HBase is a column-oriented, non-relational database.

This means that data is stored in

individual columns, and indexed by a unique row key. This architecture allows for rapid
retrieval of individual rows and columns and efficient scans over individual columns within a
table.
HBase is a column-oriented non-relational database management system that runs on top of
Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). HBase provides a fault-tolerant way of storing
sparse data sets, which are common in many big data use cases
What is Apache HBase?
Apache HBase is an open-source, NoSQL, distributed big data store. It enables random,
strictly consistent, real-time access to petabytes of data. HBase is very effective for handling
large, sparse datasets.
HBase integrates seamlessly with Apache Hadoop and the Hadoop ecosystem and runs
on top of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) or Amazon S3 using Amazon
Elastic MapReduce (EMR) file system, or EMRFS. HBase serves as a direct input and
output to the Apache MapReduce framework for Hadoop, and works with Apache
Phoenix to enable SQL-like queries over HBase tables.
How does HBase work?
HBase is a column-oriented, non-relational database. This means that data is stored in
individual columns, and indexed by a unique row key. This architecture allows for rapid
retrieval of individual rows and columns and efficient scans over individual columns within a
table. Both data and requests are distributed across all servers in an HBase cluster, allowing
you to query results on petabytes of data within milliseconds. HBase is most effectively used
to store non-relational data, accessed via the HBase API. Apache Phoenix is commonly used
as a SQL layer on top of HBase allowing you to use familiar SQL syntax to insert, delete, and
query data stored in HBase.
What are the benefits of HBase?
Scalable
HBase is designed to handle scaling across thousands of servers and managing access to
petabytes of data. With the elasticity of Amazon EC2, and the scalability of Amazon S3,
HBase is able to handle online access to massive data sets.
Fast
HBase provides low latency random read and write access to petabytes of data by distributing
requests from applications across a cluster of hosts. Each host has access to data in HDFS and
S3, and serves read and write requests in milliseconds.
Fault-Tolerant
HBase splits data stored in tables across multiple hosts in the cluster and is built to withstand
individual host failures. Because data is stored on HDFS or S3, healthy hosts will
automatically be chosen to host the data once served by the failed host, and data is brought
online automatically.
Best Features of HBase | Why HBase is Used?
Basic features of HBase. what makes HBase so popular. So, the answer to this question is
“Features of HBase”.
As we all know, HBase is a column-oriented database that provides dynamic database
schema. Mainly it runs on top of the HDFS and also supports MapReduce jobs.
Moreover, for data processing, HBase also supports other high-level languages.
There are some special features of Apache HBase, which makes it special, such as,
Consistency, High Availability and many more. So, in this article “Best Features of HBase”,
Features of HBase
i. Consistency
We can use this HBase feature for high-speed requirements because it offers consistent reads
and writes.
ii. Atomic Read and Write
During one read or write process, all other processes are prevented from performing any read
or write operations this is what we call Atomic read and write. So, HBase offers atomic read
and write, on a row level.
iii. Sharding
In order to reduce I/O time and overhead, HBase offers automatic and manual splitting of
regions into smaller subregions, as soon as it reaches a threshold size.
iv. High Availability
Moreover, it offers LAN and WAN which supports failover and recovery. Basically, there is
a master server, at the core, which handles monitoring the region servers as well as all
metadata for the cluster.
v. Client API Through Java APIs, it also offers programmatic access.
vi. Scalability
In both linear and modular form, HBase supports scalability. In addition, we can say it is
linearly scalable.
vii. Hadoop/HDFS integration
HBase can run on top of other file systems as well as like Hadoop/HDFS integration.
viii. Distributed storage
This feature of HBase supports distributed storage such as HDFS.
ix. Data Replication
HBase supports data replication across clusters.
x. Failover Support and Load Sharing
By using multiple block allocation and replications, HDFS is internally distributed and
automatically recovered and HBase runs on top of HDFS, hence HBase is automatically
recovered. Also using RegionServer replication, this failover is facilitated.
xi. API Support
Because of Java APIs support in HBase, clients can access it easily.
xii. MapReduce Support
For parallel processing of large volume of data, HBase supports MapReduce.
xiii. Backup Support
In HBase “Backup support” means it supports back-up of Hadoop
MapReduce jobs in HBase tables.
xiv. Sorted Row Keys
It is possible to build an optimized request Since searching is done on the range of rows, and
HBase stores row keys in lexicographical orders, hence, by using these sorted row keys and
timestamp we can build an optimized request.
xv. Real-time Processing
In order to perform real-time query processing, HBase supports block cache and Bloom
filters.
xvi. Faster Lookups
While it comes to faster lookups, HBase internally uses Hash tables and offers random
access, as well as it stores the data in indexed HDFS files.
xvii. Type of Data
For both semi-structured as well as structured data, HBase supports well.
xviii. Schema-less
There is no concept of fixed columns schema in HBase because it is schema-less. Hence, it
defines only column families.
xix. High Throughput
Due to high security and easy management characteristics of HBase, it offers unprecedented
high write throughput.
xx. Easy to use Java API for Client Access
 While it comes to programmatic access, HBase offers easy usage Java API.
xxi. Thrift gateway and a REST-ful Web services
For non-Java front-ends, HBase supports Thrift and REST API.

