Index: src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKConfig.java =================================================================== --- src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKConfig.java (revision 1305081) +++ src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKConfig.java (working copy) @@ -163,7 +163,8 @@ } // Special case for 'hbase.cluster.distributed' property being 'true' if (key.startsWith("server.")) { - if (conf.get(HConstants.CLUSTER_DISTRIBUTED).equals(HConstants.CLUSTER_IS_DISTRIBUTED) + if (conf.get(HConstants.CLUSTER_DISTRIBUTED, HConstants.DEFAULT_CLUSTER_DISTRIBUTED). + equals(HConstants.CLUSTER_IS_DISTRIBUTED) && value.startsWith("localhost")) { String msg = "The server in zoo.cfg cannot be set to localhost " + "in a fully-distributed setup because it won't be reachable. " + Index: src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java =================================================================== --- src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java (revision 1305081) +++ src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HConstants.java (working copy) @@ -78,6 +78,9 @@ /** Cluster is fully-distributed */ public static final String CLUSTER_IS_DISTRIBUTED = "true"; + /** Default value for cluster distributed mode */ + public static final String DEFAULT_CLUSTER_DISTRIBUTED = CLUSTER_IS_LOCAL; + /** default host address */ public static final String DEFAULT_HOST = "0.0.0.0";