Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4. Deploying a Cluster
So, you have played a bit with Cassandra on your local machine and read something about
how great it scales. Now it's time to evaluate all the tall claims that Cassandra makes.
This chapter deals with cluster deployment and the decision that you need to make that will
affect a number of nodes, types of machines, and tweaks in the Cassandra configuration
file. We start with hardware evaluations and then dive into OS-level tweaks, followed by
the prerequisite software applications and how to install them. Once the base machine is
ready, we will discuss the Cassandra installation—which is fairly easy. The rest of the
chapter discusses various settings available, what fits in which situation, the pros and cons,
and so on. Having been equipped with all this information, you are ready to launch your
first cluster. The chapter provides working code that deploys Cassandra on
n
number of
nodes, sets the entire configuration, and starts Cassandra, effectively launching each node
in about 40 seconds, thus enabling you to get going with an eight-node cluster in about 5
minutes.
Note
Code pattern
All the shell commands mentioned in this chapter follow a pattern. Each line starting with a
#
sign is just a comment to clarify the context. Each line starting with a
$
sign is a com-
mand. Some longer commands may be broken into multiple lines for reading clarity. If a
command is broken, the end of the line contains a line-continuation character—a backslash
(
\
). Each line that does not have either of these symbols is the output of a command.
Please follow this pattern unless specified otherwise.
