat for example)
    String[] otherArgs = new GenericOptionsParser(config, args).getRemainingArgs();
    if (otherArgs.length != 1) {
        System.out.println("usage: [regular expression]");
        System.exit(-1);
    }

    // Open the table
    HTable table = new HTable(config, "people");

    // Define the family and qualifiers to be used
    byte[] contactFamily = Bytes.toBytes("contactinfo");
    byte[] emailQualifier = Bytes.toBytes("email");
    byte[] nameFamily = Bytes.toBytes("name");
    byte[] firstNameQualifier = Bytes.toBytes("first");
    byte[] lastNameQualifier = Bytes.toBytes("last");

    // Create a regex filter
    RegexStringComparator emailFilter = new RegexStringComparator(otherArgs[0]);
    // Attach the regex filter to a filter
    //   for the email column
    SingleColumnValueFilter filter = new SingleColumnValueFilter(
        contactFamily,
        emailQualifier,
        CompareOp.EQUAL,
        emailFilter
    );

    // Create a scan and set the filter
    Scan scan = new Scan();
    scan.setFilter(filter);

    // Get the results
    ResultScanner results = table.getScanner(scan);
    // Iterate over results and print  values
    for (Result result : results ) {
        String id = new String(result.getRow());
        byte[] firstNameObj = result.getValue(nameFamily, firstNameQualifier);
        String firstName = new String(firstNameObj);
        byte[] lastNameObj = result.getValue(nameFamily, lastNameQualifier);
        String lastName = new String(lastNameObj);
        System.out.println(firstName + " " + lastName + " - ID: " + id);
        byte[] emailObj = result.getValue(contactFamily, emailQualifier);
        String email = new String(emailObj);
        System.out.println(firstName + " " + lastName + " - " + email + " - ID: " + id);
    }
    results.close();
    table.close();
    }
}

The SearchByEmail class can be used to query for rows by email address. Because it uses a regular expression filter, you can provide either a string or a regular expression when using the class.

Implement a DeleteTable class

Enter the following command to create and open a new file DeleteTable.java. Select Yes at the prompt to create a new file.

notepad src\main\java\com\microsoft\examples\DeleteTable.java

Then copy and paste the following Java code into the new file. Then close the file.

package com.microsoft.examples;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HBaseAdmin;

public class DeleteTable {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    Configuration config = HBaseConfiguration.create();

    // Create an admin object using the config
    HBaseAdmin admin = new HBaseAdmin(config);

    // Disable, and then delete the table
    admin.disableTable("people");
    admin.deleteTable("people");
    }
}

The DeleteTable class cleans up the HBase tables created in this example by disabling and dropping the table created by the CreateTable class.

Build and package the application

From the hbaseapp directory, use the following command to build a JAR file that contains the application:
```
mvn clean package
```
This command builds and packages the application into a .jar file.
When the command completes, the hbaseapp/target directory contains a file named hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar.

Note

The hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar file is an uber jar. It contains all the dependencies required to run the application.

Upload the JAR and run jobs (SSH)

The following steps use scp to copy the JAR to the primary head node of your Apache HBase on HDInsight cluster. The ssh command is then used to connect to the cluster and run the example directly on the head node.

Upload the jar to the cluster. Replace CLUSTERNAME with your HDInsight cluster name and then enter the following command:
```
scp ./target/hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar sshuser@CLUSTERNAME-ssh.azurehdinsight.cn:hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
```
Connect to the HBase cluster. Replace CLUSTERNAME with your HDInsight cluster name and then enter the following command:
```
ssh sshuser@CLUSTERNAME-ssh.azurehdinsight.cn
```
To create an HBase table using the Java application, use the following command in your open ssh connection:
```
yarn jar hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar com.microsoft.examples.CreateTable
```
This command creates a HBase table named people, and populates it with data.

To search for email addresses stored in the table, use the following command:

yarn jar hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar com.microsoft.examples.SearchByEmail contoso.com

You receive the following results:

Franklin Holtz - ID: 2
Franklin Holtz - franklin@contoso.com - ID: 2
Rae Schroeder - ID: 4
Rae Schroeder - rae@contoso.com - ID: 4
Gabriela Ingram - ID: 6
Gabriela Ingram - gabriela@contoso.com - ID: 6

To delete the table, use the following command:

yarn jar hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar com.microsoft.examples.DeleteTable

Upload the JAR and run jobs (PowerShell)

The following steps use the Azure PowerShell AZ module to upload the JAR to the default storage for your Apache HBase cluster. HDInsight cmdlets are then used to run the examples remotely.

