How to add new column family to an existing HBase table?

Question

I created a table by

create 'tablename', 'columnfamily1'

Now is it possible to add another column family 'columnfamily2'? What is the method?

Take a look of this: https://hbase.apache.org/apidocs/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.html#addColumn%28byte[],%20org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor%29 — candlejack, Mar 27 '15 at 00:39

score 36 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '15 at 00:45

36

It seems

alter 'tablename', 'columnfamily2'

does the trick. One may, disable 'tablename' first. However, it works fine even if enabled.

hbase(main):015:0> alter 'tablename', {NAME=> 'columnfamily2'}
Updating all regions with the new schema...
0/1 regions updated.
1/1 regions updated.
Done.

answered Mar 27 '15 at 00:45

proutray

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Disabling & Enabling the table is required if "base.online.schema.update.enable" not set to "true" – Anil Gupta Mar 27 '15 at 06:00

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '15 at 11:07

8

alter 'tablename', NAME => 'newcolumnfamily', VERSIONS => 50

you can specify various properties of the new column family separated by a comma (,)

answered Sep 19 '15 at 11:07

nikoo28

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 25 '19 at 08:33

1

If you consider some GUI solutions than you can easily do it with HAdmin. Simply press the "+" button in the "Alter table" page and add your new column family with all settings you need.

answered Feb 25 '19 at 08:33

grbulat

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How to add new column family to an existing HBase table?

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