The cluster is a collection of nodes that represents a single system. A cluster in Cassandra is one of the shells in the whole Cassandra database.

1. Cassandra in the Cloud
How to Build a Multi-DC
Cassandra Cluster in AWS
w/ OpsCenter LCM

2. Manual
- Error prone.
- Days and weeks.
- Bad auditability.
- Always waiting on someone .
- Costs time and money.
- Open security issues.
- No one legitimate should be
doing this manually. Even in
the government, you should
be automating.
Automated
- Repeatable
- Minutes and hours
- Changes stored in source
Control
- Can do CICD
- Can be super secured.
- If you are dealing with
systems that make money,
you should use it.

3. Setting up 3 nodes. Basic bootcamp
exercise. How long?
Add 4 more nodes. How long then?
Add 40 more nodes. How long then?
What we want:
- Setup 3 Nodes
- Add 4 Nodes

5. Infrastructure: AWS
Infrastructure: Terraform
Install: Ansible
Install: OpsCenter LCM
Configure: OpsCenter LCM
Maintain: OpsCenter LCM
Why not just use
one thing for
everything?

6. We design and build realtime
business platforms…
By mapping and connecting real-time customer experiences
with information systems on fast data & analytics platforms.

7. Resources
Cassandra
● cassandra.link
● https://anant.github.io/awesome-
cassandra
Datastax
● www.datastax.com
● https://docs.datastax.com/en/opscent
er/6.7/opsc/LCM/opscLCM.html
Ansible
● https://github.com/rackerlabs/ansible-
dse
Terraform
● https://hackernoon.com/introduction-
to-aws-with-terraform-7a8daf261dc0

8. Creating Nodes with Terraform

9. Benefits of AWS
● Ease of deployment
● Scalability (Availability Zones)
● Security (VPC)
● Automation (CloudFormation)

10. Using Terraform to put Cassandra on an EC2
● Terraform - Infrastructure as Code Software
Tool
● Can define and provision a datacenter
infrastructure
● Used today to create an EC2 instance on AWS

11. Terraform in Action

12. Automation with Ansible

13. What is a playbook?
● An organized unit of scripts in a YAML file
● Defines work for a server configuration

14. Benefits of Ansible with DSE
● An hour long process can be done in a minute
● Adding users is simplified
● Can be applied to multiple datacenters, clusters, and nodes

15. Playbook: Validation / Common
● Confirm credentials (SSH, pem, etc)
● Modify System Kernel Attributes
○ Network
○ Memory
● Set CPU Governor
● Set EC2 User limits

16. Playbook: OpsCenter
● Add the Datastax repo
● Add DSE Academy credentials if needed.
● Install the OpsCenterD service.
● Start the OpsCenterD service.

17. Installing Clusters with OpsCenter
Lifecycle Manager

18. Benefits of LCM
● Simple yet robust User Interface
● Automatic detection of package manager
○ Easy deployment in a variety of
environments and conditions
● Health, sanity checks automated during install

20. Installation Process
● Done in OpsCenter
● Config profiles set for each datacenter
○ Profile
○ SSH Credentials
○ Workload
● Nodes added to each datacenter
○ Rack
○ Credentials
○ 1st Node is a Seed Node

21. Ansible Scripts Used

22. Playbooks used today
● Cluster Validation
● Cluster Common
● Cluster OpsCenter

23. Resources
Cassandra
● cassandra.link
● https://anant.github.io/awesome-
cassandra
Datastax
● www.datastax.com
● https://docs.datastax.com/en/opscent
er/6.7/opsc/LCM/opscLCM.html
Ansible
● https://github.com/rackerlabs/ansible-
dse
Terraform
● https://hackernoon.com/introduction-
to-aws-with-terraform-7a8daf261dc0

24. Any Questions?

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