What are the Features of HBase?

 ii. Atomic Read and Write. ...
 iii. Sharding. ...
 iv. High Availability. ...
 v. Client API. ...
 vi. Scalability. ...
 vii. Hadoop/HDFS integration. ...
 viii. Distributed storage. ...
ix. Data Replication.

what is Apache HBase used for?

Apache HBase is an open-source, NoSQL, distributed big data store. It enables random,
strictly consistent, real-time access to petabytes of data. HBase is very effective for handling
large, sparse datasets.

What type of NoSQL is Apache HBase?

Is HBase NoSQL? Yes, HBase is a NoSQL, or non-relational, database, which means it can
store unstructured data. That said, HBase is column-oriented, which means data lives within
individual columns indexed by a unique row key.22 Dec 2022

IS HBASE NOSQL?
Yes, HBase is a NoSQL, or non-relational, database, which means it can store unstructured
data. That said, HBase is column-oriented, which means data lives within individual columns
indexed by a unique row key
What is HBase advantages?
Let's start with the advantages of HBase: This type of distributed and non-relational databases
presents a large storage capacity. A table within HBase can consist of hundreds of millions of
rows and millions of columns. HBase allows professionals to search for different versions, as
well as historical data.

How are columns stored in HBase?

Storage Mechanism in HBase

The table schema defines only column families, which are the key value pairs. A table have
multiple column families and each column family can have any number of columns.
Subsequent column values are stored contiguously on the disk. Each cell value of the table
has a timestamp.
HBase is an open-source non-relational distributed database modeled after Google's Bigtable
and written in Java. It is developed as part of Apache Software Foundation's Apache Hadoop
project and runs on top of HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) or Alluxio, providing
Bigtable-like capabilities for Hadoop. That is, it provides a fault-tolerant way of storing large
quantities of sparse data (small amounts of information caught within a large collection of
empty or unimportant data, such as finding the 50 largest items in a group of 2 billion records
or finding the non-zero items representing less than 0.1% of a huge collection).
HBase features compression, in-memory operation, and Bloom filters on a per-column basis
as outlined in the original Bigtable paper. [2] Tables in HBase can serve as the input and output
for MapReduce jobs run in Hadoop, and may be accessed through the Java API but also
through REST, Avro or Thrift gateway APIs. HBase is a wide-column store and has been
widely adopted because of its lineage with Hadoop and HDFS. HBase runs on top of HDFS
and is well-suited for fast read and write operations on large datasets with high throughput
and low input/output latency.
HBase is not a direct replacement for a classic SQL database, however Apache Phoenix
project provides a SQL layer for HBase as well as JDBC driver that can be integrated with
various analytics and business intelligence applications. The Apache Trafodion project
provides a SQL query engine with ODBC and JDBC drivers and distributed ACID
transaction protection across multiple statements, tables and rows that use HBase as a
storage engine.
HBase is now serving several data-driven websites [3] but Facebook's Messaging Platform
migrated from HBase to MyRocks in 2018.[4][5] Unlike relational and traditional databases,
HBase does not support SQL scripting; instead the equivalent is written in Java, employing
similarity with a MapReduce application.
What are the three major components of HBase?
The HBase architecture comprises three major components, HMaster, Region Server, and
ZooKeeper.
What is HBase?
HBase is a column-oriented data storage architecture that is formed on top of HDFS to
overcome its limitations. It leverages the basic features of HDFS and builds upon it to
provide scalability by handling a large volume of the read and write requests in real-time.
Although the HBase architecture is a NoSQL database, it eases the process of maintaining
data by distributing it evenly across the cluster. This makes accessing and altering data in
the HBase data model quick.
What are the Components of the HBase Data Model?
Since the HBase data model is a NoSQL database, developers can easily read and write data
as and when required, making it faster than the HDFS architecture. It consists of the
following components:
1. HBase Tables: HBase architecture is column-oriented; hence the data is stored in
tables that are in table-based format.
2. RowKey: A RowKey is assigned to every set of data that is recorded. This makes it easy
to search for specific data in HBase tables.
3. Columns: Columns are the different attributes of a dataset. Each RowKey can have
unlimited columns.
4. Column Family: Column families are a combination of several columns. A single
request to read a column family gives access to all the columns in that family, making it
quicker and easier to read data.
5. Column Qualifiers: Column qualifiers are like column titles or attribute names in a
normal table.
6. Cell: It is a row-column tuple that is identified using RowKey and column qualifiers.
7. Timestamp: Whenever a data is stored in the HBase data model, it is stored with a
timestamp.
What are the Components of HBase Architecture?
The HBase architecture comprises three major components, HMaster, Region Server, and
ZooKeeper.
1. HMaster
HMaster operates similar to its name. It is the master that assigns regions to Region Server
(slave). HBase architecture uses an Auto Sharding process to maintain data. In this process
whenever an HBase table becomes too long, it is distributed by the system with the help of
HMaster. Some of the typical responsibilities of HMaster includes:
 Control the failover
 Manage the Region Server and Hadoop cluster
 Handle the DDL operations such as creating and deleting tables
 Manage changes in metadata operations
 Manage and assign regions to Region Servers
 Accept requests and sends it to the relevant Region Server
2. Region Server
