Creating a Cassandra data store on Linux on Power (ppc64le)

You can install the Cassandra operator and set up the data store.

Before you begin

Make sure that you prepared your online and offline host to pull images from the external repository. Also, ensure that the correct Helm repo is added.

For more information, see Preparing for data store installation.

Cassandra operator versions and image tags for deployment

The following images are needed for the pinned Helm chart or operator versions.

Table 1. Cassandra operator versions and image tags
Platform	Operator versions	Helm chart version	Image with tag
Linux® on Power® (ppc64le)	1.24.0	0.57.4	artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/operator/cass-operator:1.24.0_v0.25.0 artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/k8ssandra-client:0.7.0_v0.16.0 artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/cassandra:4.1.8_v0.23.0 artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/system-logger:1.24.0_v0.12.0

Creating Security Context Constraints (online and offline)

If you are using a Red Hat® OpenShift® cluster, create a Security Context Constraints (SCC) resource before you deploy the Cassandra operator. You need the SCC resource in both online and offline deployments.

To create the SCC resource, complete the following steps:

Create a file, such as cassandra-scc.yaml, as follows:

apiVersion: security.openshift.io/v1
kind: SecurityContextConstraints
metadata:
  name: cassandra-scc
runAsUser:
  type: MustRunAs
  uid: 999
seLinuxContext:
  type: RunAsAny
fsGroup:
  type: RunAsAny
allowHostDirVolumePlugin: false
allowHostNetwork: true
allowHostPorts: true
allowPrivilegedContainer: false
allowHostIPC: true
allowHostPID: true
readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
users:
  - system:serviceaccount:instana-cassandra:cass-operator
  - system:serviceaccount:instana-cassandra:cassandra

Apply the file by running the following command:
```
kubectl apply -f cassandra-scc.yaml
```

Installing Cassandra online

To install the Cassandra data store in an online environment, complete the following steps:

Create the instana-cassandra namespace:

kubectl create namespace instana-cassandra

Create the cassandra service account.

kubectl create serviceaccount cassandra -n instana-cassandra

Create image pull secrets. Update the <download_key> value with your own download key.

kubectl create secret docker-registry instana-registry --namespace instana-cassandra \
--docker-username=_ \
--docker-password=<download_key> \
--docker-server=artifact-public.instana.io

Install the Cassandra operator.

helm install cass-operator instana/cass-operator -n instana-cassandra --create-namespace --version=0.57.4 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsUser=999 --set image.registry=artifact-public.instana.io --set image.repository=self-hosted-images/3rd-party/operator/cass-operator --set image.tag=1.24.0_v0.25.0 --set appVersion=1.24.0  --set imageConfig.k8ssandraClient=artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/k8ssandra-client:0.7.0_v0.16.0 --set imageConfig.systemLogger=artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/system-logger:1.24.0_v0.12.0 --set imagePullSecrets[0].name="instana-registry"

Create a YAML file, for example cassandra.yaml, with the Cassandra configuration.

