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AxonOps Cassandra agent installation

This agent will enable metrics, logs and events collection with adaptive repairs and backups for Cassandra.

See Installing axon-agent for Cassandra in Docker if you are running Cassandra under Docker.

Available versions

  • Apache Cassandra 4.1.x
  • Apache Cassandra 4.0.x
  • Apache Cassandra 3.11.x
  • Apache Cassandra 3.0.x

Step 1 - Installation

Make sure that the {version} of your Cassandra and Cassandra agent are compatible from the compatibility matrix.

CentOS / RedHat

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/axonops-yum.repo << EOL
[axonops-yum]
name=axonops-yum
baseurl=https://packages.axonops.com/yum/
enabled=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
gpgcheck=0
EOL

sudo yum install axon-cassandra{version}-agent

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl gnupg ca-certificates
curl https://packages.axonops.com/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://packages.axonops.com/apt axonops-apt main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/axonops-apt.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install axon-cassandra{version}-agent

For new versions of Debian (>= bookworm) and Ubuntu (>= 22.04) the process of setting up the apt repository has changed. See below:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y curl gnupg ca-certificates
curl -L https://packages.axonops.com/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/axonops.gpg
echo "deb [arch=arm64,amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/axonops.gpg] https://packages.axonops.com/apt axonops-apt main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/axonops-apt.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install axon-cassandra{version}-agent

Note: This will install the AxonOps Cassandra agent and its dependency: axon-agent

Step 2 - Agent Configuration

Update the following highlighted lines from /etc/axonops/axon-agent.yml:

axon-server:
    hosts: "axon-server_endpoint" # Your axon-server IP or hostname, e.g. axonops.mycompany.com
    port: 1888 # The default axon-server port is 1888

axon-agent:
    org: "my-company" # Your organisation name

NTP:
    host: "ntp.mycompany.com" # Your NTP server IP address or hostname

Step 3 - Configure Cassandra

Edit cassandra-env.sh, which is usually located in /<Cassandra Installation Directory>/conf/cassandra-env.sh for tarball installs or /etc/cassandra/cassandra-env.sh for package installs, and append the following line at the end of the file:

JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -javaagent:/usr/share/axonops/axon-cassandra{version}-agent.jar=/etc/axonops/axon-agent.yml"

for example with Cassandra agent version 3.11:

JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -javaagent:/usr/share/axonops/axon-cassandra3.11-agent.jar=/etc/axonops/axon-agent.yml"

Make sure that this configuration will not get overridden by an automation tool.

Step 4 - Add axonops user to Cassandra user group and Cassandra user to axonops group

sudo usermod -aG <your_cassandra_group> axonops
sudo usermod -aG axonops <your_cassandra_user>

Step 5 - Start Cassandra

Step 6 - Start axon-agent

sudo systemctl start axon-agent

(Optional) Step 7 - Cassandra Remote Backups or Restore Prerequisites

  • If you plan to use AxonOps remote backup functionality, axonops user will require read access on Cassandra data folder.

  • As well if you plan to Restore data with AxonOps, axonops user will require write access to Cassandra data folder. We recommend to only provide temporary write access to axonops when required.

Cassandra agent Package details

  • Configuration: /etc/axonops/axon-agent.yml
  • Binary: /usr/share/axonops/axon-cassandra{version}-agent.jar
  • Version number: /usr/share/axonops/axon-cassandra{version}-agent.version
  • Copyright : /usr/share/doc/axonops/axon-cassandra{version}-agent/copyright
  • Licenses : /usr/share/axonops/licenses/axon-cassandra{version}-agent/

axon-agent Package details (dependency of Cassandra agent)

  • Configuration: /etc/axonops/axon-agent.yml
  • Binary: usr/share/axonops/axon-agent
  • Logs : /var/log/axonops/axon-agent.log
  • Systemd service: /usr/lib/systemd/system/axon-agent.service
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