How HBase compactions affect clients?

Question

I do know basic of hbase compaction i.e. how it works under the hood on HFiles. But, I am curious to know that what happens to other services during both the compactions (minor & major), will that be downtime for hbase? i.e. at the time of compaction what if a client run a get or put query? Will that query be responded or hangs during the compaction?

Any response will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vikash

Answer 1

You'll find some answers in the Editors' documentation (HDP, CDH) but to summarize :

• No downtime at all
• Minor compactions have (nearly) no impact on clients
• Major compactions impact the performances and slow down the GET/PUT so recommandation is to schedule them during off-peak hours.