Cassandra Tutorial 3, Part 2: Advanced Ansible Automation and Cloud-Native Operations - 2025 Edition

By Rick Hightower | January 9, 2025

                                                                           

Cassandra Tutorial 3, Part 2: Advanced Operations and Automation - 2025 Edition

What’s New Since Part 1

Building on Part 1’s foundation, this tutorial covers:

  • Multi-Cloud Deployments: Spanning AWS, GCP, and Azure
  • Advanced GitOps: Multi-environment promotion workflows
  • AI-Powered Operations: Using ML for capacity planning and anomaly detection
  • Chaos Engineering: Automated failure testing with Litmus
  • FinOps Integration: Cost optimization and resource management
  • Zero-Downtime Operations: Rolling upgrades and blue-green deployments

Advanced Ansible Automation

Ansible Execution Environments (2025 Standard)

Create a containerized Ansible environment:

# execution-environment.yml
version: 3
dependencies:
  galaxy: requirements.yml
  python: requirements.txt
  system: bindep.txt
images:
  base_image:
    name: quay.io/ansible/creator-ee:v0.19.0
additional_build_steps:
  prepend: |
    RUN pip install --upgrade pip    
  append: |
    RUN kubectl version --client
    RUN helm version --short

Build and push the execution environment:

ansible-builder build -t cassandra-ee:2025.1
podman push cassandra-ee:2025.1 your-registry/cassandra-ee:2025.1

Advanced Inventory Management

Dynamic inventory with Kubernetes:

# inventory/dynamic_k8s.yml
plugin: kubernetes.core.k8s
connections:
  - kubeconfig: ~/.kube/config
compose:
  cassandra_pods: "'cassandra' in labels"
  node_id: "metadata.name | regex_replace('cassandra-', '')"
keyed_groups:
  - prefix: datacenter
    key: labels.datacenter
  - prefix: rack
    key: labels.rack

Complex Multi-Stage Deployment

---
# playbooks/rolling-upgrade.yml
- name: Rolling Cassandra Upgrade with Zero Downtime
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    target_version: "5.0.1"
    drain_timeout: 300
    health_check_retries: 30
    
  tasks:
    - name: Pre-upgrade validation
      include_role:
        name: cassandra_validation
      vars:
        checks:
          - cluster_health
          - backup_status
          - disk_space
          - network_connectivity

    - name: Create pre-upgrade snapshot
      kubernetes.core.k8s_exec:
        namespace: cassandra
        pod: "cassandra-{{ item }}"
        command: |
          nodetool snapshot -t pre-upgrade-{{ ansible_date_time.epoch }}          
      loop: "{{ range(0, cluster_size) | list }}"

    - name: Upgrade nodes sequentially
      include_tasks: upgrade-single-node.yml
      vars:
        node_index: "{{ item }}"
      loop: "{{ range(0, cluster_size) | list }}"
      loop_control:
        pause: 60  # Wait between upgrades

    - name: Post-upgrade validation
      include_role:
        name: cassandra_validation
      vars:
        checks:
          - version_consistency
          - data_integrity
          - performance_baseline

Node Upgrade Task

# tasks/upgrade-single-node.yml
---
- name: Drain Cassandra node
  kubernetes.core.k8s_exec:
    namespace: cassandra
    pod: "cassandra-{{ node_index }}"
    command: nodetool drain
  register: drain_result

- name: Wait for drain completion
  kubernetes.core.k8s_exec:
    namespace: cassandra
    pod: "cassandra-{{ node_index }}"
    command: nodetool netstats
  register: netstats
  until: "'Mode: DRAINED' in netstats.stdout"
  retries: "{{ drain_timeout // 10 }}"
  delay: 10

- name: Update StatefulSet with new version
  kubernetes.core.k8s:
    state: present
    definition:
      apiVersion: apps/v1
      kind: StatefulSet
      metadata:
        name: cassandra
        namespace: cassandra
      spec:
        updateStrategy:
          type: OnDelete
        template:
          spec:
            containers:
            - name: cassandra
              image: "cassandra:{{ target_version }}"

