The 512 MB/1 CPU system is too small. The 1GB/1 CPU can technically run Cassandra but it is too small. You should likely start with 2GB/2 CPU systems but expect to upgrade.
Select them in the same region for right now.
I went with Ubuntu 14 and the commands here will presume that. The commands were done from the root account. This will also presume that you are doing a multi-node cluster (3 is used here).
I was able to get away with using other Java flavors on the single node install. On the cluster this did not work. Go with Oracle 7 until Cassandra/Datastax say otherwise.
Install Java
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
Set environment variables
nano /etc/profile
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin
JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$JRE_HOME/bin
export JAVA_HOME
export JRE_HOME
export PATH
Install and set alternative Javas
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/java" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/javac" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/javaws" 1
sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/java
sudo update-alternatives --set javac /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/javac
sudo update-alternatives --set javaws /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/javaws
sudo reboot
Note: Datastax loves using nano and not vi/vim
First set up the iptables rules and make them persist
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 7000 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 7199 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 9042 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 9160 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 61620 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 61621 -j ACCEPT
sudo apt-get install iptables-persistent
Checkout use of iptables-persistent here: http://www.microhowto.info/howto/make_the_configuration_of_iptables_persistent_on_debian.html
Add the DataStax Community repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
echo "deb http://debian.datastax.com/community stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
Add the DataStax repository key to your aptitude trusted keys
curl -L http://debian.datastax.com/debian/repo_key | sudo apt-key add -
Install the package.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dsc20=2.0.11-1 cassandra=2.0.11 (version may change; check http://www.datastax.com/documentation/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/install/installDeb_t.html)
nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra-env.sh
Uncomment JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Djava.rmi.server.hostname= and replace the place holder
test with the ip of the machine
Stop the service on each node and clear the initial gossip history that gets populated by this initial start:
sudo service cassandra stop
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/*
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cassandra/*
Update configuration file Node 0
nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
cluster_name: 'HackAndSlash'
seeds: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" **[Do not use all nodes as seed nodes]**
listen_address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx **[the ip of the node]**
rpc_address: 0.0.0.0
endpoint_snitch: RackInferringSnitch
auto_bootstrap: false **[only if this is the first time the cluster is coming up]**
Update configuration file Node 1
nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
cluster_name: 'HackAndSlash'
seeds: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" **[Do not use all nodes as seed nodes]**
listen_address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx **[the ip of the node]**
rpc_address: 0.0.0.0
endpoint_snitch: RackInferringSnitch
auto_bootstrap: false **[only if this is the first time the cluster is coming up]**
Update configuration file Node 2
nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
cluster_name: 'HackAndSlash'
seeds: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" **[Do not use all nodes as seed nodes]**
listen_address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx **[the ip of the node]**
rpc_address: 0.0.0.0
endpoint_snitch: RackInferringSnitch
auto_bootstrap: false **[only if this is the first time the cluster is coming up]**
Start Seed Nodes First [very important]. Then start the remaining nodes
sudo service cassandra start
Check your node status using the nodetool from the command line
nodetool status
Datastax offers OpsCenter to help with monitoring the system. If you decide to do this you can use the smallest Digital Ocean drop. I tried installing on one of the nodes. This did not work well.
For the main server you would do this:
Add the DataStax Community repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
echo "deb http://debian.datastax.com/community stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/datastax.community.list
Add the DataStax repository key to your aptitude trusted keys
curl -L http://debian.datastax.com/debian/repo_key | sudo apt-key add -
Install the OpsCenter
apt-get update
apt-get install opscenter
sudo service opscenterd start
To activate authentication you need to edit /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf file and changed enabled = False to enabled = True. The default account is admin with a password of admin (change yours).
Automatic installation of the agent can be done via the OpsCenter web page. If you want to try the manual intall you can do the following:
On each of the nodes you need to install the OpsCenter agent:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install datastax-agent
In address.yaml set stomp_interface to the IP address that OpsCenter is using.
(You may have to create the file.)
$ echo "stomp_interface: <reachable_opscenterd_ip>" | sudo tee -a /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml
Start the agent
sudo service datastax-agent start
Check out the documentation here: http://www.datastax.com/documentation/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/operations/ops_tune_jvm_c.html
Edit nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra-env.sh and set MAX_HEAP_SIZE and HEAP_NEWSIZE accordingly
Then sudo service cassandra stop, count to 15 and then sudo service cassandra start