Building a brand new cluster and readying it for production -- advice needed

[Maxim Potekhin <po...@bnl.gov>]

Dear All,

after all the testing and continuous operation of my first cluster,
I've been given an OK to build a second production Cassandra cluster in 
Europe.

There were posts in recent weeks regarding the most stable and solid 
Cassandra version.
I was wondering is anything better has appeared since it was last discussed.

At this juncture, I don't need features, just rock solid stability. Are 
0.8.* versions still acceptable,
since I have experience with these, or should I take the plunge to 1+?

I realize that I won't need more than 8GB RAM because I can't make Java 
heap too big. Is worth it
still to pay money for extra RAM? Is the cache located outside of heap 
in recent versions?

Thanks to all of you for the advice I'm receiving on this board.

Best regards

Maxim

Re: Building a brand new cluster and readying it for production -- advice needed

[Edward Capriolo <ed...@gmail.com>]

Agreed if you are using SSD you likely will not need much as much RAM.
I said "You could always do better with more RAM" not "You should
definitely get more RAM" :)

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 7:37 PM, Maxim Potekhin <po...@bnl.gov> wrote:
> Thank you Edward.
>
> As can be expected, my data volume is a multiple of whatever RAM I can
> realistically buy, and in fact much bigger. In my very limited experience,
> the money might be well spent on multicore CPUs because it makes routine
> operations like compact/repair (which always include writes) so much faster,
> hence reducing
> the periods of high occupancy. I'm trying to scope out how much SSD I will
> need because
> it appears to be an economical solution to problems I had previously had.
>
> Regards,
> Maxim
>
>
> On 3/13/2012 10:40 PM, Edward Capriolo wrote:
>>
>> I am 1.0.7. I would suggest that. The memtable and JAMM stuff is very
>> stable. I would not setup 0.8.X because with 1.1 coming soon 0.8.X is
>> not likely to see to many more minor releases. You can always do
>> better with more RAM up to the size of your data, having more ram them
>> data size will not help noticeably . The off heap row cache can use
>> this and the OS can cache disk blocks with it.
>>
>> Edward
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Maxim Potekhin<po...@bnl.gov>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear All,
>>>
>>> after all the testing and continuous operation of my first cluster,
>>> I've been given an OK to build a second production Cassandra cluster in
>>> Europe.
>>>
>>> There were posts in recent weeks regarding the most stable and solid
>>> Cassandra version.
>>> I was wondering is anything better has appeared since it was last
>>> discussed.
>>>
>>> At this juncture, I don't need features, just rock solid stability. Are
>>> 0.8.* versions still acceptable,
>>> since I have experience with these, or should I take the plunge to 1+?
>>>
>>> I realize that I won't need more than 8GB RAM because I can't make Java
>>> heap
>>> too big. Is worth it
>>> still to pay money for extra RAM? Is the cache located outside of heap in
>>> recent versions?
>>>
>>> Thanks to all of you for the advice I'm receiving on this board.
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Maxim
>>>
>

Re: Building a brand new cluster and readying it for production -- advice needed

[Maxim Potekhin <po...@bnl.gov>]

Thank you Edward.

As can be expected, my data volume is a multiple of whatever RAM I can
realistically buy, and in fact much bigger. In my very limited experience,
the money might be well spent on multicore CPUs because it makes routine
operations like compact/repair (which always include writes) so much 
faster, hence reducing
the periods of high occupancy. I'm trying to scope out how much SSD I 
will need because
it appears to be an economical solution to problems I had previously had.

Regards,
Maxim


On 3/13/2012 10:40 PM, Edward Capriolo wrote:
> I am 1.0.7. I would suggest that. The memtable and JAMM stuff is very
> stable. I would not setup 0.8.X because with 1.1 coming soon 0.8.X is
> not likely to see to many more minor releases. You can always do
> better with more RAM up to the size of your data, having more ram them
> data size will not help noticeably . The off heap row cache can use
> this and the OS can cache disk blocks with it.
>
> Edward
>
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Maxim Potekhin<po...@bnl.gov>  wrote:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> after all the testing and continuous operation of my first cluster,
>> I've been given an OK to build a second production Cassandra cluster in
>> Europe.
>>
>> There were posts in recent weeks regarding the most stable and solid
>> Cassandra version.
>> I was wondering is anything better has appeared since it was last discussed.
>>
>> At this juncture, I don't need features, just rock solid stability. Are
>> 0.8.* versions still acceptable,
>> since I have experience with these, or should I take the plunge to 1+?
>>
>> I realize that I won't need more than 8GB RAM because I can't make Java heap
>> too big. Is worth it
>> still to pay money for extra RAM? Is the cache located outside of heap in
>> recent versions?
>>
>> Thanks to all of you for the advice I'm receiving on this board.
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Maxim
>>

Re: Building a brand new cluster and readying it for production -- advice needed

[Edward Capriolo <ed...@gmail.com>]

I am 1.0.7. I would suggest that. The memtable and JAMM stuff is very
stable. I would not setup 0.8.X because with 1.1 coming soon 0.8.X is
not likely to see to many more minor releases. You can always do
better with more RAM up to the size of your data, having more ram them
data size will not help noticeably . The off heap row cache can use
this and the OS can cache disk blocks with it.

Edward

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Maxim Potekhin <po...@bnl.gov> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> after all the testing and continuous operation of my first cluster,
> I've been given an OK to build a second production Cassandra cluster in
> Europe.
>
> There were posts in recent weeks regarding the most stable and solid
> Cassandra version.
> I was wondering is anything better has appeared since it was last discussed.
>
> At this juncture, I don't need features, just rock solid stability. Are
> 0.8.* versions still acceptable,
> since I have experience with these, or should I take the plunge to 1+?
>
> I realize that I won't need more than 8GB RAM because I can't make Java heap
> too big. Is worth it
> still to pay money for extra RAM? Is the cache located outside of heap in
> recent versions?
>
> Thanks to all of you for the advice I'm receiving on this board.
>
> Best regards
>
> Maxim
>