[HBASE-22377] Provide API to check the existence of a namespace which does not require ADMIN permissions

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.3.2
• Fix Version/s: 3.0.0-alpha-1, 1.5.0, 2.3.0
• Hadoop Flags: Reviewed

Release Note

This change adds the new method listNamespaces to the Admin interface, which can be used to retrieve a list of the namespaces present in the schema as an unprivileged operation. Formerly the only available method for accomplishing this was listNamespaceDescriptors, which requires GLOBAL CREATE or ADMIN permissions.

• Assignee: Andrew Kyle Purtell
• Reporter: Chinmay Kulkarni
• Created: 07/May/19 21:07
• Updated: 24/Jun/22 19:09
• Resolved: 14/May/19 20:37

Description

Currently, to check the existence of a namespace, clients can use HBaseAdmin#getNamespaceDescriptor. eEventually on the server-side, this calls AccessController#preGetNamespaceDescriptor which tries to acquire ADMIN permissions for that namespace.

We should have an API for clients to be able to check the existence of a namespace, without necessarily obtaining the namespace descriptor. Such an API would not require ADMIN permissions.

Issue Links

• is depended upon by: PHOENIX-5274 ConnectionQueryServiceImpl#ensureNamespaceCreated and ensureTableCreated should use HBase APIs that do not require ADMIN permissions for existence checks
• relates to: HBASE-22436 Implement listNamespaces method for AsyncAdmin
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #225