How To Install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04 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 20.04 (Focal Fossa) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• 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 user or 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 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

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.

Run the following command to install OpenJDK:

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

To verify if OpenJDK is installed and running, run the commands below:

java -version

Step 3. Download and Installing Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04.

Now we import the repository’s GPG key and add the Cassandra repository to the system:

wget -q -O - https://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/KEYS | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/debian 311x main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.list'

After the steps above, run the commands below to install it:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cassandra

Apache Cassandra service will automatically start after the installation process is complete. To verify if Cassandra is correctly installed, run the commands below:

nodetool status

To interact with Cassandra through CQL (the Cassandra Query Language) you can use a command-line utility named cqlsh:

cqlsh

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Cassandra. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official Apache Cassandra website.