Installing and Configuring Cassandra

Installing Cassandra

Complete this procedure for each Cassandra node.

Prerequisites

• For new deployments, we recommend Cassandra 2.2. The procedures below are meant to serve as a quick guide on how to do this. For more detailed information, see the Cassandra 2.2 documentation.
• You have installed the latest Java SE Development Toolkit 8. For more information, refer to the Java documentation.

Start

1. Download the latest 2.2.x version of Cassandra.
2. Copy the Cassandra archive to the installation directory. For example, /usr/local
3. Use a tar utility to extract the files. For example, tar -zxvf apache-cassandra-2.2.7-bin.tar.gz
4. Add directories for data, commitlog, and saved_caches. You can create these directories anywhere or in the default locations configured in the Cassandra_install_dir/conf/cassandra.yaml file. For example:
   • /var/lib/cassandra/data
   • /var/lib/cassandra/commitlog
   • /var/lib/cassandra/saved_caches

End

Configuring Cassandra

The procedures below describe how to create the Cassandra keyspace for the following scenarios:

• Development: 1 Cassandra node (appropriate for a development or lab environment)
• Single Datacenter: 1 datacenter with a minimum of three Cassandra nodes

Important

For more complex Cassandra deployments, please consult with Genesys

Select a tab below for the procedure that matches your deployment scenario.

Configuring Cassandra (1 Cassandra node)

Important

The files modified in this procedure are typically found in the Cassandra_install_dir/conf directory.

Prerequisites

• Installing Cassandra

Start

1. Modify the cassandra.yaml file:
1. Set seeds to the list of host name of the node. For example: -seeds: “127.0.0.1”
2. Set listen_address and rpc_address to the host name.
3. Set data_file_directories, commitlog_directory, and saved_caches_directory to the directories you created in Step 4 of Installing Cassandra.
4. Set the start_rpc parameter to true.
2. Save your changes and close the file.

End

Configuring Cassandra (1 datacenter)

Complete the steps below for each node.

Important

The files modified in this procedure are typically found in the Cassandra_install_dir/conf directory.

Prerequisites

• Installing Cassandra

Start

1. Modify the cassandra.yaml file:
1. Set the cluster_name. It must be the same name on all nodes.
2. Set seeds to the list of host names of all nodes. For example: -seeds: "node1, node2, node3"
3. Set listen_address and rpc_address to the host name.
4. Set data_file_directories, commitlog_directory, and saved_caches_directory to the directories you created in Step 4 of Installing Cassandra.
5. Set the start_rpc parameter to true.
6. Change endpoint_snitch to PropertyFileSnitch.
2. Save your changes and close the file.
3. Open the cassandra-topology.properties file and update for your cluster topology. For each node in your cluster, add the following line:

   [node]=[datacenter]:[rack]

   Where:

   • [node] is the IP address of the node.
   • [datacenter] is the name of the datacenter for this node.
   • [rack] is the name of the rack for this node.

   The following is a sample cassandra-topology.properties file for a Single Datacenter scenario:

   192.0.2.10=datacenter1:rack1
   192.0.2.11=datacenter1:rack1
   192.0.2.12=datacenter1:rack1

4. Save your changes and close the file.

End

Configuring Cassandra (2 datacenters)

Complete the steps below for each node.

Important

The files modified in this procedure are typically found in the Cassandra_install_dir/conf directory.

Prerequisites

• Installing Cassandra

Start

1. Modify the cassandra.yaml file:
1. Set the cluster_name. It must be the same name on all nodes.
2. Set seeds to the list of host names of all nodes. For example: -seeds: "node1, node2, node3, node4, node5, node6"
3. Set listen_address and rpc_address to the host name.
4. Set data_file_directories, commitlog_directory, and saved_caches_directory to the directories you created in Step 4 of Installing Cassandra.
5. Set the start_rpc parameter to true.
6. Change endpoint_snitch to PropertyFileSnitch.
2. Save your changes and close the file.
3. Open the cassandra-topology.properties file and update for your cluster topology. For each node in your cluster, add the following line:

   [node]=[datacenter]:[rack]

   Where:

   • [node] is the IP address of the node.
   • [datacenter] is the name of the datacenter for this node.
   • [rack] is the name of the rack for this node.

   The following is a sample cassandra-topology.properties file for a Two Datacenter scenario:

   192.0.2.10=datacenter1:rack1
   192.0.2.11=datacenter1:rack1
   192.0.2.12=datacenter1:rack1
   198.51.100.10=datacenter2:rack1
   198.51.100.11=datacenter2:rack1
   198.51.100.12=datacenter2:rack1

4. Save your changes and close the file.

End

Verifying the Cassandra installation

Prerequisites

• Configuring Cassandra
  
  

Start

1. Start all Cassandra nodes using the following command: Cassandra_install_dir/bin/cassandra
2. Use the nodetool utility to verify that all nodes are connected by entering the following command: Cassandra_install_dir/bin/nodetool -h Cassandra_host ring
   
   The following is sample output for a Single Datacenter scenario with three Cassandra nodes:

   /genesys/apache-cassandra-2.2/bin$ ./nodetool ring
   Address     DC           Rack   Status  State   Load      Owns     Token
   192.0.2.10  datacenter1  rack1  Up      Normal  14.97 MB  100.00%  -9223372036854775808
   192.0.2.11  datacenter1  rack1  Up      Normal  14.97 MB  100.00%  -3074457345618258603
   192.0.2.12  datacenter1  rack1  Up      Normal  14.97 MB  100.00%   3074457345618258602

   The following is sample output for a Development scenario with a single Cassandra node:

   /genesys/apache-cassandra-2.2/bin$ ./nodetool ring
   Address         DC          Rack        Status State   Load            Effective-Ownership Token                                       
   127.0.0.1       datacenter1 rack1       Up     Normal  1.89 MB         100.00%             76880863635469966884037445232169973201

End