Install Cassandra 4 on Ubuntu 20.04

Upasana | July 27, 2020 | 3 min read | 118 views

Apache Cassandra 4 beta came out just few days ago. In this article we wil explore how to install Cassandra on Ubuntu 20 server.

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 18+ with sudo permissions
Java 11 or latest version of Java 8
Python 3.6+ for cqlsh

Installing the Debian packages

Check you have the correct version of Java installed on your system using below command:

$ java -version

openjdk version "11.0.8" 2020-07-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Add the Apache repository of Cassandra to the file cassandra.sources.list. The latest major version is 4.0 and the corresponding distribution name is 40x (with an “x” as the suffix)
```
echo "deb http://downloads.apache.org/cassandra/debian 40x main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
```
Add the Apache Cassandra repository keys to the list of trusted keys on the server:
```
curl https://downloads.apache.org/cassandra/KEYS | sudo apt-key add -
```
Update the packages index using below command
```
sudo apt-get update
```
Install Apache Cassandra with APT
```
sudo apt-get install cassandra
```
This will install cassandra and run it using a new linux user cassandra.

Check Status using nodetool

nodetool status

Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address    Load       Tokens  Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  127.0.0.1  72.57 KiB  256     ?                 016c0c52-be2f-4f45-9956-be699db50701  rack1

Install location:

Installation directory

cd /etc/cassandra

Check logs

tail -f /var/log/cassandra/system.log

cqlsh client

$ cqlsh

Connected to Test Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 4.0 | CQL spec 3.4.5 | Native protocol v4]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh>

Installing from binary tarball

Check you have the correct version of Java installed on your system using below command:

$ java -version

openjdk version "11.0.8" 2020-07-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Download the latest version of Apache Cassandra

$ curl -OL http://apachemirror.wuchna.com/cassandra/4.0-beta1/apache-cassandra-4.0-beta1-bin.tar.gz

Extract the tarball
```
$ tar xzvf apache-cassandra-4.0-beta1-bin.tar.gz
```
The files will be extracted to the apache-cassandra-4.0-beta1 directory. This is the tarball installation location.
Start the server
```
$ cd apache-cassandra-4.0-beta1
$ bin/cassandra
```
This will start Cassandra with the default configuration using the authenticated linux user.
Check logs
```
$ tail -200f logs/system.log
```
Check status of Cassandra
```
$ bin/nodetool status
```

Configuration

Tune memory configuration:

$ vi conf/jvm-server.options

conf/jvm-server.options

# It is recommended to set min (-Xms) and max (-Xmx) heap sizes to
# the same value to avoid stop-the-world GC pauses during resize, and
# so that we can lock the heap in memory on startup to prevent any
# of it from being swapped out.
-Xms1G
-Xmx1G

Uncomment and modify Xms and Xmx to appropriate value.