apiVersion: cassandra.datastax.com/v1beta1
kind: CassandraDatacenter
metadata:
  name: cassandra
spec:
  clusterName: instana
  serverType: cassandra
  serverImage: artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/cassandra:4.1.8_v0.23.0
  systemLoggerImage: artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/system-logger:1.24.0_v0.12.0
  k8ssandraClientImage: artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/k8ssandra-client:0.7.0_v0.16.0
  serverVersion: "4.1.8"
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  podTemplateSpec:
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: cassandra
      imagePullSecrets:
      - name: instana-registry
      containers:
        - name: cassandra
          image: 'artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/cassandra:4.1.8_v0.23.0'
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "8Gi"  # Adjust based on your available resources
              cpu: "2"       # Adjust as needed
            limits:
              memory: "16Gi"  # Adjust to your available resources
              cpu: "4"        # Adjust as needed
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /api/v0/probes/readiness
              port: 8080
              scheme: HTTP
            initialDelaySeconds: 60  
            timeoutSeconds: 15       
            periodSeconds: 20        
            successThreshold: 1
            failureThreshold: 3
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /api/v0/probes/liveness
              port: 8080
              scheme: HTTP
            initialDelaySeconds: 30  
            timeoutSeconds: 15       
            periodSeconds: 20        
            successThreshold: 1
            failureThreshold: 3
          terminationMessagePath: /dev/termination-log
          lifecycle:
            preStop:
              exec:
                command:
                  - curl
                  - '-X'
                  - POST
                  - '-s'
                  - '-m'
                  - '30'  
                  - '-o'
                  - /dev/null
                  - '--show-error'
                  - '--fail'
                  - 'http://localhost:8080/api/v0/ops/node/drain'
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NODE_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: spec.nodeName
            - name: DS_LICENSE
              value: accept
            - name: USE_MGMT_API
              value: 'true'
            - name: MGMT_API_NO_KEEP_ALIVE
              value: 'true'
            - name: MGMT_API_EXPLICIT_START
              value: 'true'
          ports:
            - name: native
              containerPort: 9042
              protocol: TCP
            - name: tls-native
              containerPort: 9142
              protocol: TCP
            - name: internode
              containerPort: 7000
              protocol: TCP
            - name: tls-internode
              containerPort: 7001
              protocol: TCP
            - name: jmx
              containerPort: 7199
              protocol: TCP
            - name: mgmt-api-http
              containerPort: 8080
              protocol: TCP
            - name: prometheus
              containerPort: 9103
              protocol: TCP
            - name: metrics
              containerPort: 9000
              protocol: TCP
          volumeMounts:
            - name: server-logs
              mountPath: /var/log/cassandra
            - name: server-data
              mountPath: /var/lib/cassandra
            - name: server-config
              mountPath: /config
          terminationMessagePolicy: File
        - name: server-system-logger
          image: 'artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/system-logger:1.24.0_v0.12.0'
          env:
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: NODE_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: spec.nodeName
            - name: CLUSTER_NAME
              value: instana
            - name: DATACENTER_NAME
              value: cassandra
            - name: RACK_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: 'metadata.labels[''cassandra.datastax.com/rack'']'
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
          resources:
            limits:
              memory: 256Mi  
            requests:
              cpu: 100m
              memory: 128Mi
  managementApiAuth:
    insecure: {}  
  size: 3
  allowMultipleNodesPerWorker: false
  storageConfig:
    cassandraDataVolumeClaimSpec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 200Gi  # Adjust the storage size if necessary
  config:
  jvm-server-options:
    initial_heap_size: "12G"
    max_heap_size: "12G"
    additional-jvm-opts:
      - -Dcassandra.allow_unsafe_aggressive_sstable_expiration=true
  cassandra-yaml:
    authenticator: org.apache.cassandra.auth.PasswordAuthenticator
    authorizer: org.apache.cassandra.auth.CassandraAuthorizer
    role_manager: org.apache.cassandra.auth.CassandraRoleManager
    memtable_flush_writers: 8
    auto_snapshot: false
    gc_warn_threshold_in_ms: 10000
    otc_coalescing_strategy: DISABLED
    memtable_allocation_type: offheap_objects
    num_tokens: 256
    drop_compact_storage_enabled: true

Complete the steps in Deploying and verifying Cassandra (online and offline).

Installing Cassandra offline

If you didn't yet pull the Cassandra images from the external registry when you prepared for installation, you can pull them now. Run the following commands on your bastion host. Then, copy the images to your Instana host that is in your air-gapped environment.

docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.25.0
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:0.7.0_v0.16.0
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.8_v0.23.0
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.12.0

Complete the following steps on your Instana host.

Retag the images to your internal image registry.

docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/operator/cass-operator:1.24.0_v0.25.0 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.25.0
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/k8ssandra-client:0.7.0_v0.16.0 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:0.7.0_v0.16.0
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/cassandra:4.1.8_v0.23.0 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.8_v0.23.0
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/self-hosted-images/3rd-party/datastore/system-logger:1.24.0_v0.12.0<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.12.0

Push the images to your internal image registry on your bastion host.

docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.25.0
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:0.7.0_v0.16.0
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.8_v0.23.0
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.12.0

Create the instana-cassandra namespace:

kubectl create namespace instana-cassandra

Create the cassandra service account.

kubectl create serviceaccount cassandra -n instana-cassandra

Optional: Create an image pull secret if your internal image registry needs authentication.

kubectl create secret docker-registry <secret_name> --namespace instana-cassandra \
--docker-username=<registry_username> \
--docker-password=<registry_password> \
--docker-server=<internal-image-registry>:<internal-image-registry-port> \
--docker-email=<registry_email>

Install the Cassandra operator. If you created an image pull secret in the previous step, add --set imagePullSecrets[0].name="<internal-image-registry-pull-secret>" to the following command.

