Using HBase replication

If your data is already in an HBase cluster, replication is useful for getting the data into additional HBase clusters.

Common replication topologies
You must learn about the common replication topologies before you configure and deploy HBase replication.
Notes about replication
You must consider a few things before using HBase replication.
Replication requirements
Before configuring replication, make sure your environment meets all requirements.
Deploy HBase replication
Once you have source and destination clusters, you can enable and configure HBase replication to use it as your data import method.
Configure secure replication
Secure replication configuration is the same whether your clusters are all in the same realm or not, with the exception of the last step.
Configure bulk load replication
Bulk loading is the process of preparing and loading HFiles directly into HBase RegionServers bypassing the write path. If you bulk load data into HBase frequently and want to replicate this data, you must configure and use bulk load replication.
Create empty table on the destination cluster
You can create table on the destination cluster by extracting the schema using HBase Shell.
Disable replication at the peer level
You can disable replication for a specific peer.
Stop replication in an emergency
If replication is causing serious problems, you can stop it while the clusters are running.
Initiate replication when data already exist
You can initiate replication when data already exist by taking advantage of the accumulation that happens when a replication peer is disabled.
Effects of WAL rolling on replication
Adding and removing peer clusters with unpredictable WAL rolling occurring have effects on the replication.
Configuring secure HBase replication
You must configure cross realm support for Kerberos, ZooKeeper, and Hadoop to configure secure HBase replication.
Restore data from a replica
Recover HBase data from a replicated cluster in a disaster recovery scenario.
Verify that replication works
Confirm data has been replicated from a source cluster to a remote destination cluster.
Replication caveats
Note these caveats when you use HBase replication.