diff --git a/ceilometer/storage/hbase/base.py b/ceilometer/storage/hbase/base.py
index f9192dd0..5f02c606 100644
--- a/ceilometer/storage/hbase/base.py
+++ b/ceilometer/storage/hbase/base.py
@@ -60,9 +60,10 @@ class Connection(object):
         """
         LOG.debug('connecting to HBase on %(host)s:%(port)s',
                   {'host': conf['host'], 'port': conf['port']})
-        return happybase.ConnectionPool(size=100, host=conf['host'],
-                                        port=conf['port'],
-                                        table_prefix=conf['table_prefix'])
+        return happybase.ConnectionPool(
+            size=100, host=conf['host'], port=conf['port'],
+            table_prefix=conf['table_prefix'],
+            table_prefix_separator=conf['table_prefix_separator'])
 
     @staticmethod
     def _parse_connection_url(url):
@@ -77,6 +78,8 @@ class Connection(object):
         result = netutils.urlsplit(url)
         opts['table_prefix'] = urlparse.parse_qs(
             result.query).get('table_prefix', [None])[0]
+        opts['table_prefix_separator'] = urlparse.parse_qs(
+            result.query).get('table_prefix_separator', ['_'])[0]
         opts['dbtype'] = result.scheme
         if ':' in result.netloc:
             opts['host'], port = result.netloc.split(':')
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/db.py b/ceilometer/tests/db.py
index 7e422ce1..7ea448b2 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/db.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/db.py
@@ -161,9 +161,10 @@ class HBaseManager(fixtures.Fixture):
 
     @property
     def url(self):
-        return '%s?table_prefix=%s' % (
+        return '%s?table_prefix=%s&table_prefix_separator=%s' % (
             self._url,
-            os.getenv("CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX", "test")
+            os.getenv("CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX", "test"),
+            os.getenv("CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX_SEPARATOR", "_")
         )
 
 
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/mocks.py b/ceilometer/tests/mocks.py
index f44682a4..5e33b08f 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/mocks.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/mocks.py
@@ -25,8 +25,10 @@ class MockHBaseTable(happybase.Table):
         # We create happybase Table with prefix from
         # CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX
         prefix = os.getenv("CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX", 'test')
+        separator = os.getenv(
+            "CEILOMETER_TEST_HBASE_TABLE_PREFIX_SEPARATOR", '_')
         super(MockHBaseTable, self).__init__(
-            "%s_%s" % (prefix, name),
+            "%s%s%s" % (prefix, separator, name),
             connection)
 
     def put(self, row, *args, **kwargs):
diff --git a/doc/source/install/manual.rst b/doc/source/install/manual.rst
index c14b91bc..5fe3fc19 100644
--- a/doc/source/install/manual.rst
+++ b/doc/source/install/manual.rst
@@ -79,7 +79,10 @@ HBase
 
     import happybase
 
-    conn = happybase.Connection(host=$hbase-thrift-server, port=9090, table_prefix=None)
+    conn = happybase.Connection(host=$hbase-thrift-server,
+                                port=9090,
+                                table_prefix=None,
+                                table_prefix_separator='_')
     print conn.tables() # this returns a list of HBase tables in your HBase server
 
    .. note::
@@ -97,6 +100,16 @@ HBase
     [database]
     connection = hbase://hbase-thrift-host:9090
 
+   It is possible to customize happybase's `table_prefix` and `table_prefix_separator`
+   via query string. By default `table_prefix` is not set and `table_prefix_separator`
+   is '_'. When `table_prefix` is not specified `table_prefix_separator` is not taken
+   into account. E.g. the resource table in the default case will be 'resource' while
+   with `table_prefix` set to 'ceilo' and `table_prefix_separator` to '.' the resulting
+   table will be 'ceilo.resource'. For this second case this is the database connection
+   configuration::
+
+    [database]
+    connection = hbase://hbase-thrift-host:9090?table_prefix=ceilo&table_prefix_separator=.
 
 .. _HappyBase: http://happybase.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html#
 .. _MongoDB: http://www.mongodb.org/