helm install cass-operator cass-operator-0.57.4.tgz -n instana-cassandra --create-namespace --version=0.57.4 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsUser=999 --set image.registry=<internal-image-registry> --set image.repository=ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le --set image.tag=1.24.0_v0.25.0 --set appVersion=1.24.0  --set imageConfig.k8ssandraClient=<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:0.7.0_v0.16.0 --set imageConfig.systemLogger=<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.12.0

Create a YAML file, for example cassandra.yaml, with the Cassandra configuration:

apiVersion: cassandra.datastax.com/v1beta1
kind: CassandraDatacenter
metadata:
  name: cassandra
spec:
  clusterName: instana
  serverType: cassandra
  serverImage: <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.8_v0.23.0
  systemLoggerImage: <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:1.24.0_v0.12.0
  k8ssandraClientImage: <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:0.7.0_v0.16.0
  serverVersion: "4.1.2"
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  podTemplateSpec:
    spec:
    # Optional: if you created an image pull secret for your internal registry, uncomment the following lines and update the image pull secret information.
    # imagePullSecrets:
    #   - name: <internal-image-registry-pull-secret>
      serviceAccountName: cassandra
      containers:
      - name: cassandra
  managementApiAuth:
    insecure: {}
  size: 3
  allowMultipleNodesPerWorker: false
  storageConfig:
    cassandraDataVolumeClaimSpec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 200Gi
  config:
    jvm-server-options:
      initial_heap_size: "12G"
      max_heap_size: "12G"
      additional-jvm-opts:
        - -Dcassandra.allow_unsafe_aggressive_sstable_expiration=true
    cassandra-yaml:
      authenticator: org.apache.cassandra.auth.PasswordAuthenticator
      authorizer: org.apache.cassandra.auth.CassandraAuthorizer
      role_manager: org.apache.cassandra.auth.CassandraRoleManager
      memtable_flush_writers: 8
      auto_snapshot: false
      gc_warn_threshold_in_ms: 10000
      otc_coalescing_strategy: DISABLED
      memtable_allocation_type: offheap_objects
      num_tokens: 256
      drop_compact_storage_enabled: true

Complete the steps in Deploying and verifying Cassandra (online and offline).

Deploying and verifying Cassandra (online and offline)

When you deploy Cassandra, the CassandraDatacenter by default creates a superuser, for example <clustername>-superuser. The <clustername> is the value that is specified in .spec.clusterName section in the cassandra.yaml file. In the following commands, the secret name instana-superuser is used as an example.

To deploy the Cassandra instance and create the data store, complete the following steps:

Deploy Cassandra by running the following command.

kubectl apply -f cassandra.yaml --namespace=instana-cassandra

Retrieve the password of the instana-superuser.

kubectl get secret instana-superuser -n instana-cassandra --template='{{index .data.password | base64decode}}' && echo

Store the password in the config.yaml file. Replace <RETRIEVED_FROM_SECRET> with the password that you got in the previous step.

datastoreConfigs:
  ...
  cassandraConfigs:
    - user: instana-superuser
      password: <RETRIEVED_FROM_SECRET>
      adminUser: instana-superuser
      adminPassword: <RETRIEVED_FROM_SECRET>
  ...

Verify the deployment of the Cassandra data store.
```
kubectl get all -n instana-cassandra
```

If the Cassandra data store is deployed successfully, then the result of the command might be as the following output:

NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/cass-operator-57dcc8884f-92knc    1/1     Running   0          36m
pod/instana-cassandra-default-sts-0   2/2     Running   0          26m
pod/instana-cassandra-default-sts-1   2/2     Running   0          26m
pod/instana-cassandra-default-sts-2   2/2     Running   0          26m

NAME                                                TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                                        AGE
service/cass-operator-webhook-service               ClusterIP   192.168.1.55   <none>        443/TCP                                        36m
service/instana-cassandra-additional-seed-service   ClusterIP   None           <none>        <none>                                         26m
service/instana-cassandra-all-pods-service          ClusterIP   None           <none>        9042/TCP,8080/TCP,9103/TCP,9000/TCP            26m
service/instana-cassandra-service                   ClusterIP   None           <none>        9042/TCP,9142/TCP,8080/TCP,9103/TCP,9000/TCP   26m
service/instana-seed-service                        ClusterIP   None           <none>        <none>                                         26m

NAME                            READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/cass-operator   1/1     1            1           36m

NAME                                       DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/cass-operator-57dcc8884f   1         1         1       36m

NAME                                             READY   AGE
statefulset.apps/instana-cassandra-default-sts   3/3     26m