After installing and configuring the AZ module, create a file named hbase-runner.psm1. Use the following text as the contents of this file:

 <#
 .SYNOPSIS
 Copies a file to the primary storage of an HDInsight cluster.
 .DESCRIPTION
 Copies a file from a local directory to the blob container for
 the HDInsight cluster.
 .EXAMPLE
 Start-HBaseExample -className "com.microsoft.examples.CreateTable"
 -clusterName "MyHDInsightCluster"

 .EXAMPLE
 Start-HBaseExample -className "com.microsoft.examples.SearchByEmail"
 -clusterName "MyHDInsightCluster"
 -emailRegex "contoso.com"

 .EXAMPLE
 Start-HBaseExample -className "com.microsoft.examples.SearchByEmail"
 -clusterName "MyHDInsightCluster"
 -emailRegex "^r" -showErr
 #>

 function Start-HBaseExample {
 [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
 param(
 #The class to run
 [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
 [String]$className,

 #The name of the HDInsight cluster
 [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
 [String]$clusterName,

 #Only used when using SearchByEmail
 [Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
 [String]$emailRegex,

 #Use if you want to see stderr output
 [Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
 [Switch]$showErr
 )

 Set-StrictMode -Version 3

 # Is the Azure module installed?
 FindAzure

 # Get the login for the HDInsight cluster
 $creds=Get-Credential -Message "Enter the login for the cluster" -UserName "admin"

 # The JAR
 $jarFile = "wasb:///example/jars/hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar"

 # The job definition
 $jobDefinition = New-AzHDInsightMapReduceJobDefinition `
     -JarFile $jarFile `
     -ClassName $className `
     -Arguments $emailRegex

 # Get the job output
 $job = Start-AzHDInsightJob `
     -ClusterName $clusterName `
     -JobDefinition $jobDefinition `
     -HttpCredential $creds
 Write-Host "Wait for the job to complete ..." -ForegroundColor Green
 Wait-AzHDInsightJob `
     -ClusterName $clusterName `
     -JobId $job.JobId `
     -HttpCredential $creds
 if($showErr)
 {
 Write-Host "STDERR"
 Get-AzHDInsightJobOutput `
             -Clustername $clusterName `
             -JobId $job.JobId `
             -HttpCredential $creds `
             -DisplayOutputType StandardError
 }
 Write-Host "Display the standard output ..." -ForegroundColor Green
 Get-AzHDInsightJobOutput `
             -Clustername $clusterName `
             -JobId $job.JobId `
             -HttpCredential $creds
 }

 <#
 .SYNOPSIS
 Copies a file to the primary storage of an HDInsight cluster.
 .DESCRIPTION
 Copies a file from a local directory to the blob container for
 the HDInsight cluster.
 .EXAMPLE
 Add-HDInsightFile -localPath "C:\temp\data.txt"
 -destinationPath "example/data/data.txt"
 -ClusterName "MyHDInsightCluster"
 .EXAMPLE
 Add-HDInsightFile -localPath "C:\temp\data.txt"
 -destinationPath "example/data/data.txt"
 -ClusterName "MyHDInsightCluster"
 -Container "MyContainer"
 #>

 function Add-HDInsightFile {
     [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
     param(
         #The path to the local file.
         [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
         [String]$localPath,

         #The destination path and file name, relative to the root of the container.
         [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
         [String]$destinationPath,

         #The name of the HDInsight cluster
         [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
         [String]$clusterName,

         #If specified, overwrites existing files without prompting
         [Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
         [Switch]$force
     )

     Set-StrictMode -Version 3

     # Is the Azure module installed?
     FindAzure

     # Get authentication for the cluster
     $creds=Get-Credential

     # Does the local path exist?
     if (-not (Test-Path $localPath))
     {
         throw "Source path '$localPath' does not exist."
     }

