Install DataStax Enterprise 6.9 using the binary tarball

You can install DataStax Enterprise (DSE) 6.9 on a bare metal or virtual machine (VM) environment using a binary tarball. This installation method lets you run DSE on Linux platforms as a standalone process, with or without root permissions. These instructions also describe how to store data and logs in either a default directory or a custom directory.

New installations of DSE create a default cassandra user in the database. This user can present a security risk in production environments.

To learn how to change or delete the default cassandra user, see Add a superuser account.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have the following:

Download and extract the tarball

By downloading DataStax Enterprise, you agree to the DataStax MSA, including the DSE Supplement.

  1. Open a terminal and verify that you have Java 11 installed:

    java -version
    Result

    Here’s an example result for OpenJDK:

    openjdk version "11.0.28" 2025-07-15 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.28+6-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.28+6-LTS, mixed mode)

    Here’s an example result for Oracle Java:

    java version "11.0.2" 2019-01-15 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.2+9-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.2+9-LTS, mixed mode)

    Ensure that the output shows Java 11. If it does not, follow the instructions in Prerequisites to install a supported version.

  2. From a terminal window, install the libaio package that matches your environment:

    • RHEL platform

    • Debian platform

    sudo yum install libaio
    sudo apt-get install libaio1

  3. Download and extract the tarball file manually, or use curl:

    • Manual download

    • curl download

    1. Download the DSE 6.9 tarball file from the DataStax Downloads website. Refer to the DSE 6.9 release notes for the latest patch version.

    2. Extract the tarball file into the directory where you want to install DSE 6.9.

      sudo tar -xzvf dse-6.9.12-bin.tar.gz -C INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY

      The files expand into a DSE_DIRECTORY that contains the version number of the release, such as dse-6.9.12.

    1. Use curl to download the tarball file:

      curl -L -O https://downloads.datastax.com/enterprise/dse-6.9.12-bin.tar.gz

    2. Extract the tarball file into the directory where you want to install DSE 6.9.

      sudo tar -xzvf dse-6.9.12-bin.tar.gz -C INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY

      The files expand into a DSE_DIRECTORY that contains the name of the release, such as /dse-6.9.12.

Configure data and log directories

  1. Use either the default DSE data and log directory locations, or define your own custom directory locations:

    • Default directory locations

    • Custom directory locations

    DSE stores its runtime data and logs in default locations unless otherwise configured in cassandra.yaml. Make sure these directories exist and have the correct ownership before starting DSE.

    Run the following commands to create and change ownership for the default DSE data and log directories:

    sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/cassandra /var/log/cassandra
    sudo chown -R cassandra:cassandra /var/lib/cassandra /var/log/cassandra

    If you plan to run DSE as a different user, replace cassandra:cassandra with that user and group.

    Follow these steps to store DSE data and logs in custom locations:

    1. Create and change ownership for your custom DSE data and log directories. For example:

      sudo mkdir -p \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/commitlog \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/saved_caches \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/hints \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/cdc_raw
      sudo chown -R cassandra:cassandra \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/cdc_raw

      Replace CUSTOM_DIRECTORY with the absolute path to your custom directory locations.

      If you plan to run DSE as a different user, replace cassandra:cassandra with that user and group.

    2. Update the following settings in the cassandra.yaml file to point to your custom directory locations:

      data_file_directories:
  - CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data
commitlog_directory: CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/commitlog
saved_caches_directory: CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/saved_caches
hints_directory: CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dse-data/hints
cdc_raw_directory: CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/cdc_raw

      Replace CUSTOM_DIRECTORY with the absolute path to your custom directory locations.

      Where is the cassandra.yaml file?

