[SOLVED] How to delete all the data and metadata in HBase WITHOUT uninstalling and reinstalling?

How to delete all the data and metadata in HBase WITHOUT uninstalling and reinstalling?

Running HBase in pseudo-distributed mode on my dev box. Cloudera CDH4. CentOS.

Somehow, my HBase installation has gotten totally corrupted. I ran this command :

./bin/hbase hbck -repairHoles

and the readout ended with this :

Summary:
  -ROOT- is okay.
    Number of regions: 1
    Deployed on:  localhost.localdomain,60020,1340917622717
  .META. is okay.
    Number of regions: 1
    Deployed on:  localhost.localdomain,60020,1340917622717
5 inconsistencies detected.

Looking at the documentation here :

http://hbase.apache.org/book/apbs03.html

it says this : If inconsistencies still remain after these steps, you most likely have table integrity problems related to orphaned or overlapping regions.

Basically, I have no interest in digging in and trying to fix this. I want to completely nuke my HBase installation and start over fresh and clean. HOWEVER, I do not want to do an uninstall/reinstall, because we use Cloudera, and I don't want to mess with their whole weird configuration and setup.

Is there a way to delete all the data and metadata in HBase WITHOUT uninstalling and reinstalling?

Solution

I do not recommend this unless you are at the point of no return.

I do not know if this is the correct way to nuke the hbase data, but when I run into such inconsistencies I usually delete all the contents the directory which is holding hbase data. So the place would be look for the following property in hbase-site.xml
hbase.rootdir

I have not used this approach once the system got stable on my local dev machine. Usually if I shut down the cluster properly before shutting down the system, then I do not run into such problems.