Row locks do not apply to reads, only updates. They prevent two applications from updating the same row simultaneously. There is no other locking mechanism in HBase. (It follows Bigtable in this regard. See http://labs.google.com/papers/bigtable.html )
There has been some discussion about adding a conditional write (i.e. only completes successfully if the current value of the cell being updated has value x), but noone has thought it important enough to enter an enhancement request on the HBase Jira: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE By the way, you will get a more timely response to HBase questions if you address them to the hbase mailing list: [email protected] --- Jim Kellerman, Senior Engineer; Powerset > -----Original Message----- > From: Thomas Thevis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 4:22 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: ID Service with HBase? > > Hello list readers, > > I'd like to perform mass data operations resulting in several > output files with cross-references between lines in different > files. For this purpose, I want to use a kind of ID service > and I wonder whether I could use HBase for this task. > However, until now I was not able to use the HBase locking > mechanism in a way that newly created IDs are unique. > > The setup: > - each Mapper has its own instance of an IDSevice implementation > - each IDService instance has its own reference to the ID > table in the HBase > > The code snippet which is used to return and update IDs: > [code] > final String columnName = this.config.get(ID_COLUMN_ID); > final Text column = new Text(columnName); final String > tableName = this.config.get(ID_SERVICE_TABLE_ID); > final HTable table = new HTable(this.config, new > Text(tableName)); final Text rowName = new Text(namespace); > final long startValue; > > final long lockid = table.startUpdate(rowName); final byte[] > bytes = table.get(rowName, column); if (bytes == null) { > startValue = 0; > } else { > final ByteArrayInputStream byteArrayInputStream > = new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes); > final LongWritable longWritable = new LongWritable(); > longWritable.readFields(new > DataInputStream(byteArrayInputStream)); > startValue = longWritable.get(); > } > final long stopValue = startValue + size; table.put(lockid, > column, new LongWritable(stopValue)); table.commit(lockid); [/code] > > As stated above, resulting IDs are not unique, about a > quarter of all created IDs appears several times. > Now my question: Do I use the locking mechanism the wrong way > or is my approach to use HBase locking and synchronizing for > this task completely wrong? > > Thanks, > > Thomas > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.0/1381 - Release > Date: 4/16/2008 9:34 AM > > No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.0/1381 - Release Date: 4/16/2008 9:34 AM
