Featured resource
2025 Tech Upskilling Playbook
Tech Upskilling Playbook

Build future-ready tech teams and hit key business milestones with seven proven plays from industry leaders.

Check it out
  • Lab
    • Libraries: If you want this lab, consider one of these libraries.
    • Cloud
    • Data
Labs

Connecting to Cloud Bigtable with HBase Shell

Cloud Bigtable is a fully managed NoSQL database service designed to handle massive amounts of information. One of Cloud Bigtable’s true strengths is its adherence to support for the open-source industry standard HBase API. In this hands-on lab, you’ll configure database instances and clusters for Cloud Bigtable in the console. Then you'll use HBase shell commands to create a schema and populate the table with data.

Lab platform
Lab Info
Level
Beginner
Last updated
Sep 23, 2025
Duration
30m

Contact sales

By filling out this form and clicking submit, you acknowledge our privacy policy.
Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Enable API
    1. From the main navigation menu, choose APIs & Services. Then select Library.
    2. In the search field, enter "Bigtable".
    3. Select the Cloud Bigtable Table Admin API card.
    4. Click Enable.
  2. Challenge

    Create Bigtable Instance
    1. From the main navigation, choose Bigtable in the Storage section.
    2. Choose Create instance.
    3. Set the following fields:
      • Name: "la-data-hbase"
      • Instance type: Development
      • Storage type: HDD
      • Cluster Region: us-east1
      • Cluster Zone: us-east-1d
    4. Click Done and then Create.
  3. Challenge

    Install and Start HBase Shell
    1. Activate the Cloud Shell by clicking its icon in the top row.

    2. In the Cloud Shell, clone an existing repository from GitHub for Google Cloud Platform from https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/cloud-bigtable-examples.git and checkout the "ee436eb" branch.

    3. Install and set your Cloud Shell instance to use Java version 8 for compatibility with this version of HBase.

    4. Start the HBase shell.

  4. Challenge

    Create Data Table and Column Family
    1. Create a Bigtable table "la-table" with a column family "offerings".
    2. Review the results.
  5. Challenge

    Define Table Structure and Add Data
    1. Create the table qualifier and first cell of the Bigtable table.
    2. View the data in the table.
    3. Add a second cell to the same column family.
    4. Review results.
  6. Challenge

    Delete Bigtable Instance
    1. From the console, select the Bigtable instance.
    2. Choose Delete instance.
About the author

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

Real skill practice before real-world application

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

Learn by doing

Engage hands-on with the tools and technologies you’re learning. You pick the skill, we provide the credentials and environment.

Follow your guide

All labs have detailed instructions and objectives, guiding you through the learning process and ensuring you understand every step.

Turn time into mastery

On average, you retain 75% more of your learning if you take time to practice. Hands-on labs set you up for success to make those skills stick.

Get started with Pluralsight