Region Servers are the end nodes that handle all user requests. Several regions are
combined within a single Region Server. These regions contain all the rows between
specified keys. Handling user requests is a complex task to execute, and hence Region
Servers are further divided into four different components to make managing requests
seamless.
 Write-Ahead Log (WAL): WAL is attached to every Region Server and stores sort
of temporary data that is not yet committed to the drive.
 Block Cache: It is a read request cache; all the recently read data is stored in block
cache. Data that is not used often is automatically removed from the stock when it is
full.
 MemStore: It is a write cache responsible for storing data not written to the disk yet.
 HFile: The HFile stores all the actual data after the commitment.
3. ZooKeeper
ZooKeeper acts as the bridge across the communication of the HBase architecture. It is
responsible for keeping track of all the Region Servers and the regions that are within them.
Monitoring which Region Servers and HMaster are active and which have failed is also a
part of ZooKeeper’s duties. When it finds that a Server Region has failed, it triggers the
HMaster to take necessary actions. On the other hand, if the HMaster itself fails, it triggers
the inactive HMaster that becomes active after the alert. Every user and even the HMaster
need to go through ZooKeeper to access Region Servers and the data within. ZooKeeper
stores a.Meta file, which contains a list of all the Region Servers. ZooKeeper’s
responsibilities include:
 Establishing communication across the Hadoop cluster
 Maintaining configuration information
 Tracking Region Server and HMaster failure
 Maintaining Region Server information
How are Requests Handled in HBase architecture?
Now since we know the major components of the HBase architecture and their function,
let’s delve deep into how requests are handled throughout the architecture.
1. Commence the Search in HBase Architecture
The steps to initialize the search are:
1. The user retrieves the Meta table from ZooKeeper and then requests for the location
of the relevant Region Server.
2. Then the user will request the exact data from the Region Server with the help of
RowKey.
2. Write Mechanism in HBase Architecture
The steps to write in the HBase architecture are:
1. The client will first have to find the Region Server and then the data’s location for
altering it. (This step is involved only for converting data and not for writing fresh
information)
2. The actual write request begins at the WAL, where the client writes the data.
3. WAL transfers the data to MemStore and sends an acknowledgment to the user.
4. When MemStore is filled with data, it commits the data to HFile, where it is stored.

3. Read Mechanism in HBase Architecture

To read any data, the user will first have to access the relevant Region Server. Once the
Region Server is known, the other process includes:
1. The first scan is made at the read cache, which is the Block cache.
2. The next scan location is MemStore, which is the write cache.
3. If the data is not found in block cache or MemStore, the scanner will retrieve the data
from HFile.
How Does Data Recovery Operate in HBase Architecture?
The Hbase architecture breaks data through compaction and region split to reduce the data
load in the cluster. However, if there is a crash and recovery is needed, this is how it is
done:
1. The ZooKeeper triggers HMaster when a server failure occurs.
2. HMaster distributes crashed regions and WAL to active Region Servers.
3. These Region Servers re-executes WAL and builds the MemStore.
4. When all the Region Servers re-executes WAL, all the data along with the column
families are recovered.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What are the roles performed by HMaster in HBase?
HMaster plays an essential role in terms of performance. It maintains nodes in the cluster.
Admin performance is provided by HMaster, and it distributes services and assigns regions
to different region servers. HMaster focuses on controlling load balancing and failover to
handle the load over nodes present in the cluster. It takes responsibility when a client wants
to change any metadata operations. HMaster also checks the health status of region servers
and runs several background threads.
2. How does HBase work?
HBase is a high-reliability, high performance, column-oriented storage system that uses
HBase technology to build large-scale structured storage clusters on PC servers. HBase
stores and processes large amounts of data. It is made to handle large amounts of data
consisting of thousands of rows and columns. HBase is responsible for dividing the logical
table into multiple data blocks, HRegion, and stores them in HRegionServer. HMaster
manages all HRegionServers. It stores the mappings of data to HRegionServer. HBase is a
perfect choice for high-scale, real-time applications. It does not require a fixed schema, and
developers can add new data as and when required without having to conform to a
predefined model.
3. What is the difference between HBase and Hadoop?
The Hadoop Distributed File System is a distributed file system designed to store and run
on multiple machines that are connected to each other as nodes and provide data reliability.
HBase, on the other hand, is a top-level Apache project written in Java which fulfills the
need to read and write data in real-time. HDFS is highly fault-tolerant and cost-effective,
while HBase is partially tolerant and highly consistent. HDFS provides only sequential
read/write operations, whereas HBase supports random read and write operations into a file
system. HDFS gives high latency to access operations while HBase provides low latency
access to small amounts of data.
Apache HBase
HBase is a data model that is similar to Google’s big table. It is an open source, distributed
database developed by Apache software foundation written in Java. HBase is an essential
part of our Hadoop ecosystem. HBase runs on top of HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File
System). It can store massive amounts of data from terabytes to petabytes. It is column
oriented and horizontally scalable.

