Native support for multiple logical or physical datacenters within a clusters is one of the key advantages of Cassandra. Instaclustr’s automated provisioning system now makes this easier than ever.

Cassandra Multi Datacenter Replication

One of the the strongest features of Cassandra is its native support for the concept of multiple logical datacentres within a cluster. Multi-datacenter clusters allow Cassandra to support several different scenarios:

• splitting processing workloads (for example, on-line and analytic processing), typically by having multiple logical (Cassanda) datacenters within a single physical datacenter;
• meeting low-latency requirements by having multiple, active-active database instances in different regions or providers; and
• meeting very high availability requirements by having standby (or active-active) database instances in different regions or providers.

At a high level, creating additional datacenters in Cassandra is a fairly straightforward – provision the extra nodes you need, configure them with a different datacenter name, make sure your replication factor is set correctly and you’re away. However, that’s very high level and, particularly in cross-region and cross-provider scenarios, you also have to worry about the infrastructure-level and getting everything communicating.

Fortunately, if you need multi-datacenter Cassandra, Instaclustr now supports automated provisioning of multiple logical physical datacenters within a Cassandra cluster, both within a single provider (AWS, Azure or SoftLayer) region or across multiple regions or datacenters.

Instaclustr Dashboard Adding a Datacenter

The screenshots below show how this is done from the Instaclustr console application.

Given the need to coordinate provisioning of the new Cassandra datacenter with changes to the application schema and client settings, as well as managing impact on an existing cluster, Instaclustr Support will contact you after you request a new datacenter to co-ordinate the set up process with you. Provisioning of the new nodes and network configuration is completely automated with support controlling the timing of each step. A more detailed guide to the steps involved is available in our support portal: https://support.instaclustr.com/hc/en-us/articles/208259488.

If you’re new to Cassandra, setting up a multi-datacenter, multi-region, Cassandra cluster would take days, if not weeks, of work. Our automated provisioning system has reduced this to minutes and gives you the added advantage of knowing you have a proven, tested setup from the beginning. Our system also takes care of all the ongoing configuration management to ensure your cluster stays in great shape.