Does your user have permissions? See also: https://community.hortonworks.com/questions/47197/phoenix-backup.html https://docs.hortonworks.com/HDPDocuments/HDP2/HDP-2.6.4/bk_data-access/content/ch_hbase_bar.html You have to specify table names, so specify the SYSTEM ones as well. Creating and Maintaining a Complete Backup Image The first step in running the backup-and-restore utilities is to perform a full backup and to store the data in a separate image from the source. At a minimum, you must do this to get a baseline before you can rely on incremental backups. Important Tip Record the backup ID that appears at the end of a successful backup. In case the source cluster fails and you need to recover the dataset with a restore operation, having the backup ID readily available can save time. ... View more