Question

How can Flume be used with HBase?

Select the correct Answer from below

a) HBaseSink

b) AsyncHBaseSink

c) Both A and B

d) None of these

Answer 1

Apache Flume can be used with HBase using one of the two HBase sinks –

HBaseSink (org.apache.flume.sink.hbase.HBaseSink) supports secure HBase clusters and also the novel HBase IPC that was introduced in the version HBase 0.96.

AsyncHBaseSink (org.apache.flume.sink.hbase.AsyncHBaseSink) has better performance than HBase sink as it can easily make non-blocking calls to HBase.

Working of the HBaseSink –

In HBaseSink, a Flume Event is converted into HBase Increments or Puts. Serializer implements the HBaseEventSerializer which is then instantiated when the sink starts. For every event, sink calls the initialize method in the serializer which then translates the Flume Event into HBase increments and puts to be sent to HBase cluster.

Working of the AsyncHBaseSink-

AsyncHBaseSink implements the AsyncHBaseEventSerializer. The initialize method is called only once by the sink when it starts. Sink invokes the setEvent method and then makes calls to the getIncrements and getActions methods just similar to HBase sink. When the sink stops, the cleanUp method is called by the serializer.