How To Install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Cassandra is a NoSQL database intended for storing large amounts of data in a decentralized, highly available cluster. NoSQL refers to a database with a data model other than the tabular relations used in relational databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL. The Apache Cassandra database is the right choice when you need scalability and high availability without compromising performance.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Apache Cassandra on a Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo useror access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install apt-transport-https

Step 2. Installing Java.

Install the Java package by typing:

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

Verify Installed Java Version:

java -version

Step 3. Installing Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu.

Import the repository’s GPG using the following wget command:

wget -q -O - https://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/KEYS | sudo apt-key add -

Next, add the Cassandra repository to the system:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/debian 311x main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.list'

Once the repository is enabled, update the apt package list and install the latest version of Apache Cassandra by typing:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cassandra

Cassandra’s service will automatically start after the installation process is complete. You can verify that Cassandra is running by typing:

$ nodetool status
Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address    Load        Tokens       Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  127.0.0.1  114.55 KiB  512          80.0%            d8c27e24-e30-4eeb-883c-59ramonaba3ca  rack1

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Cassandra. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 18.04. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official Apache Cassandra website.