Apache Cassandra Administration

Introduction to NoSQL databases

• Explain the differences between NoSQL and RDBMS databases,
• Explain what the various NoSQL databases are,
• Topics - Quick Review of RDBMS:
  Transactions, ACIDity, Schema, Two Phase Commit, Sharding and Share Nothing Architecture, Feature Based, Key Based, Lookup Table Based,

 

• NoSQL Databases, Brewers CAP Theorem, Cassandra Definition and Features, Distributed and Decentralised,

 

• Elastic Scalability, High Availability and Fault Tolerance,

 

• Tuneable Consistency,

 

• Strict Consistency,

 

• Casual Consistency,

 

• Weak (Eventual Consistency),

 

Column Orientation, Schema Free, High Performance, USE Cases for Cassandra, Cassandra Installation

Introduction to Cassandra Basic Concepts

• Understanding What Cassandra is
• What Cassandra is Being Used For
• Explain the various Cassandra features, Explain why Cassandra scores over other NoSQL databases,
• Distinguish between use cases when Cassandra is a strong choice and when it is not, Understand the use cases where Cassandra is implemented.
• System Requirements

Cassandra Cluster Architecture

• Cassandra - a Distributed Database
• Introduction to Snitch
• Introduction to Gossip
• Introduction to Data Distribution
• Introduction to Replication
• Introduction to Virtual Nodes

Installing Cassandra

• Downloading Cassandra
• Installing Cassandra
• Viewing the Main Configuration File
• Providing Cassandra with Permission to Directories
• Starting Cassandra
• Checking Status
• Accessing the Cassandra system.log File

Communicating with Cassandra

• Ways to Communicate with Cassandra
• Using Cqlsh

Creating a Database

• Understanding a Cassandra Database
• Defining a Keyspace
• Deleting a Keyspace

Creating a Table

• Creating a Table
• Defining Columns and Data Types
• Defining a Primary Key
• Recognizing a Partition Key
• Specifying a Descending Clustering Order

Inserting Data

• Understanding Ways to Write Data
• Using the Insert Into Command
• Using the Copy Command
• How Data is Stored in Cassandra
• How Data is Stored on Disk

Modeling Data

• Understanding Data Modeling in Cassandra
• Using a Where Clause
• Understanding Secondary Indexes
• Creating a Secondary Index
• Defining a Composite Partition Key
• Importing data in Cassandra from RDBMS

Updating and Deleting Data

• Updating Data
• Understanding How Updating Works
• Deleting Data
• Understanding Tombstones
• Using TTLs
• Updating a TTL

Adding Nodes to a Cluster

• Understanding Cassandra Nodes
• Having a Network Connection
• Specifying the IP Address Of a Node in Cassandra
• Specifying Seed Nodes
• Bootstrapping a Node
• Cleaning Up a Node
• Using Cassandra-Stress

Monitoring a Cluster

• Understanding Cassandra Monitoring Tools
• Using Nodetool
• Using JConsole
• Learning About OpsCenter

Repairing Nodes

• Understanding Repair
• Repairing Nodes
• Understanding Consistency
• Understanding Hinted Handoff
• Understanding Read Repair

Removing a Node

• Understanding Removing a Node
• Decommissioning a Node
• Putting a Node Back Into Service
• Removing a Dead Node

Redefining a Cluster for Multiple Data Centers

• Redefining for Multiple Data Centers
• Changing Snitch Type
• Modifying Cassandra-rackdc.Properties
• Changing Replication Strategy

Optimizing Cassandra Cluster

• Monitoring a Cassandra cluster
• Tuning Bloom filters
• Data caching
• Configuring memtable throughput
• Configuring compaction
• Compression
• Testing compaction and compression
• Tuning Java resources
• Purging gossip state on a node

Cassandra Tools

• The nodetool utility
• Cassandra bulk loader (sstableloader)
• The cassandra-stress tool
• The sstablescrub utility
• The sstablesplit utility
•  
• The sstablekeys utility
• The sstableupgrade tool

Backing up and restoring data

• Taking a snapshot
• Deleting snapshot files
• Enabling incremental backups
• Restoring from a snapshot
• Restoring a snapshot into a new cluster
• Recovering from a single disk failure using JBOD