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:

A single region
A single keyspace
Storage based on your selected plan
Capacity for up to 200 tables
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

This information applies to only classic databases.

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

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. For a serverless database with Astra Vector Search, select a region from Serverless database regions with Astra Vector Search.

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
ap-south-1	Mumbai, India	Standard
ap-southeast-1	Singapore	Standard
ap-southeast-2	Sydney, Australia	Standard
ap-northeast-1	Tokyo, Japan	Standard
ca-central-1	Canada (Central)	Standard
eu-central-1	Frankfurt, Germany	Standard
eu-west-1	Ireland	Standard
eu-west-2	London, England	Standard
us-east-1	Northern Virginia, US	Standard
us-east-2	Ohio, US	Standard
us-west2	Oregon, US	Standard

Region

Location

Pricing

ap-south-1

Mumbai, India

Standard

ap-southeast-1

Singapore

Standard

ap-southeast-2

Sydney, Australia

Standard

ap-northeast-1

Tokyo, Japan

Standard

ca-central-1

Canada (Central)

Standard

eu-central-1

Frankfurt, Germany

Standard

eu-west-1

Ireland

Standard

eu-west-2

London, England

Standard

us-east-1

Northern Virginia, US

Standard

us-east-2

Ohio, US

Standard

us-west2

Oregon, US

Standard

Google Cloud

Region	Location	Pricing
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
northamerica-northeast1	Montréal, Québec, Canada	Standard
us-central1	Council Bluffs, Iowa, US	Standard
us-east1	Moncks Corner, South Carolina, US	Standard
us-east4	Ashburn, Northern Virginia, US	Standard
us-west1	The Dalles, Oregon, US	Standard

Region

Location

Pricing

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

northamerica-northeast1

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Standard

us-central1

Council Bluffs, Iowa, US

Standard

us-east1

Moncks Corner, South Carolina, US

Standard

us-east4

Ashburn, Northern Virginia, US

Standard

us-west1

The Dalles, Oregon, US

Standard

Azure

Region	Location	Pricing
australiaeast	New South Wales, Australia	Standard
australiasoutheast	Victoria, Australia	Standard
centralcanada	Toronto, Canada	Standard
eastus	Virginia, US	Standard
westeurope	West Europe (Netherlands)	Standard
westus2	Washington (state) US	Standard
northeurope	Ireland	Standard

Region

Location

Pricing

australiaeast

New South Wales, Australia

Standard

australiasoutheast

Victoria, Australia

Standard

centralcanada

Toronto, Canada

Standard

eastus

Virginia, US

Standard

westeurope

West Europe (Netherlands)

Standard

westus2

Washington (state) US

Standard

northeurope

Ireland

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.

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:

New user management flows avoid the need for superusers and global keyspace administration in CQL.
Endpoints are secured using mutual authentication, either with mutual-TLS or secure tokens issued to the client.
TLS provides a secure transport layer you can trust, ensuring that in-flight data is protected.
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.

Parameter

Limit

Notes

Size of values in a single column

5 MB

Hard limit.

Number of columns per table

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.

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

For classic databases, limit is per table.

Materialized view

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.

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)

At this time, user-defined functions (UDFs) and user-defined aggregate functions (UDAs) are not enabled.

Parameter Limit Notes

Parameter	Limit	Notes
Consistency level	Fixed	Supported consistency levels: Reads: Any supported consistency level is permitted. Single-region writes: `LOCAL_QUORUM` and `LOCAL_SERIAL`
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 `UPDATE` or `DELETE` a list value by index because Astra DB does not allow list operations that perform a read-before-write. Note: `INSERT` operations work the same way in Astra DB as in Apache Cassandra® and DataStax Enterprise (DSE). Also, `UPDATE` and `DELETE` operations that are not by index work the same in Astra DB, Cassandra, and DSE.
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.

Consistency level

Fixed

Supported consistency levels: Reads: Any supported consistency level is permitted.
Single-region writes: LOCAL_QUORUM and LOCAL_SERIAL

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 UPDATE or DELETE a list value by index because Astra DB does not allow list operations that perform a read-before-write. Note: INSERT operations work the same way in Astra DB as in Apache Cassandra® and DataStax Enterprise (DSE). Also, UPDATE and DELETE operations that are not by index work the same in Astra DB, Cassandra, and DSE.

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.

If you try to use a CQL command with unsupported DDL properties, the command works, but ignores the unsupported values.

For example:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS library.books
  (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    lastname text,
    firstname text)
  WITH nodesync={'enabled': 'true'};

The table is created with the defined attributes, except for the nodesync values. The results show a warning that lists the unsupported values, which are ignored:

Warnings :
Ignoring provided values [nodesync] as they are not supported for Table
Properties(ignored values are: [additional_write_policy,
bloom_filter_fp_chance, caching, cdc, compaction, compression,
crc_check_chance, dse_edge_label_property, dse_vertex_label_property,
gc_grace_seconds, id, max_index_interval, memtable,
memtable_flush_period_in_ms, min_index_interval, nodesync, read_repair,
speculative_retry])

CQL commands

In general, any operations concerning keyspaces, materialized views, functions and aggregates are not supported. In addition, search indexes are also not supported.

The following CQL commands are not supported in Astra DB:

CREATE KEYSPACE
ALTER KEYSPACE
DROP KEYSPACE
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW
ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW
DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW
CREATE AGGREGATE
DESCRIBE AGGREGATE
DROP AGGREGATE
CREATE FUNCTION
DESCRIBE FUNCTION
DROP FUNCTION
CREATE TRIGGER
DROP TRIGGER
CREATE ROLE
ALTER ROLE
DROP ROLE
LIST ROLES
LIST PERMISSIONS
RESTRICT
RESTRICT ROWS
UNRESTRICT
UNRESTRICT ROWS
CREATE SEARCH INDEX
COMMIT SEARCH INDEX
REBUILD SEARCH INDEX
RELOAD SEARCH INDEX
ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA
ALTER SEARCH INDEX CONFIG
DROP SEARCH INDEX CONFIG

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