

Tips for running HBase on low-memory EC2 - gsabo
http://dev.hubspot.com/blog/hbase-tutorial-5-tips-for-running-on-low-memory-ec2?utm_campaign=hbase&utm_medium=hackernews&utm_source=social

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necubi
Thanks for writing this. We're also running a large HBase cluster on EC2 and
frustrated with the poor suitability of instance offering (there's literally
nothing cost effective for HBase in the current generation).

I am curious why you chose c1.xlarge over m1.xlarge, which is cheaper and has
double the memory. In my experience HBase tends to be more memory bound than
CPU bound.

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bbeaudreault
We did initially use m1.xlarge, a few years ago when we first started with
HBase. I no longer have the hard numbers available, but while I agree HBase is
memory hungry, our m1.xlarge servers were constantly pegged for CPU. For a
while we ran both types, and eventually phased out the m1.xlarges entirely.

We run pretty frequent compactions due to our read and write patterns, so of
course if you do not need to compact as often you might get much better
mileage out of the m1.xlarge.

