How to Setup Cassandra Docker Container using Docker Compose. Any application development will need a database. Different use cases which need different databases. There is no point in installing them all on our machine. With containers, it will ease up to provision the choice of database easily for testing purpose without the need to install it.
In this article we shall provision Apache Cassandra docker container and go through steps on using it.
What is Cassandra?
Organizations usually have a love hate relationship with data. It is because of the unguided decision making process and lost market insights. Moreover, large and active datasets having thousands of requests becomes highly arduous to maintain.
This is where Cassandra is used. This distributed database management system is designed in a way that it can handle a large number of data across several data centers and cloud environment quite effortlessly.
Therefore, large businesses like Apple, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Cisco, Twitter, eBay, Netflix, etc., are using this software.
Advantages Of Cassandra
Besides handling larger chunks of data effortlessly, Cassandra offers the following advantages as well:
Highly Scalable
One of the extensive advantages of Cassandra is that it is highly scalable. As discussed above, it tends to add several servers, thereby scaling up and down as per your needs. It does so without any downtime or pause occurring in the applications.
High Performance
With Cassandra’s particular architectural choices make it a significantly beneficial solution for processing data. the Cassandra achieves its speed in two ways:
- By making an instant decision on where to store using a hashing algorithm.
- Also by allowing nodes to make data storage decisions. This way, you don’t have to have a centralized “master node” that requires consultation on storage decisions.
Open Source
Firstly Cassandra is an open source project of Apache, which means that it is completely free. It has given birth to a large community where people share their views, queries, and suggestions related to big data. Moreover, it can be configured with other Apache open source projects like Hadoop, Apache Pig, and Apache Hive.
High Availability
Secondly Cassandra provides high availability through replicating data at different locations and data centers. It also has a peer to peer architecture that enables nodes to perform read and write operations. This way, data can swiftly replicate across data centers and geographies.
Peer To Peer Architecture
As discussed earlier, Cassandra follows a peer to peer architecture for execution. That is why it has significantly fewer chances of failure. Hence, you can add as many servers as required by your business in data centers to make Cassandra clusters.
Fault Tolerance
Businesses usually worry about whether the stored data is saved or not. However, with Cassandra, the data is not only secure but also stored in several locations. So, even if one server fails or gets hacked, the data can be retrieved effortlessly from another location. But, the number of replications created entirely depends upon the user. It is then activated by the high level backup and recovery competencies of Cassandra.
Multi Data Center And Hybrid Cloud Support
In addition Cassandra enables you to access multiple data centers as well as to use hybrid cloud support. It is because it is designed as a distributed system for the configuration of large numbers of nodes across several data centers.
Column Oriented
Interestingly Cassandra is column oriented, which means it has a high level data model. The Cassandra stores are column based, which leads to an immediate slicing. Its column names also consist of actual data instead of metadata. In short, it is furnished with a rich data model.
Great Analytics Possibilities
Cassandra provides the following four methods to carry out analytics:
- Solr based integrated search.
- Spark based near real time analytics.
- Batch analytics integrating Hadoop with Cassandra.
- External Batch analytics powered by Hadoop and Cloudera/Hortonworks.
This way, the range and usage of analytics significantly expand in Cassandra.
Next in this post, we will show you How to Setup Cassandra Docker Container using Docker Compose.
How to Setup Cassandra Docker Container using Docker Compose
Prerequisites
- A server running Ubuntu 20.04.
- A root user or a user with sudo privileges.
