# Managing KUDO Cassandra Operator instances

Table of Contents

Managing KUDO Cassandra Operator instances

# Updating parameters

Installing an instance is just the beginning. After doing so, it is likely that you will need to change the instance's parameter to:

Scale the cluster horizontally
Configure specific cassandra.yaml or JVM option settings
Enable or disable monitoring

To change an instance's parameters, the kubectl kudo update command can be used.

kubectl kudo update cassandra \
        --instance analytics-cassandra \
        --namespace production \
        -p SOME_PARAMETER=SOME_VALUE

For example, the following command starts a rolling configuration update setting cassandra.yaml's hinted_handoff_throttle_in_kb to 2048 in all of the cluster nodes'.

kubectl kudo update cassandra \
        --instance analytics-cassandra \
        --namespace production \
        -p HINTED_HANDOFF_THROTTLE_IN_KB=2048

Multiple parameters can be updated in parallel as well.

kubectl kudo update cassandra \
        --instance analytics-cassandra \
        --namespace production \
        -p CONCURRENT_READS=32 \
        -p CONCURRENT_WRITES=64 \
        -p JVM_OPT_RING_DELAY_MS=60000ms

When kubectl kudo update commands are run KUDO will start working on the "deploy" plan, which takes care of the rolling configuration update. You can check for its status similarly to how we did it after installing an instance.

kubectl kudo plan status deploy \
        --instance analytics-cassandra \
        --namespace production

It is advisable to wait for the plan to reach a "COMPLETE" status before performing any other operations.

Check out the parameters reference for a complete list of all configurable settings.

# Upgrading

See the document on upgrading.

# Failure handling

When using local storage, a Cassandra pod is using a local persistent volume that is only available when the pod is scheduled in a specific node. Any rescheduling will land the pod to the very same node due to the volume node affinity.

This is an issue in case of a total Kubernetes node loss: the pods running on an unreachable Node enter the states Terminating or Unknown. Kubernetes doesn’t allow the deletion of those pods to avoid any brain-split.

KUDO Cassandra provides a way to automatically handle these failure modes and move a Cassandra node that is located on a failed Kubernetes node to a different node in the cluster.

# Recovery controller

To enable this feature, use the following parameter:

RECOVERY_CONTROLLER=true

When this parameter is set, KUDO Cassandra will deploy an additional controller that monitors the deployed Cassandra pods. If any pod reaches an unschedulable state and detects that the kubernetes node is gone, it will remove the local volume of that pod and allow Kubernetes to schedule the pod to a different node. Additionally, the rescheduling can be triggered by an eviction label.

The recovery controller relies on the Kubernetes state of a node, not the actual running processes. This means that the failure of the hardware on which a Cassandra node runs does not trigger the recovery. The only way an automatic recovery is triggered is when the Kubernetes node is removed from the cluster by kubectl delete node . This allows a Kubernetes node to be shut down for a maintenance period without KUDO Cassandra triggering a recovery.

⚠️ This feature will remove persistent volume claims in the Kubernetes cluster. This may lead to data loss. Additionally, you must not use any keyspaces with a replication factor of ONE, or the data of the failed Cassandra node will be lost.

# Node eviction

Evicting a Cassandra node is similar to Failure recovery described above. The recovery controller will automate certain steps. The main difference is that during node eviction the Kubernetes node should stay available, i.e. other pods on that node shouldn’t get evicted. To evict a Cassandra node, first cordon or taint the Kubernetes node the Cassandra node is running on. Alternatively, add the label kudo-cassandra/cordon=true to the pod to evict if the whole node shouldn't be cordoned. This ensures that the pod, once deleted, won’t be restarted on the same node. Next, mark the pod for eviction by adding the label kudo-cassandra/evict=true. This will trigger the recovery controller and it will run the same steps as in failure recovery. As a result, the old pod will be terminated and rescheduled on a different Kubernetes node.

# Manual node replacement

Cassandra nodes can be replaced manually. This is done by decommissioning a node and bootstrapping a new one. The KUDO Cassandra operator will take care of the bootstrapping using the same logic that is used in the failure recovery scenario mentioned above.

To replace a Cassandra node cordon the Kubernetes node the respective pod is running on. Manually delete the pod. The pod will be recreated and Kubernetes will try to redeploy it on the same node because its PVC is still on that node. Because the node has been cordoned, nothing will be deployed. Delete the PVC belonging to that pod. Keep in mind that this deletion might also delete the persistent volume claimed by the PVC. Delete the pod again. The pod will now get redeployed on a new node and a new PVC will be created on the new node as well. The new pod will bootstrap a Cassandra node.

# Accessing

See the document on accessing Cassandra.

# Debugging

Some helpful commands. Assuming $instance_name and $instance_namespace are set these should be copy-pastable.

# Plan status

kubectl kudo plan status deploy \
        --instance="${instance_name}" \
        --namespace="${instance_namespace}"

# Get pods

kubectl get pods -n "${instance_namespace}"

# Pod container logs

pod="0"
container="cassandra" # container can also be "prometheus-exporter"

kubectl logs "${instance_name}-node-${pod}" \
        -n "${instance_namespace}" \
        -c "${container}"

# Describe pod

pod="0"

kubectl describe "pods/${instance_name}-node-${pod}" \
        -n "${instance_namespace}"

# Cassandra nodetool status

pod="0"

kubectl exec "${instance_name}-node-${pod}" \
        -n "${instance_namespace}" \
        -c cassandra \
        -- \
        bash -c "nodetool status"

# KUDO controller/manager logs

kubectl logs kudo-controller-manager-0 \
        -n kudo-system \
        --all-containers

# Get endpoints

kubectl get events \
        --sort-by='{.lastTimestamp}' \
        -n "${instance_namespace}"

# Kubernetes events in the instance namespace

kubectl get events \
        --sort-by='{.lastTimestamp}' \
        -n "${instance_namespace}"

# Uninstall an operator instance

This will uninstall the instance and delete all its persistent volume claims causing irreversible data loss.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mesosphere/kudo-cassandra-operator/master/scripts/uninstall_operator.sh

chmod +x uninstall_operator.sh

./uninstall_operator.sh \
  --operator cassandra \
  --instance "${instance_name}" \
  --namespace "${instance_namespace}"

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