Applications of Apache HBase:

Real-time analytics: HBase is an excellent choice for real-time analytics applications that
require low-latency data access. It provides fast read and write performance and can handle
large amounts of data, making it suitable for real-time data analysis.
Social media applications: HBase is an ideal database for social media applications that
require high scalability and performance. It can handle the large volume of data generated
by social media platforms and provide real-time analytics capabilities.
IoT applications: HBase can be used for Internet of Things (IoT) applications that require
storing and processing large volumes of sensor data. HBase’s scalable architecture and fast
write performance make it a suitable choice for IoT applications that require low-latency
data processing.
Online transaction processing: HBase can be used as an online transaction processing
(OLTP) database, providing high availability, consistency, and low-latency data access.
HBase’s distributed architecture and automatic failover capabilities make it a good fit for
OLTP applications that require high availability.
Ad serving and clickstream analysis: HBase can be used to store and process large
volumes of clickstream data for ad serving and clickstream analysis. HBase’s column-
oriented data storage and indexing capabilities make it a good fit for these types of
applications.
Features of HBase –

1. It is linearly scalable across various nodes as well as modularly scalable, as it divided

across various nodes.

2. HBase provides consistent read and writes.

3. It provides atomic read and write means during one read or write process, all other
processes are prevented from performing any read or write operations.

4. It provides easy to use Java API for client access.

5. It supports Thrift and REST API for non-Java front ends which supports XML, Protobuf
and binary data encoding options.

6. It supports a Block Cache and Bloom Filters for real-time queries and for high volume
query optimization.

7. HBase provides automatic failure support between Region Servers.

8. It support for exporting metrics with the Hadoop metrics subsystem to files.

9. It doesn’t enforce relationship within your data.

10. It is a platform for storing and retrieving data with random access.

Facebook Messenger Platform was using Apache Cassandra but it shifted from Apache
Cassandra to HBase in November 2010. Facebook was trying to build a scalable and robust
infrastructure to handle set of services like messages, email, chat and SMS into a real time
conversation so that’s why HBase is best suited for that.
Advantages Of Apache HBase:
1. Scalability: HBase can handle extremely large datasets that can be distributed across a
cluster of machines. It is designed to scale horizontally by adding more nodes to the
cluster, which allows it to handle increasingly larger amounts of data.
2. High-performance: HBase is optimized for low-latency, high-throughput access to
data. It uses a distributed architecture that allows it to process large amounts of data in
parallel, which can result in faster query response times.
3. Flexible data model: HBase’s column-oriented data model allows for flexible schema
design and supports sparse datasets. This can make it easier to work with data that has a
variable or evolving schema.
4. Fault tolerance: HBase is designed to be fault-tolerant by replicating data across
multiple nodes in the cluster. This helps ensure that data is not lost in the event of a
hardware or network failure.
Disadvantages Of Apache HBase:
1. Complexity: HBase can be complex to set up and manage. It requires knowledge of the
Hadoop ecosystem and distributed systems concepts, which can be a steep learning
curve for some users.
2. Limited query language: HBase’s query language, HBase Shell, is not as feature-rich
as SQL. This can make it difficult to perform complex queries and analyses.
3. No support for transactions: HBase does not support transactions, which can make it
difficult to maintain data consistency in some use cases.
4. Not suitable for all use cases: HBase is best suited for use cases where high throughput
and low-latency access to large datasets is required. It may not be the best choice for
applications that require real-time processing or strong consistency guarantees