Index: src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java =================================================================== --- src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java (revision 1329922) +++ src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java (working copy) @@ -468,11 +468,11 @@ // Verify there are no duplicate split keys byte [] lastKey = null; for(byte [] splitKey : splitKeys) { - if (Bytes.compareTo(splitKey, HConstants.EMPTY_BYTE_ARRAY) == 0) { + if (splitKeys.length == 1 && Bytes.compareTo(splitKey, HConstants.EMPTY_BYTE_ARRAY) == 0) { throw new IllegalArgumentException( - "Empty split key must not be passed in the split keys."); + "Empty split key must not be passed in the split keys alone."); } - if(lastKey != null && Bytes.equals(splitKey, lastKey)) { + if (lastKey != null && Bytes.equals(splitKey, lastKey)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("All split keys must be unique, " + "found duplicate: " + Bytes.toStringBinary(splitKey) + ", " + Bytes.toStringBinary(lastKey));