Although this was answered earlier over a support ticket, updating the details here for any future visitor. Phoenix in HDP 2.5 and above includes PHOENIX-1734 - where the Phoenix local indexes are co-located in the same region where the corresponding data exists, although on a different column family. In the above explain plan, the output actually tells that the local index is in use: "RANGE SCAN OVER TEST_TABLE [1,'v1-2']" --> Means its a range scan (instead of a full table scan otherwise), on the data table using the local index (type 1 = local index) and the given value of "v1-2". ... View more