- name: Delete pod to trigger update
  kubernetes.core.k8s:
    api_version: v1
    kind: Pod
    name: "cassandra-{{ node_index }}"
    namespace: cassandra
    state: absent

- name: Wait for pod to be ready
  kubernetes.core.k8s_info:
    api_version: v1
    kind: Pod
    name: "cassandra-{{ node_index }}"
    namespace: cassandra
  register: pod
  until: 
    - pod.resources[0].status.phase == "Running"
    - pod.resources[0].status.containerStatuses[0].ready
  retries: "{{ health_check_retries }}"
  delay: 10

- name: Verify node joined cluster
  kubernetes.core.k8s_exec:
    namespace: cassandra
    pod: "cassandra-{{ node_index }}"
    command: nodetool status
  register: status
  until: "'UN' in status.stdout"
  retries: 30
  delay: 10

Multi-Region Deployment

Cross-Region Kubernetes Federation

# federation/cassandra-federateddeployment.yaml
apiVersion: types.kubefed.io/v1beta1
kind: FederatedDeployment
metadata:
  name: cassandra
  namespace: cassandra
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: cassandra
    spec:
      replicas: 3
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: cassandra
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: cassandra
            image: cassandra:5.0
            env:
            - name: CASSANDRA_ENDPOINT_SNITCH
              value: GossipingPropertyFileSnitch
  placement:
    clusters:
    - name: us-west-2
    - name: eu-central-1
    - name: ap-southeast-1
  overrides:
  - clusterName: us-west-2
    clusterOverrides:
    - path: "/spec/replicas"
      value: 5
  - clusterName: eu-central-1
    clusterOverrides:
    - path: "/spec/template/spec/containers/0/env"
      value:
      - name: CASSANDRA_DC
        value: EU

Multi-Cloud Ansible Playbook

---
# playbooks/multi-cloud-deploy.yml
- name: Deploy Cassandra Across Multiple Clouds
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  vars:
    clouds:
      aws:
        regions: ['us-west-2', 'eu-west-1']
        instance_type: 'i3.2xlarge'
      gcp:
        regions: ['us-central1', 'europe-west1']
        machine_type: 'n2-highmem-8'
      azure:
        regions: ['westus2', 'northeurope']
        vm_size: 'Standard_E8s_v4'

  tasks:
    - name: Deploy to AWS regions
      include_role:
        name: cassandra_aws
      vars:
        region: "{{ item }}"
        instance_type: "{{ clouds.aws.instance_type }}"
      loop: "{{ clouds.aws.regions }}"

    - name: Deploy to GCP regions
      include_role:
        name: cassandra_gcp
      vars:
        region: "{{ item }}"
        machine_type: "{{ clouds.gcp.machine_type }}"
      loop: "{{ clouds.gcp.regions }}"

    - name: Configure inter-region connectivity
      include_role:
        name: network_mesh
      vars:
        providers: "{{ clouds.keys() | list }}"

GitOps Advanced Workflows

Progressive Delivery with Flagger

apiVersion: flagger.app/v1beta1
kind: Canary
metadata:
  name: cassandra
  namespace: cassandra
spec:
  targetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: StatefulSet
    name: cassandra
  progressDeadlineSeconds: 3600
  service:
    port: 9042
    targetPort: 9042
  analysis:
    interval: 1m
    threshold: 5
    maxWeight: 50
    stepWeight: 10
    metrics:
    - name: request-success-rate
      thresholdRange:
        min: 99
      interval: 1m
    - name: request-duration
      thresholdRange:
        max: 500
      interval: 30s
    webhooks:
    - name: load-test
      url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
      timeout: 5s
      metadata:
        cmd: "cassandra-stress write n=100000"

Environment Promotion Pipeline

# .github/workflows/promote.yml
name: Promote Cassandra Configuration

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [closed]
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  promote:
    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    
    - name: Promote to staging
      run: |
        cp environments/dev/kustomization.yaml environments/staging/
        git add environments/staging/
        git commit -m "Promote dev to staging: ${{ github.event.pull_request.title }}"
        git push        
    
