System keyspaces and tables
The database uses a set of internal keyspaces to store metadata about the cluster, its schema, security, and operational state. The tables in these keyspaces are managed by the database; do not modify them directly.
The system keyspace
Tables in the system keyspace store metadata about the local node.
| Table name | Column names | Comment |
|---|---|---|
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Information that a node has about itself and a superset of gossip. Gossip is a peer-to-peer communication protocol for exchanging location and state information between nodes. |
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Each node records what other nodes tell it about themselves over the gossip. |
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Information on partitions. |
The system_schema keyspace
Use CQL to query system_schema tables to view keyspace, table, and column information.
The same information is also available using the CQL shell DESCRIBE commands, which is the preferred method.
The system_schema tables does not show search index or row-level access control settings.
| Table name | Column names | Comment |
|---|---|---|
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Information about user-defined aggregates. |
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Information about table columns. |
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Information about dropped columns. |
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Information on user-defined functions. |
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Information about indexes. |
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Information on keyspace durable writes and replication. |
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Information on columns and column indexes. Used internally for compound primary keys. |
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Information about user-defined types. |
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Information about materialized views. |