Using the Spark SQL Thrift server

The Spark SQL Thrift server uses a JDBC and an ODBC interface for client connections to Cassandra.

1. If you are using Kerberos authentication, in the hive-site.xml file, configure Cassandra authentication credentials for the Spark SQL Thrift server.

       <property>
         <name>hive.server2.authentication.kerberos.principal</name>
         <value>thriftserver/_HOST@EXAMPLE.COM</value>
       </property>
   
       <property>
         <name>hive.server2.authentication.kerberos.keytab</name>
         <value>/etc/dse/dse.keytab</value>
       </property>

   Ensure that you use the hive-site.xml file in the Spark directory:

   Installer-Services and Package installations	/etc/dse/spark/hive-site.xml
   Installer-No Services and Tarball installations	install_location/resources/spark/conf/hive-site.xml

2. Start DataStax Enterprise with Spark enabled as a service or in a standalone installation.
   Note: To run index queries, start the node with both Spark and Hadoop enabled. Running in this mode is experimental and not supported.
3. Start the server by entering the dse spark-sql-thriftserver start command as a user with permissions to write to the Spark directories.

   To override the default settings for the server, pass in the configuration property using the --hiveconf option. See the HiveServer2 documentation for a complete list of configuration properties.

   dse spark-sql-thriftserver start

   By default, the server listens on port 10000 on the localhost interface on the node from which it was started. You can specify the server to start on a specific port. For example, to start the server on port 10001, use the --hiveconf hive.server2.thrift.port=10001 option. You can configure the port and bind address in resources/spark/conf/spark-env.sh: HIVE_SERVER2_THRIFT_PORT, HIVE_SERVER2_THRIFT_BIND_HOST.

   dse spark-sql-thriftserver start --hiveconf hive.server2.thrift.port=10001

   You can specify general Spark configuration settings by using the --conf option.

   dse spark-sql-thrift-server start --conf spark.cores.max=4

4. Use Cassandra-backed DataFrames to read and write large volumes of data. For example, to create the table_a_cass_df table that uses a Cassandra-backed DataFrame while referencing table_a:

   CREATE TABLE table_a_cass_df using org.apache.spark.sql.cassandra OPTIONS (table "table_a", keyspace "ks")

   Note: With Cassandra-backed DataFrames, compatibility issues exist with UUID and Inet types when inserting data with the JDBC driver.
5. Use the Spark Cassandra Connector tuning parameters to optimize reads and writes.
6. To stop the server, enter the dse spark-sql-thriftserver stop command.

   dse spark-sql-thriftserver stop