    - name: Create staging PR
      uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v5
      with:
        title: "Promote to staging: ${{ github.event.pull_request.title }}"
        branch: promote-staging-${{ github.sha }}
        base: staging

Modern DBA Operations

AI-Powered Performance Tuning

# scripts/ai_tuning.py
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor
import kubernetes
import json

class CassandraAITuner:
    def __init__(self):
        self.k8s = kubernetes.client.CoreV1Api()
        self.model = RandomForestRegressor()
        
    def collect_metrics(self):
        """Collect performance metrics from Prometheus"""
        metrics = {
            'read_latency': self.query_prometheus('cassandra_read_latency_p99'),
            'write_latency': self.query_prometheus('cassandra_write_latency_p99'),
            'heap_usage': self.query_prometheus('jvm_memory_used_bytes{area="heap"}'),
            'compaction_rate': self.query_prometheus('cassandra_compaction_bytes_per_second'),
            'cpu_usage': self.query_prometheus('container_cpu_usage_seconds_total')
        }
        return pd.DataFrame(metrics)
    
    def recommend_settings(self, current_metrics):
        """Use ML to recommend optimal settings"""
        predictions = self.model.predict(current_metrics)
        
        recommendations = {
            'heap_size': f"{int(predictions[0])}G",
            'concurrent_reads': int(predictions[1]),
            'concurrent_writes': int(predictions[2]),
            'compaction_throughput_mb_per_sec': int(predictions[3])
        }
        
        return recommendations
    
    def apply_recommendations(self, recommendations):
        """Apply recommended settings via Kubernetes ConfigMap"""
        config_map = self.k8s.read_namespaced_config_map(
            name='cassandra-config',
            namespace='cassandra'
        )
        
        config_data = yaml.safe_load(config_map.data['cassandra.yaml'])
        config_data.update(recommendations)
        
        config_map.data['cassandra.yaml'] = yaml.dump(config_data)
        
        self.k8s.patch_namespaced_config_map(
            name='cassandra-config',
            namespace='cassandra',
            body=config_map
        )

Automated Backup and Recovery

---
# playbooks/backup-restore.yml
- name: Automated Cassandra Backup to Object Storage
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    backup_schedule: "0 2 * * *"  # 2 AM daily
    retention_days: 30
    storage_providers:
      - s3
      - gcs
      - azure_blob

  tasks:
    - name: Create backup CronJob
      kubernetes.core.k8s:
        definition:
          apiVersion: batch/v1
          kind: CronJob
          metadata:
            name: cassandra-backup
            namespace: cassandra
          spec:
            schedule: "{{ backup_schedule }}"
            jobTemplate:
              spec:
                template:
                  spec:
                    serviceAccountName: backup-sa
                    containers:
                    - name: backup
                      image: cassandra-backup:2025.1
                      env:
                      - name: BACKUP_TYPE
                        value: incremental
                      - name: STORAGE_PROVIDERS
                        value: "{{ storage_providers | join(',') }}"
                      command:
                      - /scripts/backup.sh
                    restartPolicy: OnFailure

    - name: Setup point-in-time recovery
      include_role:
        name: cassandra_pitr
      vars:
        commit_log_archiving: true
        archive_command: |
          /usr/local/bin/archive-to-s3.sh %path %name

Chaos Engineering Integration

---
# chaos/cassandra-chaos.yml
apiVersion: litmuschaos.io/v1alpha1
kind: ChaosEngine
metadata:
  name: cassandra-chaos
  namespace: cassandra
spec:
  appinfo:
    appns: cassandra
    applabel: "app=cassandra"
    appkind: statefulset
  engineState: 'active'
  chaosServiceAccount: litmus-admin
  experiments:
  - name: pod-network-latency
    spec:
      components:
        env:
        - name: NETWORK_INTERFACE
          value: 'eth0'
        - name: NETWORK_LATENCY
          value: '2000'  # 2 seconds
        - name: PODS_AFFECTED_PERC
          value: '30'
        - name: DURATION
          value: '300'
  - name: pod-cpu-hog
    spec:
      components:
        env:
        - name: CPU_CORES
          value: '2'
        - name: PODS_AFFECTED_PERC
          value: '20'

