title: Trouble using hbase from java on Amazon EMR
body: <p>So Im trying to query my hbase cluster on Amazon ec2 using a custom jar i launch as a MapReduce step.  Im my jar (inside the map function) I call Hbase as so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public void map( Text key, BytesWritable value, Context contex ) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
      Configuration conf = HBaseConfiguration.create();
      HTable table = new HTable(conf, "tablename");
        ...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the problem is that when it gets to that HTable line and tries to connect to hbase, the step fails and I get the following errors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>2014-02-28 18:00:49,936 INFO [main] org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper: Initiating client connection, connectString=localhost:2181 sessionTimeout=180000 watcher=hconnection
  2014-02-28 18:00:49,974 INFO [main] org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.RecoverableZooKeeper: The identifier of this process is 5119@ip-10-0-35-130.ec2.internal
  2014-02-28 18:00:49,998 INFO [main-SendThread(localhost:2181)] org.apache.zookeeper.ClientCnxn: Opening socket connection to server localhost/127.0.0.1:2181. Will not attempt to authenticate using SASL (unknown error)
  2014-02-28 18:00:50,005 WARN [main-SendThread(localhost:2181)] org.apache.zookeeper.ClientCnxn: Session 0x0 for server null, unexpected error, closing socket connection and attempting reconnect
  java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
  
        ...
  
  2014-02-28 18:01:05,542 WARN [main] org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.RecoverableZooKeeper: Possibly transient ZooKeeper exception: org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException$ConnectionLossException: KeeperErrorCode = ConnectionLoss for /hbase/hbaseid
  2014-02-28 18:01:05,542 ERROR [main] org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.RecoverableZooKeeper: ZooKeeper exists failed after 3 retries
  2014-02-28 18:01:05,542 WARN [main] org.apache.hadoop.hbase.zookeeper.ZKUtil: hconnection Unable to set watcher on znode (/hbase/hbaseid)
  org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException$ConnectionLossException: KeeperErrorCode = ConnectionLoss for /hbase/hbaseid
  
        ... and on and on
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I can use the hbase shell just fine, and can query data and everything from the shell.  I have no clue where to start and I've been googling for hours with no luck.  Most of the problems like this on the internet dont talk about Amazon specific fixes.  I thought zookeeper and hbase should automatically be connected properly by the amazon bootstrap.</p>
  
  <p>Im using the hbase 0.94.17 jar and amazon is running hbase 0.94.7 im pretty sure thats not the problem, Im guessing its more me not setting up the Java code correctly.  If anyone can help with this itd be greatly appreciated.Thanks</p>