Perform the following steps for installing Java 1.7 or later:

The local or standalone mode means running all HBase services in just one Java process. Setting up HBase in the local mode is the easiest way to get started with HBase and can be used to explore further or for local development. The only step required is to download the recent release of HBase and unpack the archive (.tar) in some directory such as /opt. Perform the following steps to set up HBase in the local mode:

HBase also comes with a preinstalled web-based management console that can be accessed using http://localhost:60010. By default, it is deployed on HBase's Master host at port 60010. This UI provides information about various components such as region servers, tables, running tasks, logs, and so on, as shown in the following screenshot:

The HBase tables and monitored tasks are shown in the following screenshot:

The following screenshot displays information about the HBase attributes, provided by the UI:

Once the HBase setup is done correctly, the following directories are created in a local filesystem, as shown in the following screenshot:

The standalone/local mode is only useful for basic operations and is not at all suitable for real-world workloads. In the pseudo-distributed mode, all HBase services (HMaster, HRegionServer, and Zookeeper) run as separate Java processes on a single machine. This mode can be useful during the testing phase.

In the pseudo-distributed mode, HDFS setup is another prerequisite (HDFS setup also needs to be present in pseudo-distributed mode). After setting up Hadoop and downloading the HBase binary, edit the conf/hbase-site.xml configuration file. Also, set the HBase in the running mode by assigning a value to the property key named hbase.cluster.distributed, as well as the data storage pointer to the running Hadoop HDFS instance by assigning a value to the property key named hbase.rootdir:

<property>
      <name>hbase.cluster.distributed</name>
      <value>true</value>
</property>

<property>
   <name>hbase.rootdir</name>
<value>hdfs://localhost:9000/hbase</value>
</property>

Once the settings are done, we can use the following command to start HBase:

[root@localhost opt]# cd /opt/myhbase/hbase-0.96.2-hadoop2
[root@localhost hbase-0.96.2-hadoop2]# bin/start-hbase.sh

Once HBase is configured correctly, the jps command should show the HMaster and HRegionServer processes running along with the Hadoop processes. Use the hadoop fs command in Hadoop's bin/ directory to list the directories created in HDFS as follows:

[root@localhost opt]# hadoop fs -ls /hbase
Found 7 items
drwxr-xr-x   - hbase users          0 2014-10-20 14:28 /hbase/.tmp
drwxr-xr-x   - hbase users          0 2014-10-20 17:29 /hbase/WALs
drwxr-xr-x   - hbase users          0 2014-10-20 14:38 /hbase/corrupt
drwxr-xr-x   - hbase users          0 2014-10-20 14:28 /hbase/data
-rw-r--r--   3 hbase users         42 2014-10-20 14:21 /hbase/hbase.id
-rw-r--r--   3 hbase users          7 2014-10-20 14:21 /hbase/hbase.version
drwxr-xr-x   - hbase users          0 2014-10-20 27:29 /hbase/oldWALs

A pseudo-distributed mode, where all the HBase services (HMaster, HRegionServer, and Zookeeper) run as separate Java processes on a single machine, is preferred for a local development environment or test environment. However, for a production environment, fully distributed mode is a must. In the fully distributed mode, an HBase cluster is set up on multiple nodes and HBase services run on these different cluster nodes. To enable fully distributed mode, add the hbase.cluster.distributed property to conf/hbase-site.xml and set it to true; also point the hbase.rootdir HBase to the HDFS node:

<property>
   <name>hbase.rootdir</name>
   <value>hdfs://<HDFSNameNodeHost>:9000/hbase</value>
</property>
<property>
   <name>hbase.cluster.distributed</name>
   <value>true<value>
</property>

For understanding this mode in depth, the building blocks that play a vital role in a fully distributed HBase cluster need to be understood well. The next section will give you a glimpse of what these components are.