Configuring Apache Cassandra

In the previous chapter we discussed the fundamentals of Apache Cassandra.There we discussed the architecture details , Cassandra data model etc. In this chapter we are discussing Apache Cassandra configuration in local Windows machine. Also in our coming sections we will be discussing example programs using Apache Cassandra as database. So we need to configure a work space for that with all the needed dependencies.That also we are discussing in this chapter.

Step1)Download & Start Apache Cassandra

As we discussed in the previous chapter Cassandra database was developed by facebook for their storage purpose . Then they handed over Cassandra project to Apache Foundation .Now the development and distribution is done by the Apache Software Foundation.We can download Apache Cassandra from Apache Download page. In our case , we are discussing the entire tutorial of Apache Cassandra with version 1.1.2.

Step2)Extract the downloaded archive to a suitable folder.

For example I extracted the archive to D:\javaworks\.

Step3)Start the Cassandra database instance on local machine.

For that open a command prompt and go to the bin of Cassandra folder by using cd command.

(In my case it is : cd Javaworks\apache-cassandra-1.1.12\bin )

Step 4)Start Apache Cassandra by simply typing the command ‘cassandra’.

The console will show the messages . Please note the instance name port name etc .

Step 5)Start the command line client for Apache Cassandra.

Open another command line . Go to the bin of cassandra folder by using cd command.Then simply type ‘cassandra-cli’ command.

Now our Cassandra database is ready . Also our client is ready we can create key space , column family etc using the command line client

Step 6)Create a keyspace

As we discussed in the previous chapter, a keyspace is the container in Cassandra .Once the command line client is completely up just run the following query in the second command prompt.

create keyspace USERKEYSPACE with placement_strategy = ‘org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleStrategy’

and strategy_options = {replication_factor:1};

When the keyspace created , appropriate message will be displayed and command line will be ready to accept next query.

So from step 1 to step6 , we created a new Apache Cassandra instance and started it. Also we created a key space with name ‘USERKEYSPACE’.

We will be doing data manipulation with Cassandra database using Java. For that we need to make a work space with all necessaries.

Configuring Workspace for Apache Cassandra

1)Start a project (Java Project or Dynamic Web Project) in eclipse.

2)As we discussed earlier in this section , we should have a client to interact with Cassandra data base.Apache Hector is such a client API. It is available for download.We can download it from Download Page. I will be using version 1.1.2 in the coming examples.

Extract the archived file and include the so obtained jar files to the project created in step1.

3) The hector API is a high Cassandra client API.Apache Thrift is a low level client API. Hector API internally uses Thrift . We need to download the thrift libraries to satisfy all dependencies. Thrift libraries can be downloaded from here.We need to extract and build the downloaded file . Alternately we can download the built thrift libraries from here. I downloaded version 0.9.0. Include this jar file also to the workspace as dependency.

So the jar files we added as dependance are :

Thrift libraries

1)libthrift-0.9.0.jar

Hector libraries

1)cassandra-thrift-1.1.0.jar

2)commons-lang-2.4.jar

3)commons-pool-1.5.3.jar

4)FastInfoset-1.2.2.jar

5)guava-r09.jar

6)hector-core-1.1-2.jar

7)hector-core-sources-1.1-2.jar

8)slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar

9)speed4j-0.9.jar

10)uuid-3.2.0.jar

Now Cassandra set up is ready .Workspace is also ready . We will be explaining Java sample codes involving data manipulation with Apache Cassandra in coming chapters. There we will be using the set up we made here.We will be using the same keyspace ‘USERKEYSPACE‘ also.