Deploy Cassandra on Google Cloud C4A (Arm-based Axion VMs)

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/cassandra-on-gcp/_index.md

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+---
+title:  Deploy Cassandra on Google Cloud C4A (Arm-based Axion VMs)
+
+minutes_to_complete: 30
+
+who_is_this_for: This is an introductory topic for software developers migrating Cassandra workloads from x86_64 to Arm-based servers, specifically on Google Cloud C4A virtual machines built on Axion processors.
+
+
+learning_objectives:
+  - Provision an Arm-based SUSE SLES virtual machine on Google Cloud (C4A with Axion processors)
+  - Install and configure Apache Cassandra on a SUSE Arm64 (C4A) instance
+  - Validate Cassandra functionality using CQLSH and baseline keyspace/table operations
+  - Benchmark Cassandra performance using cassandra-stress for read and write workloads on Arm64 (Aarch64) architecture
+
+prerequisites:
+  - A [Google Cloud Platform (GCP)](https://cloud.google.com/free) account with billing enabled
+  - Familiarity with Cassandra architecture, replication, and [Cassandra partitioning & event-driven I/O](https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/stable/cassandra/architecture/)
+
+author: Pareena Verma
+
+##### Tags
+skilllevels: Introductory
+subjects: Databases
+cloud_service_providers: Google Cloud
+
+armips:
+  - Neoverse
+
+tools_software_languages:
+  - Apache Cassandra
+  - Java
+  - cqlsh
+  - cassandra-stress
+
+operatingsystems:
+  - Linux
+
+# ================================================================================
+#       FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY
+# ================================================================================
+further_reading:
+  - resource:
+      title: Google Cloud documentation
+      link: https://cloud.google.com/docs
+      type: documentation
+
+  - resource:
+      title: Apache Cassandra documentation
+      link: https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/
+      type: documentation
+
+  - resource:
+      title: Cassandra-stress documentation
+      link: https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/4.0/cassandra/tools/cassandra_stress.html
+      type: documentation
+
+weight: 1
+layout: "learningpathall"
+learning_path_main_page: "yes"
+---

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/cassandra-on-gcp/_next-steps.md

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+---
+# ================================================================================
+#       FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE
+# ================================================================================
+weight: 21                  # Set to always be larger than the content in this path to be at the end of the navigation.
+title: "Next Steps"         # Always the same, html page title.
+layout: "learningpathall"   # All files under learning paths have this same wrapper for Hugo processing.
+---

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/cassandra-on-gcp/backgraound.md

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+---
+title: Getting started with Cassandra on Google Axion C4A (Arm Neoverse-V2)
+
+weight: 2
+
+layout: "learningpathall"
+---
+
+## Google Axion C4A Arm instances in Google Cloud
+
+Google Axion C4A is a family of Arm-based virtual machines built on Google’s custom Axion CPU, which is based on Arm Neoverse-V2 cores. Designed for high-performance and energy-efficient computing, these virtual machines offer strong performance for modern cloud workloads such as CI/CD pipelines, microservices, media processing, and general-purpose applications.
+
+The C4A series provides a cost-effective alternative to x86 virtual machines while leveraging the scalability and performance benefits of the Arm architecture in Google Cloud.
+
+To learn more about Google Axion, refer to the [Introducing Google Axion Processors, our new Arm-based CPUs](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/introducing-googles-new-arm-based-cpu) blog.
+
+## Cassandra
+
+Cassandra is a highly scalable, distributed NoSQL database designed to handle large amounts of data across many commodity servers without a single point of failure.
+
+It provides high availability, fault tolerance, and linear scalability, making it ideal for real-time big data applications and high-throughput workloads.
+
+Cassandra is widely used for time-series data, IoT applications, recommendation engines, and large-scale cloud services. Learn more from the [Cassandra official website](https://cassandra.apache.org/) and its [documentation](https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/).