Add Docker CE Repository
Firstly, you will need to install some dependencies on your server. You can install all the required dependencies using the following command:
apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y
Once all the required dependencies are installed, download and add the Docker GPG key with the following command:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | apt-key add -
Next, add the Docker repository to APT:
add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal stable"
Once the repository is added, update the repository cache using the following command:
apt update -y
Install Docker CE
Here install the Docker CE by running the following command:
apt install docker-ce -y
After the installation, you can also see the Docker information with the following command:
docker info
You should see the following output:
Client:
Context: default
Debug Mode: false
Plugins:
app: Docker App (Docker Inc., v0.9.1-beta3)
buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc., v0.8.2-docker)
scan: Docker Scan (Docker Inc., v0.17.0)
Server:
Containers: 0
Running: 0
Paused: 0
Stopped: 0
Images: 0
Server Version: 20.10.17
Storage Driver: overlay2
Backing Filesystem: extfs
Supports d_type: true
Native Overlay Diff: true
userxattr: false
Logging Driver: json-file
Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
Cgroup Version: 1
Plugins:
Volume: local
Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
Swarm: inactive
Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 io.containerd.runtime.v1.linux runc
Default Runtime: runc
Init Binary: docker-init
containerd version: 10c12954828e7c7c9b6e0ea9b0c02b01407d3ae1
runc version: v1.1.2-0-ga916309
init version: de40ad0
Install Docker Compose
curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.6.1/docker-compose-linux-x86_64" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Following step is to set the execution permission on the downloaded binary file with the following command:
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Here verify the Docker Compose version using the following command:
docker-compose --version
You should see the following output:
Docker Compose version v2.6.1
Create a Docker Compose YAML File
mkdir Cassandra
Next, create a docker-compose.yaml file inside the Cassandra directory:
nano Cassandra/docker-compose.yaml
Add the following configurations:
version: '3.9'
services:
cassandra:
image: cassandra:4.0
ports:
- 9042:9042
volumes:
- ~/apps/cassandra:/var/lib/cassandra
environment:
- CASSANDRA_CLUSTER_NAME=cloudinfra
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Launch Cassandra Container
cd Cassandra
docker-compose up -d
You should see the following output:
[+] Running 10/10
⠿ cassandra Pulled 13.7s
⠿ d7bfe07ed847 Pull complete 6.1s
⠿ caca7a4a00fe Pull complete 7.8s
⠿ b669251e1903 Pull complete 10.1s
⠿ cf45eff8a02b Pull complete 10.2s
⠿ 7cc26c186df9 Pull complete 10.3s
⠿ 48f949015080 Pull complete 11.6s
⠿ 46441dece7d1 Pull complete 11.8s
⠿ aa89acd6f103 Pull complete 13.1s
⠿ 2760e583af58 Pull complete 13.2s
[+] Running 2/2
⠿ Network cassandra_default Created 0.1s
⠿ Container cassandra-cassandra-1 Started 0.9s
Now you can verify the Cassandra container using the following command:
docker-compose ps
Also you should see the running container in the following output:
NAME COMMAND SERVICE STATUS PORTS
cassandra-cassandra-1 "docker-entrypoint.s…" cassandra running 7000-7001/tcp, 7199/tcp, 9160/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9042->9042/tcp, :::9042->9042/tcp
docker images
You should see the following output:
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
cassandra 4.0 efe0d8614dc7 7 days ago 343MB
Access Cassandra Container
You can now access the running Cassandra container using the following command:
docker-compose exec cassandra /bin/bash
Once you are connected to the Cassandra container, you will get the following shell:
root@9ca7c49f47b0:/#
Connect to the Cassandra shell using the CQLSH utility:
cqlsh
You should see the following shell:
Connected to cloudinfra at 127.0.0.1:9042
[cqlsh 6.0.0 | Cassandra 4.0.5 | CQL spec 3.4.5 | Native protocol v5]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh>
Verify the Cassandra version with the following command:
show version
You should see the Cassandra version in the following output:
[cqlsh 6.0.0 | Cassandra 4.0.5 | CQL spec 3.4.5 | Native protocol v5]
Please exit from the Cassandra shell using the following command:
exit
Run the exit command again to exit from the Cassandra container:
exit
To see the Cassandra container log, run the following command:
docker-compose logs
You should see the following output:
cassandra-cassandra-1 | INFO [main] 2022-07-28 07:04:57,408 PipelineConfigurator.java:125 - Starting listening for CQL clients on /0.0.0.0:9042 (unencrypted)...
cassandra-cassandra-1 | INFO [NonPeriodicTasks:1] 2022-07-28 07:04:57,415 SSTable.java:111 - Deleting sstable: /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/local-7ad54392bcdd35a684174e047860b377/nb-2-big
cassandra-cassandra-1 | INFO [NonPeriodicTasks:1] 2022-07-28 07:04:57,420 SSTable.java:111 - Deleting sstable: /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/local-7ad54392bcdd35a684174e047860b377/nb-1-big
cassandra-cassandra-1 | INFO [main] 2022-07-28 07:04:57,432 CassandraDaemon.java:782 - Startup complete
cassandra-cassandra-1 | INFO [OptionalTasks:1] 2022-07-28 07:05:07,297 CassandraRoleManager.java:339 - Created default superuser role 'cassandra'
That’s it! Thank you for reading How to Setup Cassandra Docker Container using Docker Compose.
How to Setup Cassandra Docker Container using Docker Compose Conclusion
In this guide, we explained how to setup a Cassandra docker container using the Docker Compose on Ubuntu 20.04. The solution is highly used by app development and data management companies, including start-ups and traditional legendary enterprises. Written in Java, this NoSQL database is relatively different from other NoSQL and relational databases. Since it can handle high volumes, it is considered highly beneficial to crucial corporations.
Please take a look at our Cassandra content here.
