Hbase table is stuck in "Disabling" state. Neither ENABLED nor DISABLED

[#1]

This is just a knowledge sharing article. I had faced this issue in production and took me a day to resolve it.

The workaround that I'm sharing will help you in getting your table back online in "Enabled" without deleting Zookeeper Hbase table znode or any data as a matter of fact..

Here are steps to resolve it.

1. Run a "get" command against hbase:meta for the affected table

hbase(main):003:0> get 'hbase:meta', '<AFFECTED_TABLE_NAME>', 'table:state' COLUMN                                   CELL  table:state                             timestamp=1551456805377, value=\x08\x02

2. Notice the above "value". Its pointing to \x08\x02 which is wrong. The value should either be \x08\x00 (Enabled) or \x08\x01 (Disabled)

3. Edit the value manually.

hbase(main):003:0> put 'hbase:meta','<AFFECTED_TABLE_NAME>','table:state',"\b\0"

Click here for more information on "Control Characters"

4. Verify the same.

hbase(main):003:0> get 'hbase:meta', '<AFFECTED_TABLE_NAME>', 'table:state'

The "value" now should be \x08\x00

Post this, again run disable <table_name> and enable <table_name> just for the love of sanity check in hbase shell and you are done with the issue.

[#2]

thanx   a lot,this  really helpful. it works.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Hello @sheshk11 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge (Knowledge Article) on managing the DISABLING Table. As @tencentemr mentioned, It has been helpful. Few other details I wish to add:

1. Using the Link [1] HBCK setTableState to perform the same on HBase v2.x. The advantage of using the same is to ensure the manual intervention is avoided to avoid any unintended HBase Metadata manipulation.

2. In certain cases, the Regions belonging to the Table would be in Transition as well. If we are Disabling the Table, It's best to review the RegionState for the Table as well. Link [1] HBCK setRegionState can assist here. 

As the Post is a KA, I shall mark the same as Resolved. Thank You for posting the same for assisting fellow Community Members.

- Smarak

[1] https://github.com/apache/hbase-operator-tools/tree/master/hbase-hbck2