Okay, let’s talk about what I did with big cass today. I decided it was time to actually try setting up a small cluster myself, just to see how it goes.
Getting Started
First off, I needed to get the software. Went and downloaded the package. Nothing fancy, just the standard procedure. Once I had the files, I unpacked them into a folder where I keep my test stuff. Pretty straightforward so far.
Then came the configuration part. I knew I had to mess with the main config file, the one they call . I opened it up. My main goal was just to get a couple of nodes talking to each other on my local machine, simulating a tiny cluster.
Configuring the Nodes
For the first node, I didn’t change too much. I gave the cluster a simple name, like ‘TestCluster’. I made sure the `listen_address` was set correctly to my machine’s IP. Also checked the `rpc_address`. That seemed enough for node one.
For the second node, I copied the whole directory. The key thing here was changing the ports so they wouldn’t clash with the first node running on the same machine. I incremented the storage port, the JMX port, and the native transport port. Also, I needed to tell this second node where to find the first one. So, in its `*`, under the `seed_provider` section, I put the IP address of the first node. This is important so they can find each other and form a cluster.
Oh, and I had to make sure each node had its own separate data and log directories. Changed those paths in the config file too. Didn’t want them writing over each other.
Running and Checking
With the configs hopefully sorted, I started the first node. Opened a terminal, navigated to the `bin` directory, and ran the startup script. Waited a little while for it to initialize. To check if it was running okay, I used the nodetool status command. It showed one node, status ‘UN’ which means Up and Normal. Good start.
Then, I started the second node from its own directory in another terminal window. Gave it some time to boot up and gossip with the first node. Went back to the first terminal and ran nodetool status again. Success! This time, it showed two nodes in the list, both marked as ‘UN’. That felt pretty good, seeing them both listed there as part of the same cluster.
Quick Test
Just to be sure things were working, I connected using the command-line shell, `cqlsh`. I created a basic keyspace with a simple replication factor of 2, since I had two nodes. Then I made a simple table, inserted a row of data. I specifically connected to the second node using `cqlsh` with its specific port and ran a select query for that data. The data showed up! That confirmed the data was getting replicated across the nodes.
Wrapping Up
So, that was my practice for today. Got a two-node big cass cluster up and running locally. It took a bit of fiddling with the config files, especially managing the ports and data directories for running on one machine, but the nodetool status command was super helpful to see if things were working. Felt like a productive session. Ready to do some more experiments with it next time.
