Configuring the HBase Canary

The HBase canary is an optional service that periodically checks that a RegionServer is alive. This canary is different from the Cloudera Service Monitoring canary and is provided by the HBase service. The HBase canary is disabled by default. After enabling the canary, you can configure several different thresholds and intervals relating to it, as well as exclude certain tables from the canary checks. The canary works on Kerberos-enabled clusters if you have the HBase client configured to use Kerberos.

Configure the HBase Canary Using Cloudera Manager

Minimum Required Role: Full Administrator

  1. Go to the HBase service.
  2. Click the Configuration tab.
  3. Select Scope > HBase or HBase Service-Wide.
  4. Select Category > Monitoring.
  5. Locate the HBase Canary property or search for it by typing its name in the Search box. Several properties have Canary in the property name.
  6. Select the checkbox.
  7. Review other HBase Canary properties to configure the specific behavior of the canary.

    If more than one role group applies to this configuration, edit the value for the appropriate role group. See Modifying Configuration Properties.

  8. Click Save Changes to commit the changes.
  9. Restart the role.
  10. Restart the service.

Configure the HBase Canary Using the Command Line

The HBase canary is a Java class. To run it from the command line, in the foreground, issue a command similar to the following, as the HBase user: 
$ /usr/bin/hbase org.apache.hadoop.hbase.tool.Canary
To start the canary in the background, add the --daemon option. You can also use this option in your HBase startup scripts. 
$ /usr/bin/hbase org.apache.hadoop.hbase.tool.Canary --daemon
The canary has many options. To see usage instructions, add the --help parameter: 
$ /usr/bin/hbase org.apache.hadoop.hbase.tool.Canary --help