About your Astra DB database
Welcome! Let’s cover some basics and review how you can get connected.
Your paid database starts the following specifications:
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A single region
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A single keyspace
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Storage based on your selected plan
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Capacity for up to 200 tables
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Replication factor of three to provide optimal uptime and data integrity
To better understand your database capabilities, review the Astra DB database guardrails and limits.
Astra DB plan options
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This information applies to only classic databases. |
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Classic databases can no longer be created through Astra Portal. We recommend migrating your database to our current serverless option, which could save you money and allow you to manage your compute and storage capabilities separately. |
Production Workloads with Dedicated Resources
VPC peering and multi-region databases are available on Production Workload databases.
| Plan | Description |
|---|---|
C20 |
24 vCPU, 96GB DRAM, 500GB total usable storage |
C40 |
48 vCPU, 192GB DRAM, 500GB total usable storage |
C40i |
48 vCPU, 192GB DRAM, 500GB total usable storage, High IOPS |
|
The following plan is no longer available: C10: 12 vCPU, 48GB DRAM, 500GB total usable storage |
High-Density Production Workloads with Dedicated Resources
High-Density Production Workload databases offer greater disk capacity and performance than other service tiers. VPC peering and multi-region databases are available on High-Density Product Workload databases.
Plan |
Description |
D10 |
12 vCPU, 48GB DRAM, 1500GB total usable storage |
D20 |
24 vCPU, 96GB DRAM, 1500GB total usable storage |
D40 |
48 vCPU, 192GB DRAM, 1500GB total usable storage |
Astra DSE Edition Workloads
Databases with the advanced functionality of DSE Search and DSE Graph Workloads available on Production Workload databases.
Plan |
Description |
E60 |
48 vCPU, 366GB DRAM, 2TB total usable storage |
E120 |
96 vCPU, 732GB DRAM, 2TB total usable storage |
Database regions
When creating a database, select a region for your database. Choose a region that is geographically close to your users to optimize performance.
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If you are adding multiple regions to your database, you can use each region only once. You cannot add the same region to the same database more than one time. |
Classic database regions
AWS
| Region | Location | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
us-east-1 |
Northern Virginia, US |
Standard |
us-west2 |
Oregon, US |
Standard |
us-east-2 |
Ohio, US |
Standard |
ca-central-1 |
Canada (Central) |
Standard |
eu-central-1 |
Frankfurt, Germany |
Standard |
eu-west-1 |
Ireland |
Standard |
eu-west-2 |
London, England |
Standard |
ap-southeast-1 |
Singapore |
Standard |
ap-south-1 |
Mumbai, India |
Standard |
ap-southeast-2 |
Sydney, Australia |
Standard |
ap-northeast-1 |
Tokyo, Japan |
Standard |
Google Cloud
| Region | Location | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
us-east1 |
Moncks Corner, South Carolina, US |
Standard |
us-east4 |
Ashburn, Northern Virginia, US |
Standard |
us-central1 |
Council Bluffs, Iowa, US |
Standard |
us-west1 |
The Dalles, Oregon, US |
Standard |
northamerica-northeast1 |
Montréal, Québec, Canada |
Standard |
asia-east1 |
Changhua County, Taiwan |
Standard |
asia-east2 |
Hong Kong |
Premium |
australia-southeast1 |
Sydney, Australia |
Premium |
europe-north1 |
Hamina, Finland |
Standard |
europe-west1 |
Saint-Ghislain, Belgium |
Standard |
europe-west4 |
Eemshaven, Netherlands |
Standard |
Azure
| Region | Location | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
eastus |
Virginia, US |
Standard |
westus2 |
Washington (state) US |
Standard |
westeurope |
West Europe (Netherlands) |
Standard |
northeurope |
Ireland |
Standard |
australiaeast |
New South Wales, Australia |
Standard |
australiasoutheast |
Victoria, Australia |
Standard |
centralcanada |
Toronto, Canada |
Standard |
How do you want to connect?
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
I don’t want to create or manage a schema. Just let me get started. |
Use schemaless JSON Documents with the Document API. |
I want to start using my database now with APIs. |
Use the REST API or GraphQL API to begin interacting with your database and self manage the schema. |
I have an application and want to use the DataStax drivers. |
Initialize one of the DataStax drivers to manage database connections for your application. |
I know CQL and want to connect quickly to use my database. |
Use the integrated CQL shell or the standalone CQLSH tool to interact with your database using CQL. |
Astra DB database guardrails and limits
DataStax Astra DB includes guardrails and sets limits to ensure good practices, foster availability, and promote optimal configurations for your databases.
Astra DB offers a $25.00 free credit per month, allowing you to create an Astra DB database for free. Create a database with just a few clicks and start developing within minutes.
Limited access to administrative tools
Because Astra DB hides the complexities of database management to help you focus on developing applications, Astra DB is not compatible with DataStax Enterprise (DSE) administrative tools, such as nodetool and dsetool.
Use the DataStax Astra Portal to get statistics and view database and health metrics. Astra DB does not support access to the database using the Java Management Extensions (JMX) tools, like JConsole.
