...

1. Install HBase, you want HBase 0.98 as that’s what we use internally.
2. Setup HBase, http://hbase.apache.org/book.html#quickstart  I run it in stand alone mode, so you have to set a couple of values in hbase-site.xml for this to work.
3. Set HADOOP_HOME if you’re not in a cluster where hadoop is already on your path.
4. Start HBase: $HBASE_HOME/bin/start-hbase.sh
5. Set it up so that HBase jars and conf file are picked up by Hive
1. export HIVE_AUX_JARS_PATH=$HBASE_HOME/lib/
2. export AUX_CLASSPATH=$HBASE_HOME/conf
6. Create the metastore tables in HBase: hive --service hbaseschematool install
7. Configure Hive to use HBase as its metastore, in hive-site.xml:

...

Now start Hive as normal, all should just work.

hive --service hbaseschematool install

Notes

• Currently (as of Apr 8 2005) we have not tested the HBase metastore with the metastore service.  We don't know if it works or not.  We have tested it with the command line client and HiveServer2.
• Not all Hive operations have been tested.  Insert, select, create table, drop table, create database, add partition, drop partition have been tested.  Other features may not work.  

 creates all the hbase tables.

Design Docs

Overall Approach

...