public static boolean hasMinimumVersion(HBaseProtos.VersionInfo versionInfo, int major,
    int minor) {
    if (versionInfo != null) {
      if (versionInfo.hasVersionMajor() && versionInfo.hasVersionMinor()) {
        int clientMajor = versionInfo.getVersionMajor();
        if (clientMajor != major) {
          return clientMajor > major;
        }
        int clientMinor = versionInfo.getVersionMinor();
        return clientMinor >= minor;
      }
      try {
        final String[] components = getVersionComponents(versionInfo);

        int clientMajor = components.length > 0 ? Integer.parseInt(components[0]) : 0;
        if (clientMajor != major) {
          return clientMajor > major;
        }

        int clientMinor = components.length > 1 ? Integer.parseInt(components[1]) : 0;
        return clientMinor >= minor;
      } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
        return false;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }
Class to help with parsing the version info.
hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/VersionInfoUtil.java