This is the official reference guide for the HBase version it ships with. Herein you will find either the definitive documentation on an HBase topic as of its standing when the referenced HBase version shipped, or it will point to the location in javadoc, JIRA or wiki where the pertinent information can be found. This reference guide is a work in progress. The source for this guide can be found at src/main/docbkx in a checkout of the hbase project. This reference guide is marked up using DocBook from which the the finished guide is generated as part of the 'site' build target. Run mvn site to generate this documentation. Amendments and improvements to the documentation are welcomed. Add a patch to an issue up in the HBase JIRA. If this is your first foray into the wonderful world of Distributed Computing, then you are in for some interesting times. First off, distributed systems are hard; making a distributed system hum requires a disparate skillset that spans systems (hardware and software) and networking. Your cluster' operation can hiccup because of any of a myriad set of reasons from bugs in HBase itself through misconfigurations -- misconfiguration of HBase but also operating system misconfigurations -- through to hardware problems whether it be a bug in your network card drivers or an underprovisioned RAM bus (to mention two recent examples of hardware issues that manifested as "HBase is slow"). You will also need to do a recalibration if up to this your computing has been bound to a single box. Here is one good starting point: Fallacies of Distributed Computing. That said, you are welcome. Its a fun place to be. Yours, the HBase Community.