Get started with Astra DB Classic
Register for an Astra account, and then create an Astra DB database that is optimized for real-time applications that require large data volume, low latency, and flexible data models.
Create a database
To create and launch an Astra DB Classic database, do the following:
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In the Astra Portal, click Create Database.
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Click Managed clusters.
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Enter a meaningful, human-readable database name.
You cannot change the database name after you create the database.
Rules for database names
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Must start and end with a letter or number
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Can contain letters, numbers, and the special characters
& + - _ ( ) < > . , @ -
Cannot exceed 50 characters
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Enter a name for the database’s first keyspace.
Rules for keyspace names
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Must start with a letter or number
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Can contain letters, numbers, and underscores
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Cannot exceed 48 characters.
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Cannot be the reserved words
dseorsystem -
Must be unique within the database
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Select a cloud provider and region.
To minimize latency in production databases, select a region that is close to your application’s users.
For multi-region availability, you can add more regions after you create the database.
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Select a Workload Type and Workload Size for this database. For more information, see workload capacity tiers for this database.
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In the Total Cost section, review the estimated hourly cost.
DataStax offers $25.00 in free Astra credits per month for organizations on the Free plan.
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Click Create Database to initiate database creation.
It can take several minutes to initialize the database. DataStax sends you an email notification when your database is ready to use.
Get an application token
You use application tokens to connect to your database.
In the Astra Portal, there are several ways you can generate an application token scoped to a database.
When you sign in to the Astra Portal, click Managed clusters, find your Astra DB Classic database, click more_vert More, and then select Generate Token. This option generates a token scoped to the selected database.
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Download and securely store your token. The token is shown only once. |
For more information, see Use application tokens.
Load data into your database
You can load data into your Astra DB database with any of these methods:
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DataStax Bulk Loader to load data from CSV or JSON files.
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Data Loader feature in Astra Portal, which presents options to load CSV data; or load data from the provided sample datasets; or load data from your Amazon S3 bucket that contains exported DynamoDB data.
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Cassandra Query Language (CQL) statements to load data.
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Drivers to load data through apps.