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/cassandra-on-gcp/baseline.md

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+---
+title: Apache Cassandra baseline testing on Google Axion C4A Arm Virtual machine
+weight: 5
+
+### FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY
+layout: learningpathall
+---
+
+
+Since Cassandra has been successfully installed on your GCP C4A Arm virtual machine, follow these steps to verify that it is running and functioning properly.
+
+## Baseline Testing for Apache Cassandra
+
+This guide helps verify the installation and perform baseline testing of **Apache Cassandra**.
+
+## Start Cassandra
+
+Run Cassandra in the background:
+
+```console
+cassandra -R
+```
+
+The `-R` flag allows Cassandra to run in the background as a daemon, so you can continue using the terminal. The first startup may take **30–60 seconds** as it initializes the necessary files and processes.
+
+Check logs to ensure Cassandra started successfully:
+
+```console
+tail -f ~/cassandra/logs/system.log
+```
+Look for the message **"Startup complete"**, which indicates Cassandra is fully initialized.
+
+### Check Cassandra Status
+```console
+nodetool status
+```
+You should see an output similar to:
+
+```output
+Datacenter: datacenter1
+=======================
+Status=Up/Down
+|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
+--  Address    Load        Tokens  Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
+UN  127.0.0.1  162.51 KiB  16      100.0%            78774686-39f3-47e7-87c3-3abc4f02a835  rack1
+```
+The `nodetool status` command displays the health and status of your Cassandra node(s). For a single-node setup, the output should indicate that the node is **Up (U)** and **Normal (N)**. This confirms that your Cassandra instance is running and ready to accept queries.
+
+### Connect with CQLSH (Cassandra Query Shell)
+**cqlsh** is the interactive command-line shell for Cassandra. It allows you to run Cassandra Query Language (CQL) commands to interact with your database, create keyspaces and tables, insert data, and perform queries.
+
+```console
+cqlsh
+```
+You’ll enter the CQL (Cassandra Query Language) shell.
+
+### Create a Keyspace (like a database)
+A **keyspace** in Cassandra is similar to a database in SQL systems. Here, we create a simple keyspace `testks` with a **replication factor of 1**, meaning data will only be stored on one node (suitable for a single-node setup).
+
+```sql
+CREATE KEYSPACE testks WITH replication = {'class':'SimpleStrategy','replication_factor' : 1};
+```
+Check if created:
+
+```sql
+DESCRIBE KEYSPACES;
+```
+
+You should see an output similar to:
+
+```output
+cqlsh> DESCRIBE KEYSPACES;
+
+system       system_distributed  system_traces  system_virtual_schema
+system_auth  system_schema       system_views   testks
+```
+
+### Create a Table
+Tables in Cassandra are used to store structured data. This step creates a `users` table with three columns: `id` (unique identifier), `name` (text), and `age` (integer). The `id` column is the primary key.
+
+```sql
+USE testks;
+
+CREATE TABLE users (
+   id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
+   name text,
+   age int
+);
+```
+
+### Insert Data
+We insert two sample rows into the `users` table. The `uuid()` function generates a unique identifier for each row, which ensures that every user entry has a unique primary key.
+
+```sql
+INSERT INTO users (id, name, age) VALUES (uuid(), 'Alice', 30);
+INSERT INTO users (id, name, age) VALUES (uuid(), 'Bob', 25);
+```
+
+### Query Data
+This command retrieves all rows from the `users` table. Successful retrieval confirms that data insertion works correctly and that queries return expected results.
+
+```sql
+SELECT * FROM users;
+```
+
+You should see an output similar to:
+
+```output
+ id                                   | age | name
+--------------------------------------+-----+-------
+ c08dafde-17f0-4a4a-82b8-54455bb07836 |  25 |   Bob
+ d47eb93c-3988-4aa1-bc85-9561500a6893 |  30 | Alice
+
+(2 rows)
+```
+
+This baseline test verifies that Cassandra 5.0.5 is installed and running correctly on the VM. It confirms the node status, allows connection via `cqlsh`, and ensures basic operations like creating a keyspace, table, inserting, and querying data work as expected.