Installing DataStax Community on Debian-based systems

Install using APT repositories on Debian and Ubuntu.

DataStax no longer provides the DataStax Community version of Apache Cassandra™ or the DataStax Distribution of Apache Cassandra. See DataStax support for Apache Cassandra.
To download and install the latest version of open-source Cassandra, see https://cassandra.apache.org/.

Use these steps to install Cassandra using APT repositories on Debian and Ubuntu Linux.

For a complete list of supported platforms, see Apache Cassandra.

Prerequisites

  • Advanced Package Tool is installed.
  • Root or sudo access to the install machine.
  • Latest version of Oracle Java Platform, Standard Edition 8 (JDK) or OpenJDK 7.
    Note: The JDK is recommended for development and production systems. It provides tools that are not in the JRE, such as jstack, jmap, jps, and jstat, that are useful for troubleshooting.
  • Python 2.7.

The packaged releases create a cassandra user. When starting Cassandra as a service, the service runs as this user. The following utilities are included in a separate package: sstable2json, sstablelevelreset, sstablemetadata, json2sstable, sstablerepairedset, sstablesplit, and token-generator.

Procedure

In a terminal window:

  1. Check which version of Java is installed by running the following command: 
    $ java -version
    It is recommended to use the latest version of Oracle Java 8 or OpenJDK 7 on all nodes.
  2. Add the DataStax Community repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list 
    $ echo "deb http://debian.datastax.com/community stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
  3. Optional: On Debian systems, to allow installation of the Oracle JVM instead of the OpenJDK JVM:
    1. In /etc/apt/sources.list, find the line that describes your source repository for Debian and add contrib non-free to the end of the line. For example: 
      deb http://some.debian.mirror/debian/ $distro main contrib non-free
    2. Save and close the file when you are done.
  4. Add the DataStax repository key to your aptitude trusted keys. 
    $ curl -L https://debian.datastax.com/debian/repo_key | sudo apt-key add -
  5. Install the latest package: 
    $ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install dsc22
$ sudo apt-get install cassandra-tools ## Optional utilities
    Note: The optional utilities are json2sstable, sstable2json, sstablelevelreset, sstablemetadata, sstableofflinerelevel, sstablerepairedset, sstablesplit, token-generator. Each utility provides usage/help information; type help after entering the command.

    The DataStax Community distribution of Cassandra is installed.

  6. Because the Debian packages start the Cassandra service automatically, you must stop the server and clear the data:

    Doing this removes the default cluster_name (Test Cluster) from the system table. All nodes must use the same cluster name.

    $ sudo service cassandra stop
$ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/*

    The DataStax Community distribution of Cassandra is ready for configuration.

What's next