      The location of the cassandra.yaml file depends on the type of installation:

      Installation Type Location

      Package installations + Installer-Services installations

      /etc/dse/cassandra/cassandra.yaml

      Tarball installations + Installer-No Services installations

      <installation_location>/resources/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml

  2. To store logs and data in the installation location, use the environment variable CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR to specify the location of the logs directory:

    cd dse-6.9.x
CASSANDRA_LOG_DIR=<pwd>/logs bin/dse cassandra

  3. Optional: If you plan to use DSE Analytics, you can use either the default Spark data and log directory locations or define your own custom directory locations:

    • Default directory locations

    • Custom directory locations

    When you enable DSE Analytics, the Spark components write temporary data and logs to specific directories unless otherwise configured in spark-env.sh or dse.yaml. Make sure these directories exist and have the correct ownership before starting DSE.

    Run the following commands to create and change ownership for the default Spark data and log directories:

    sudo mkdir -p \
  /var/lib/dsefs \
  /var/lib/spark \
  /var/lib/spark/rdd \
  /var/lib/spark/worker \
  /var/log/spark \
  /var/log/spark/master \
  /var/log/spark/alwayson_sql
    sudo chown -R cassandra:cassandra /var/lib/dsefs /var/lib/spark /var/log/spark

    If you plan to run DSE as a different user, replace cassandra:cassandra with that user and group.

    Follow these steps to store Spark data and logs in custom locations:

    1. Create and change ownership for your custom Spark data and log directories. For example:

      sudo mkdir -p \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dsefs \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/rdd \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/worker \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/worker \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/master \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/alwayson_sql
      sudo chown -R cassandra:cassandra \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dsefs \
  CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark

      Replace CUSTOM_DIRECTORY with the absolute path to your custom directory locations.

      If you plan to run DSE as a different user, replace cassandra:cassandra with that user and group.

    2. Update the following environment variables in the spark-env.sh file to point to your custom directory locations:

      export SPARK_WORKER_DIR="CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/worker"
export SPARK_EXECUTOR_DIRS="CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/rdd"
export SPARK_WORKER_LOG_DIR="CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/worker"
export SPARK_MASTER_LOG_DIR="CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/master"
export ALWAYSON_SQL_LOG_DIR="CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/spark/log/alwayson_sql"

      Replace CUSTOM_DIRECTORY with the absolute path to your custom directory locations.

      Where is the spark-env.sh file?

      The default location of the spark-env.sh file depends on the type of installation:

      Installation Type Location

      Package installations + Installer-Services installations

      /etc/dse/spark/spark-env.sh

      Tarball installations + Installer-No Services installations

      <installation_location>/resources/spark/conf/spark-env.sh

    3. In the dse.yaml file, update the location of the DataStax Enterprise file system (DSEFS) work directory to point to your custom location:

      dsefs_options:
  work_dir: CUSTOM_DIRECTORY/dsefs

      Replace CUSTOM_DIRECTORY with the absolute path to your custom directory location.

      Where is the dse.yaml file?

      The location of the dse.yaml file depends on the type of installation:

      Installation Type Location

      Package installations + Installer-Services installations

      /etc/dse/dse.yaml

      Tarball installations + Installer-No Services installations

      <installation_location>/resources/dse/conf/dse.yaml

Configure optimizations

To run stress or performance tests, you may be required to do some additional set up on the node running DSE. Particularly for vector search and SAI experiments, you need to set user resource limits temporarily for DSE. Configure the following settings:

  1. Make the root user changes permanent in the /etc/security/limits.conf tarball installation configuration file:

    <cassandra_user> - memlock unlimited
<cassandra_user> - nofile 1048576
<cassandra_user> - nproc 32768
<cassandra_user> - as unlimited

  2. Disable swap:

    $ sudo swapoff --all

Start DSE

  1. From the directory where you extracted the tarball files, run the following command to start DSE as a standalone process:

    DSE_DIRECTORY/bin/dse cassandra

    For other startup options, see Start DataStax Enterprise as a standalone process.

  2. Verify that DSE is running:

    DSE_DIRECTORY/bin/nodetool status
    Result 
    Datacenter: Cassandra
=====================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address    Load       Tokens  Owns    Host ID                               Rack
UN  127.0.0.1  82.43 KB   128     ?       40725dc8-7843-43ae-9c98-7c532b1f517e  rack1

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