Using Apache Phoenix to Store and Access Data

You can create and interact with Apache HBase tables in the form of typical DDL/DML statements through its standard JDBC API. Apache Phoenix JDBC driver can be easily embedded in any app that supports JDBC.

Apache Phoenix has two kinds of JDBC drivers, "thick" and "thin". The "thick" driver communicates directly with Apache ZooKeeper and Apache HBase and the "thin" client communicates with Apache HBase through Phoenix Query Server.

To connect to Apache Phoenix using the "thick" JDBC driver, you must use the JDBC URL syntax as shown here: jdbc:phoenix:[comma-separated ZooKeeper Quorum [:port [:hbase root znode [:kerberos_principal [:the path to kerberos keytab] ] ] ]

Example URL 
jdbc:phoenix:zookeeper1.domain,zookeeper2.domain,
zookeeper3.domain:2181:/hbase:phoenix@EXAMPLE.COM:/etc/security/keytabs/phoenix.keytab

If you are running your client on the Apache Phoenix cluster, you do not have to specify the ZooKeeper parameter; the ZooKeeper quorum is retrieved automatically from hbase-site.xml configuration file.

To connect to Apache Phoenix using the "thin" client, see Connecting to PQS.