Simplified security without compromise
Astra DB provides a secure cloud-based database without dramatically changing the way you currently access your internal database:
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New user management flows avoid the need for superusers and global keyspace administration in CQL.
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Endpoints are secured using mutual authentication, either with mutual-TLS or secure tokens issued to the client.
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TLS provides a secure transport layer you can trust, ensuring that in-flight data is protected.
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Data at rest is protected by encrypted volumes.
Additionally, Astra DB incorporates role-based access control (RBAC).
See Security guidelines for more information about how Astra DB implements security.
Replication within regions
Each Astra DB database uses replication across three availability zones within the launched region to promote uptime and ensure data integrity.
Classic database limits
The following limits are set for classic databases created using Astra DB. These limits ensure good practices, foster availability, and promote optimal configurations for your database.
Columns
| Parameter | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Size of values in a single column |
5 MB |
Hard limit. |
Number of columns per table |
50 |
Hard limit. |
Tables
| Parameter | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Number of tables per database |
200 |
A warning is issued when the database exceeds 100 tables. |
Table properties |
Fixed |
All table properties are fixed except for Expiring data with time-to-live. |
Secondary index |
1 |
For classic databases, limit is per table. |
Materialized view |
2 |
Limit is per table. A warning is issued if the materialized view creates large partitions. |
Workloads
Astra DB workloads for Classic databases do not have a rate limit.
Storage-Attached Indexing (SAI) limits
The maximum number of SAI indexes on a table is 10. There can be no more than 50 SAI indexes in a single database.
Automated backup and restore
Classic databases created using Astra DB are automatically backed up every four hours. The latest six backups are stored, providing flexibility in which point in time you can restore to, if necessary.
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If the database was terminated, all data is destroyed and is unrecoverable. |
If data is accidentally deleted or corrupted, contact DataStax Support within 12 hours to restore data from one of the available backups. This window ensures that the data to restore exists as a saved backup.
When restoring data, DataStax Support allows you to restore data to the same database, replacing the current data with data from the backup. All data added to the database after the backup is no longer available in the database.
Cassandra Query Language (CQL)
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At this time, user-defined functions (UDFs) and user-defined aggregate functions (UDAs) are not enabled. |
| Parameter | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Consistency level |
Fixed |
Supported consistency levels:
Reads: Any supported consistency level is permitted.
|
Compaction strategy |
Fixed |
UnifiedCompactionStrategy is a more efficient compaction strategy that combines ideas from STCS (SizeTieredCompactionStrategy), LCS (LeveledCompactionStrategy), and TWCS (TimeWindowCompactionStrategy) along with token range sharding. This all-inclusive compaction strategy works well for all use cases. |
Lists |
Fixed |
Cannot |
Page size |
Fixed |
The proper page size is configured automatically. |
Large partition |
Warning |
A warning is issued if reading or compacting a partition that exceeds 100 MB. |
CQL commands
The following CQL commands are not supported in Astra DB:
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ALTER KEYSPACE
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ALTER SEARCH INDEX CONFIG
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ALTER KEYSPACE
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ALTER SEARCH INDEX CONFIG
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ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA
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COMMIT SEARCH INDEX
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CREATE KEYSPACE
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CREATE SEARCH INDEX
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CREATE TRIGGER
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CREATE FUNCTION
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DESCRIBE FUNCTION
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DROP FUNCTION
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DROP KEYSPACE
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DROP SEARCH INDEX CONFIG
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DROP TRIGGER
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LIST PERMISSIONS
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REBUILD SEARCH INDEX
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RELOAD SEARCH INDEX
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RESTRICT
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RESTRICT ROWS
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UNRESTRICT
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UNRESTRICT ROWS
For supported CQL commands, see the Astra DB CQL quick reference.
cassandra.yaml
If you are an experienced Cassandra or DataStax Enterprise user, you are likely familiar with editing the cassandra.yaml file.
For Astra DB, the cassandra.yaml file cannot be configured.
The following limits are included in Astra DB:
// for read requests
page_size_failure_threshold_in_kb = 512
in_select_cartesian_product_failure_threshold = 25
partition_keys_in_select_failure_threshold = 20
tombstone_warn_threshold = 1000
tombstone_failure_threshold = 100000
// for write requests
batch_size_warn_threshold_in_kb = 5
batch_size_fail_threshold_in_kb = 50
unlogged_batch_across_partitions_warn_threshold = 10
user_timestamps_enabled = true
column_value_size_failure_threshold_in_kb = 5 * 1024L
read_before_write_list_operations_enabled = false
max_mutation_size_in_kb = 16384
// for schema
fields_per_udt_failure_threshold = 30 (Classic) or 60 (Serverless)
collection_size_warn_threshold_in_kb = 5 * 1024L
items_per_collection_warn_threshold = 20
columns_per_table_failure_threshold = 50 (Classic) or 75 (Serverless)
secondary_index_per_table_failure_threshold = 1
tables_warn_threshold = 100
tables_failure_threshold = 200
// for node status
disk_usage_percentage_warn_threshold = 70
disk_usage_percentage_failure_threshold = 80
partition_size_warn_threshold_in_mb = 100
// SAI Table Failure threshold
sai_indexes_per_table_failure_threshold = 10