     # Get the primary storage container
     $storage = GetStorage -clusterName $clusterName

     # Upload file to storage, overwriting existing files if -force was used.
     Set-AzStorageBlobContent -File $localPath `
         -Blob $destinationPath `
         -force:$force `
         -Container $storage.container `
         -Context $storage.context
 }

 function FindAzure {
     # Is there an active Azure subscription?
     $sub = Get-AzSubscription -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
     if(-not($sub))
     {
         Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud
     }
 }

 function GetStorage {
     param(
         [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
         [String]$clusterName
     )
     $hdi = Get-AzHDInsightCluster -ClusterName $clusterName
     # Does the cluster exist?
     if (!$hdi)
     {
         throw "HDInsight cluster '$clusterName' does not exist."
     }
     # Create a return object for context & container
     $return = @{}
     $storageAccounts = @{}

     # Get storage information
     $resourceGroup = $hdi.ResourceGroup
     $storageAccountName=$hdi.DefaultStorageAccount.split('.')[0]
     $container=$hdi.DefaultStorageContainer
     $storageAccountKey=(Get-AzStorageAccountKey `
         -Name $storageAccountName `
     -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup)[0].Value
     # Get the resource group, in case we need that
     $return.resourceGroup = $resourceGroup
     # Get the storage context, as we can't depend
     # on using the default storage context
     $return.context = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey
     # Get the container, so we know where to
     # find/store blobs
     $return.container = $container
     # Return storage accounts to support finding all accounts for
     # a cluster
     $return.storageAccount = $storageAccountName
     $return.storageAccountKey = $storageAccountKey

     return $return
 }
 # Only export the verb-phrase things
 export-modulemember *-*

This file contains two modules:

Add-HDInsightFile - used to upload files to the cluster
Start-HBaseExample - used to run the classes created earlier

Save the hbase-runner.psm1 file in the hbaseapp directory.
Register the modules with Azure PowerShell. Open a new Azure PowerShell window and edit the following command by replacing CLUSTERNAME with the name of your cluster. Then enter the following commands:
```
cd C:\HDI\hbaseapp
$myCluster = "CLUSTERNAME"
Import-Module .\hbase-runner.psm1
```
Use the following command to upload the hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar to your cluster.
```
Add-HDInsightFile -localPath target\hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar -destinationPath example/jars/hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar -clusterName $myCluster
```
When prompted, enter the cluster login (admin) name and password. The command uploads the hbaseapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar to the example/jars location in the primary storage for your cluster.
To create a table using the hbaseapp, use the following command:
```
Start-HBaseExample -className com.microsoft.examples.CreateTable -clusterName $myCluster
```
When prompted, enter the cluster login (admin) name and password.

This command creates a table named people in HBase on your HDInsight cluster. This command doesn't show any output in the console window.
To search for entries in the table, use the following command:
```
Start-HBaseExample -className com.microsoft.examples.SearchByEmail -clusterName $myCluster -emailRegex contoso.com
```
When prompted, enter the cluster login (admin) name and password.

This command uses the SearchByEmail class to search for any rows where the contactinformation column family and the email column, contains the string contoso.com. You should receive the following results:
```
Franklin Holtz - ID: 2
Franklin Holtz - franklin@contoso.com - ID: 2
Rae Schroeder - ID: 4
Rae Schroeder - rae@contoso.com - ID: 4
Gabriela Ingram - ID: 6
Gabriela Ingram - gabriela@contoso.com - ID: 6
```
Using fabrikam.com for the -emailRegex value returns the users that have fabrikam.com in the email field. You can also use regular expressions as the search term. For example, ^r returns email addresses that begin with the letter 'r'.

To delete the table, use the following command:

Start-HBaseExample -className com.microsoft.examples.DeleteTable -clusterName $myCluster

No results or unexpected results when using Start-HBaseExample

Use the -showErr parameter to view the standard error (STDERR) that is produced while running the job.

Next steps

Learn how to use SQLLine with Apache HBase

Build Java applications for Apache HBase

Prerequisites

Test environment

Create a Maven project

Update the Project Object Model

Add dependencies

Build configuration

Download the hbase-site.xml

Create the application

Implement a CreateTable class

Implement a SearchByEmail class

Implement a DeleteTable class

Build and package the application

Upload the JAR and run jobs (SSH)

Upload the JAR and run jobs (PowerShell)

No results or unexpected results when using Start-HBaseExample

Next steps

Additional resources