FinOps and Cost Optimization

Resource Optimization Playbook

---
# playbooks/optimize-costs.yml
- name: Optimize Cassandra Cluster Costs
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    cost_targets:
      monthly_budget: 10000
      savings_goal: 0.20  # 20% reduction

  tasks:
    - name: Analyze current resource usage
      uri:
        url: "http://prometheus:9090/api/v1/query_range"
        method: GET
        body_format: json
        body:
          query: |
            avg_over_time(
              container_memory_working_set_bytes{pod=~"cassandra-.*"}[7d]
            ) / container_spec_memory_limit_bytes            
      register: memory_usage

    - name: Identify underutilized nodes
      set_fact:
        underutilized_nodes: "{{ memory_usage.json.data.result | selectattr('value.1', 'lt', '0.5') | list }}"

    - name: Recommend spot instances
      include_role:
        name: spot_instance_advisor
      when: cloud_provider == 'aws'

    - name: Apply Kubernetes VPA recommendations
      kubernetes.core.k8s:
        definition:
          apiVersion: autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
          kind: VerticalPodAutoscaler
          metadata:
            name: cassandra-vpa
            namespace: cassandra
          spec:
            targetRef:
              apiVersion: apps/v1
              kind: StatefulSet
              name: cassandra
            updatePolicy:
              updateMode: "Auto"
            resourcePolicy:
              containerPolicies:
              - containerName: cassandra
                minAllowed:
                  cpu: 1
                  memory: 2Gi
                maxAllowed:
                  cpu: 4
                  memory: 8Gi

Advanced Monitoring and Alerting

OpenTelemetry Integration

# monitoring/otel-config.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otel-collector-config
  namespace: cassandra
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      prometheus:
        config:
          scrape_configs:
          - job_name: cassandra
            kubernetes_sd_configs:
            - role: pod
              namespaces:
                names: [cassandra]
      jaeger:
        protocols:
          grpc:
            endpoint: 0.0.0.0:14250
    processors:
      batch:
        timeout: 10s
      memory_limiter:
        check_interval: 1s
        limit_mib: 512
    exporters:
      prometheus:
        endpoint: "0.0.0.0:8889"
      jaeger:
        endpoint: jaeger-collector:14250
        tls:
          insecure: true
    service:
      pipelines:
        metrics:
          receivers: [prometheus]
          processors: [batch, memory_limiter]
          exporters: [prometheus]
        traces:
          receivers: [jaeger]
          processors: [batch]
          exporters: [jaeger]

SLO-Based Alerting

# monitoring/slo-alerts.yaml
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PrometheusRule
metadata:
  name: cassandra-slo
  namespace: cassandra
spec:
  groups:
  - name: cassandra-slo
    interval: 30s
    rules:
    - alert: CassandraReadLatencySLO
      expr: |
        (
          1 - (
            sum(rate(cassandra_read_latency_bucket{le="100"}[5m]))
            /
            sum(rate(cassandra_read_latency_count[5m]))
          )
        ) > 0.01  # 99% of reads under 100ms        
      for: 5m
      labels:
        severity: critical
        slo: "read-latency-99"
      annotations:
        summary: "Cassandra read latency SLO violation"
        description: "More than 1% of reads are taking longer than 100ms"

Security Automation

Zero-Trust Security Model

---
# playbooks/zero-trust-security.yml
- name: Implement Zero-Trust Security for Cassandra
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Enable mutual TLS with cert-manager
      kubernetes.core.k8s:
        definition:
          apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
          kind: Certificate
          metadata:
            name: cassandra-internode
            namespace: cassandra
          spec:
            secretName: cassandra-internode-tls
            issuerRef:
              name: cassandra-ca-issuer
              kind: ClusterIssuer
            commonName: cassandra.local
            dnsNames:
            - "*.cassandra.cassandra.svc.cluster.local"
            - "*.cassandra"
            usages:
            - digital signature
            - key encipherment
            - server auth
            - client auth

