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From: Greg Cottman <greg.cottman@quest.com>
To: "hbase-user@hadoop.apache.org" <hbase-user@hadoop.apache.org>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:43:05 -0800
Subject: RE: Impromptu HBase survey
Thread-Topic: Impromptu HBase survey
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OK.  I'll just move this e-mail to the "Torpid Disinterest" folder.  :'-(

Thanks to the three people who replied but I don't think we have enough for=
 a statistically sound sample.

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Cottman [mailto:greg.cottman@quest.com]=20
Sent: Thursday, 5 November 2009 5:39 PM
To: hbase-user@hadoop.apache.org
Subject: Impromptu HBase survey

Hi everyone,


I was mulling over the question from Jason Strutz at Cumulus Code before, a=
nd wondering what sort of data he was storing in HBase.  Then it occurred t=
o me that this question may have broad appeal to many HBase users who are i=
nterested in "what" other developers are doing, as opposed to the usual "ho=
w" questions.


To this end, I would invite people who feel like sharing to give me a parag=
raph or two on what they are doing with HBase.  Of course, I don't want any=
one to give away their eleven secret herbs and spices or tell me what Ingre=
dient X is.  :-)  I am more interested in metadata and semantics.


To give you an idea of questions that I wonder about:

*        Are you using a natural or synthetic key?

*        Are you using HBase index tables or maintaining your own?

*        Do you have multiple data tables in your HBase server?

*        How many rows of data are in each HBase table?

*        What type of data are you storing in each record?

*        Are you using column families to localize data or store name/value=
 pairs?

*        Are there columns like name, address, etc., that are present in ea=
ch row?

*        Are you running HBase on your own servers or on Amazon EC2?

*        Are you using Hadoop to run map/reduce functions against HBase?

*        How does your client interact with HBase?  Java API, REST, Stargat=
e, Thrift, other (please specify), etc.


Anyone who is interested in responding can do so to the list or directly to=
 me.  I will keep your responses but not your name or company.  Feel free t=
o answer some or all of the questions, or add your own information that you=
 feel is pertinent to how you are using HBase.  I will give it a week and t=
hen collate the responses into an integrated summary that I will publish ba=
ck to this list.


I should declare that I have no official HBase standing.  I'm just very cur=
ious about NoSQL databases as an emerging technology, and HBase in particul=
ar.  The 'net shows a general consensus is that HBase is an early NoSQL lea=
der but no-one discusses specifics.  Some empirical data would be very inte=
resting.


Thanks in advance,

Greg.


Greg Cottman

Technical Architect

Quest Software, Australia

Tel: +61 3 9811 8057