How to Rename a Table in HBase?

Solution

Rename a table using the snapshot function. For details, visit the HBase official website.

141. Table Rename

In versions 0.90.x of hbase and earlier, we had a simple script that would rename the hdfs table directory and then do an edit of the hbase:meta table replacing all mentions of the old table name with the new. The script was called ./bin/rename_table.rb. The script was deprecated and removed mostly because it was unmaintained and the operation performed by the script was brutal.

As of hbase 0.94.x, you can use the snapshot facility renaming a table. Here is how you would do it using the hbase shell:

hbase shell> disable 'tableName'
hbase shell> snapshot 'tableName', 'tableSnapshot'
hbase shell> clone_snapshot 'tableSnapshot', 'newTableName'
hbase shell> delete_snapshot 'tableSnapshot'
hbase shell> drop 'tableName'

Alternatively, this is what it would look like as a code:

void rename(Admin admin, String oldTableName, TableName newTableName) {
  String snapshotName = randomName();
  admin.disableTable(oldTableName);
  admin.snapshot(snapshotName, oldTableName);
  admin.cloneSnapshot(snapshotName, newTableName);
  admin.deleteSnapshot(snapshotName);
  admin.deleteTable(oldTableName);
}