    - name: Configure SPIFFE/SPIRE for workload identity
      include_role:
        name: spiffe_spire
      vars:
        workload_attestation: kubernetes
        trust_domain: cassandra.local

    - name: Setup OPA for authorization
      kubernetes.core.k8s:
        definition:
          apiVersion: v1
          kind: ConfigMap
          metadata:
            name: opa-policy
            namespace: cassandra
          data:
            policy.rego: |
              package cassandra.authz
              
              default allow = false
              
              allow {
                input.operation == "SELECT"
                input.keyspace == "public"
              }
              
              allow {
                input.role == "admin"
              }
              
              allow {
                input.operation in ["SELECT", "INSERT"]
                input.role == "application"
                input.keyspace == input.role_keyspace
              }

Disaster Recovery Automation

Multi-Region Failover

---
# playbooks/disaster-recovery.yml
- name: Automated Disaster Recovery
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    primary_region: us-west-2
    dr_region: us-east-1
    rpo_minutes: 15  # Recovery Point Objective
    rto_minutes: 30  # Recovery Time Objective

  tasks:
    - name: Monitor primary region health
      uri:
        url: "https://{{ primary_region }}.health.cassandra.local/status"
      register: health_check
      failed_when: false

    - name: Initiate failover if primary is down
      block:
        - name: Promote DR region to primary
          kubernetes.core.k8s_exec:
            namespace: cassandra
            pod: "cassandra-0"
            container: cassandra
            command: |
              nodetool rebuild -- {{ primary_region }}              

        - name: Update DNS to point to DR region
          route53:
            zone: cassandra.local
            record: api.cassandra.local
            type: A
            value: "{{ dr_region_ips }}"
            alias: true
            alias_hosted_zone_id: "{{ dr_zone_id }}"

        - name: Notify stakeholders
          mail:
            to: oncall@company.com
            subject: "Cassandra DR Failover Initiated"
            body: "Failover from {{ primary_region }} to {{ dr_region }} completed"
      when: health_check.status != 200

Performance Testing Automation

Load Testing with K6

// load-tests/cassandra-stress.js
import { check } from 'k6';
import { Cassandra } from 'k6/x/cassandra';

export let options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: '5m', target: 100 },
    { duration: '10m', target: 1000 },
    { duration: '5m', target: 0 },
  ],
  thresholds: {
    'cassandra_read_duration': ['p(95)<100'],
    'cassandra_write_duration': ['p(95)<50'],
  },
};

const client = new Cassandra({
  contactPoints: ['cassandra.cassandra.svc.cluster.local'],
  localDataCenter: 'dc1',
  keyspace: 'stress_test',
});

export default function() {
  // Write test
  let writeQuery = 'INSERT INTO users (id, name, email) VALUES (?, ?, ?)';
  let writeResult = client.execute(writeQuery, [
    Math.random().toString(36),
    'Test User',
    'test@example.com'
  ]);
  
  check(writeResult, {
    'write successful': (r) => r.error === null,
  });

  // Read test
  let readQuery = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?';
  let readResult = client.execute(readQuery, [
    Math.random().toString(36)
  ]);
  
  check(readResult, {
    'read successful': (r) => r.error === null,
  });
}

Conclusion

This 2025 guide demonstrates how Cassandra operations have evolved with:

  • Cloud-Native First: Kubernetes as the primary deployment platform
  • GitOps Everything: Declarative configuration management
  • AI-Assisted Operations: Machine learning for optimization
  • Security by Default: Zero-trust and encryption everywhere
  • Observability Built-in: Comprehensive monitoring and tracing
  • Cost Consciousness: FinOps integration for budget management

The combination of Ansible’s automation capabilities with modern cloud-native tools creates a robust, scalable, and maintainable Cassandra infrastructure suitable for 2025’s demanding requirements.

Additional Resources

Stay tuned for our next tutorial on integrating Cassandra with modern data mesh architectures and real-time streaming platforms.

                                                                           
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