Standalone Cassandra Cluster installer
Note
This tool is intended for installation of a Cassandra Cluster on Windows only. However, we highly recommend that you install Cassandra on Linux instead.
About this tool
This installer can be used to install Cassandra 3.11.8 on Windows. This version of Cassandra has been tested with a dedicated clustered storage setup, which is supported from DataMiner 10.1.2 onwards.
The installer includes AdoptOpenJDK 8 as well as DevCenter. It sets up a Cassandra service and creates a firewall rule named CassandraCluster to allow TCP traffic on ports 7000 and 9042.
You can download this tool from DataMiner Dojo.
Note
You will need to run this tool as administrator.
Requirements
Microsoft Windows
Server without existing Cassandra installation (i.e. there is no service called "Cassandra")
Important
In case the cluster will consist of multiple Cassandra nodes, all nodes must use the same time. Set up NTP on the servers to avoid possible issues caused by a time difference between the nodes.
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 10.0 Service Pack 1
The installers for this are also included with the Standalone Cassandra Cluster installer in the folder "Visual Studio 2010 (VC++ 10.0) SP1".
Configuration
Before you run the installer, you first need to create a configuration file.
To do so, first create a sample configuration by running the following command:
./SLDataGateway.installers.Cassandra.Runner.exe run-stand-alone -g
In this file, you can then configure the settings detailed in the Configuration settings section.
Note
In case the cluster consists of only one node, you can instead start a one-click installation by executing run_localhost_configuration.bat.
Configuration settings
InstallerDependenciesDirectory
This setting should be set to the path containing the installer dependencies. This is the folder that contains the following subfolders: cassandra, devcenter, java and prunsrv.
By default this should be ./cassandra_installer_dependencies.
CassandraTargetDirectory
This is the location where Cassandra will be installed. In most cases this is C:\Program Files\Cassandra.
CqlNativeTransportPort
This is the port that is used by the installer to connect to Cassandra. The default value is 9042.
CreateSuperUser, SuperUserUsername and SuperUserPassword
The installer will try to connect to the cluster using the default Cassandra superuser. If this fails, it will also attempt to connect using the given SuperUserUsername/SuperUserPassword. This is done to verify that the installation succeeded.
If CreateSuperUser is set to true, then a superuser will be created using the given SuperUserUsername and SuperUserPassword.
PortsToOpen
The ports defined in this setting will be used to create a firewall rule named CassandraCluster to allow TCP traffic. If no ports are defined, no firewall rule will be created.
SystemAuthReplication
The replication factor for the system_auth keyspace. The system_auth keyspace contains the user credentials. This data needs to be available when a connection is made to the cluster.
A general recommendation is to use a replication factor of 3 to 5, depending on the number of nodes. If the cluster has 3 nodes or less, we recommend setting the replication factor to the same number as the number of nodes.
ListenAddress
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the listen_address cassandra.yaml setting and always needs to have a value filled in.
It is the IP address or hostname that Cassandra binds to for connecting to other Cassandra nodes. For more information, refer to the Datastax information on the cassandra.yaml configuration file.
ClusterName
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the cluster_name cassandra.yaml setting and corresponds with the <DB> tag in DB.xml.
DiskOptimizationStrategy
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the disk_optimization_strategy cassandra.yaml setting. Possible values are SSD and Spinning. This determines the strategy for optimizing disk reads.
BroadCastRpcAddress
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the broadcast_rpc_address cassandra.yaml setting. This is the IP or hostname that will be broadcast to clients during cluster discovery.
RpcAddress
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the rpc_address cassandra.yaml setting. Cassandra will bind to this address and listen for client connections.
DataPath
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the data_file_directories cassandra.yaml setting. This is the location where Cassandra will store data on disk.
SeedIPs
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the seed_provider cassandra.yaml setting.
At least one seed IP must be filled in.
At all times, at least one of these nodes needs to be online, so that when a node comes online, it can join the cluster.
The general recommendation is to have up to 3 seed nodes.
Snitch
Located under the <CassandraYamlSettings> tag. This will be used to set the endpoint_snitch cassandra.yaml setting. Possible values are: SimpleSnitch, GossipingPropertyFileSnitch, PropertyFileSnitch, Ec2Snitch, Ec2MultiRegionSnitch and RackInferringSnitch.
The GossipingPropertyFileSnitch is the go-to snitch for production use. The snitch is used to figure out the network topology, which is then used to route requests efficiently and decide how replicas should be spread around the cluster.
Running the installer
Run the installer as follows:
Run PowerShell as Administrator.
Set the current directory to the location of the installer. Example:
cd C:\CassandraInstaller\2021-08-06_cassandra_cluster_standalone_installerRun the installer. Example:
.\SLDataGateway.Installers.Cassandra.Runner.exe run-stand-alone -c ".\localhost_configuration.xml"
In case you are setting up a cluster, the installer should first be run on each of the seed nodes. When you install a seed node, confirm that the installation has succeeded before you continue with the next seed node.
After the seed nodes are up and running, the installer can be run on the remaining nodes. In this case, the installers can be run in parallel.
Logging
Information is logged to the console window as well as to file. File logging can be found in the Logs folder, located next to SLDataGateway.Installers.Cassandra.Runner.exe.