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
Cassandra operator versions and image tags for deployment
Installing the Cassandra operator online
- Create Security Context Constraints
- Install Cassandra
Installing Cassandra offline
Deploying and verifying Cassandra (online and offline)

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)	1.19.0	0.47.0	artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:v1.19.0 artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2 artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2 artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0

Installing the Cassandra operator online

To install the Cassandra operator in an online environment, complete the steps for your platform.

Create Security Context Constraints

If you are using a Red Hat® OpenShift® cluster, create Security Context Constraints (SCC) before you deploy the Cassandra operator.

To create SCCs, 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:default

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

Install Cassandra

Complete these steps to install the Cassandra data store.

Create the instana-cassandra namespace:

kubectl create namespace 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=0.47.0 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsGroup=999 --set securityContext.runAsUser=999 --set image.registry=artifact-public.instana.io --set image.repository=ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le --set image.tag=v1.19.0 --set appVersion=1.19.0  --set imageConfig.k8ssandraClient=artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2 --set imageConfig.systemLogger=artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0 --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/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2
  systemLoggerImage: artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0
  k8ssandraClientImage: artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2
  serverVersion: "4.1.2"
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  podTemplateSpec:
    spec:
      imagePullSecrets:
      - name: instana-registry
      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).

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:v1.19.0
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2
docker pull artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0

Complete the following steps on your Instana host.

Retag the images to your internal image registry.

docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:v1.19.0 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:v1.19.0
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2 <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2
docker tag artifact-public.instana.io/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0

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

docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-operator-ppc64le:v1.19.0
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/cass-management-api-ppc64le:4.1.2
docker push <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0

Create the instana-cassandra namespace:

kubectl create namespace 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-0.47.0.tgz -n instana-cassandra --create-namespace --version=0.47.0 --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=v1.19.0 --set appVersion=1.19.0  --set imageConfig.k8ssandraClient=<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2 --set imageConfig.systemLogger=<internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0

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:4.1.2
  systemLoggerImage: <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/system-logger-ppc64le:v1.19.0
  k8ssandraClientImage: <internal-image-registry>/ppc64le-oss/k8ssandra-client-ppc64le:v0.2.2
  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>
      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