Apache Cassandra is an open-source NoSQL database system with high availability and without compromising performance. It is used by many large companies like Github, NetFlix, Reddit and Instagram. In this described how to install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04.

Prerequisites#

You should logged in as root or user with sudo privileges.

Step 1 – Install Java#

To install the latest Apache Cassandra version 3.11 requires OpenJDK 8 to be installed on your Ubuntu system. So first we will install OpenJDK by running following command:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

Once the process completed, verify the Java installation by typing:

java -version

The output should look something like this:

openjdk version "1.8.0_265"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_265-8u265-b01-0ubuntu2~20.04-b01)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.265-b01, mixed mode)

Step – 2 Add Repository & Import GPG Key#

Next, you need to add repository for the Apache Cassandra and import the GPG key to the system:

wget -q -O - https://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/KEYS | sudo apt-key add -

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/debian 311x main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.list'

It will not return any output.

Step 3 – Install Apache Cassandra#

You are now ready to install Cassandra on Ubuntu.

Update the repository package list:

sudo apt update

Finally, run the following command to install Apache Cassandra:

sudo apt install Cassandra

Apache Cassandra service will automatically start after the installation process is complete.

Step 4 – Verify Apache Cassandra Installation#

After that, to check the Cassandra installed and running properly, type:

nodetool status

It should show output something like below:

Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address    Load    Tokens  Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  127.0.0.1  70 KiB  256     100.0%            2eaab399-be32-49c8-80d1-780dcbab694f  rack1

That’s it. At this step, Apache Cassandra is installed on your Ubuntu server.

Step 5 – Configuring Apache Cassandra#

The configuration files are located in /etc/cassandra and /var/lib/cassandra directory holds the Apache Cassandra data files. You can configure the Java start-up options in the /etc/default/cassandra file.

If the database is running on the same host then you don’t need to change anything in the configuration. By default, Cassandra is configured to listen on localhost only.

To make connection with Cassandra using CQL you can use the default command-line tool cqlsh which is shipped with the Cassandra package.

cqlsh

Connected to Test Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.7 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh>

Conclusion#

You have learned how to install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04. To learn more about Cassandra, visit the official Apache Cassandra Documentation page.

If you have a problem or suggestion, please leave a comment below.