Apache Cassandra Deployment Guide for AWS and Kubernetes - 2025 Edition

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Changes Since 2017

• Cassandra 5.0 - ACID transactions, cost-based query optimizer, vector search for AI workloads
• Cloud-Native Deployment - 85% of users now deploy on cloud with Kubernetes operators
• Modern AWS Instances - Graviton (r6g), Im4gn series for better price/performance
• Container Orchestration - Kubernetes operators (Cass Operator, K8ssandra) for automated management
• Advanced Security - Encryption, RBAC, IAM integration, TLS automation
• Modern Observability - Prometheus/Grafana integration with automated alerting

Key Improvements

• ✅ Better Performance - 50% improvement with modern instance types and storage
• ✅ Enhanced Security - Zero-trust architecture with comprehensive encryption
• ✅ Automated Operations - Kubernetes operators handle scaling, upgrades, and repairs
• ✅ AI-Ready - Vector search and machine learning workload support

Modern Cassandra Architecture Overview

Apache Cassandra 5.0 represents a significant evolution in distributed database technology, now supporting ACID transactions, advanced query optimization, and AI workloads. Modern deployments emphasize cloud-native patterns, containerization, and automated operations.

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kubectl Cheat Sheet 2025 - Modern Kubernetes Commands

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Changes Since 2019

• Kubernetes 1.33 - Latest stable version with enhanced features
• Containerd Default - Docker runtime deprecated, containerd is standard
• kubectl convert - Plugin for API version migrations
• Enhanced Security - Checksum validation and GPG verification required
• Cloud Integration - Native support for EKS, GKE, AKS workflows
• GitOps Ready - Declarative management best practices

Key Improvements

• ✅ Better Performance - Faster command execution and API responses
• ✅ Enhanced Debugging - Improved error messages and troubleshooting
• ✅ Modern Shell Support - Updated completion for latest shells
• ✅ Security First - Mandatory verification for all downloads

Modern kubectl Setup and Shell Completion

Shell completion is essential for productive Kubernetes work. With macOS now defaulting to Zsh and modern Linux distributions offering various shells, here’s the updated setup.

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Kafka Tutorial - Comprehensive Guide 2025

🚀 Kafka Tutorial 2025 - What’s New

Major Updates in This Edition

• KRaft Mode Complete - No more ZooKeeper dependency
• Cloud-Native First - Kubernetes and managed services focus
• AI/ML Integration - Streaming data for machine learning
• Real-Time Analytics - Modern streaming architectures
• Enhanced Security - Zero-trust and encryption by default
• Production Ready - Battle-tested patterns and practices

Kafka Evolution Since 2017

• ✅ Simplified Operations - KRaft eliminates ZooKeeper complexity
• ✅ Better Performance - 10x improvement in metadata operations
• ✅ Cloud Integration - Native support for cloud services
• ✅ Developer Experience - Modern APIs and tooling

Complete Kafka Tutorial Series

This comprehensive Kafka tutorial covers Kafka 4.0 architecture and design with modern best practices. The tutorial includes production-ready Java examples for Kafka producers and consumers, advanced streaming patterns, and cloud-native deployments.

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Kafka Broker Startup Scripts and Configuration - 2025 Edition

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Updates and Changes

• KRaft Mode by Default - No ZooKeeper required
• Container-First Approach - Docker and Kubernetes native
• Dynamic Configuration - Minimal restarts needed
• Automated Management - Operators handle lifecycle
• Enhanced Monitoring - Built-in observability
• Cloud-Native Patterns - Auto-scaling and self-healing

Broker Startup Evolution Since 2017

• ✅ No ZooKeeper - KRaft provides native consensus
• ✅ Declarative Config - GitOps and Infrastructure as Code
• ✅ Container Ready - Optimized for Kubernetes
• ✅ Zero-Downtime - Rolling updates standard

Running a Kafka Broker in 2025

Starting Kafka brokers has evolved significantly with KRaft mode and cloud-native practices. This guide covers modern approaches from simple local development to production Kubernetes deployments.

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Cassandra Tutorial 3, Part 1: Deploy Cassandra with Ansible and SSH Keys - Modern DevOps Practices 2025

Cassandra Tutorial 3, Part 1: Modern Cassandra Deployment with Ansible - 2025 Edition

What’s New in 2025

This updated tutorial reflects the significant changes in DevOps practices since our original 2017 guide:

• Container-First Approach: Cassandra deployments now primarily use containers (Docker/Podman)
• Kubernetes Native: StatefulSets and operators for managing Cassandra clusters
• GitOps Workflows: Using ArgoCD or Flux for declarative cluster management
• Modern Ansible: Ansible 2.16+ with collections and execution environments
• Enhanced Security: Zero-trust networking, service mesh integration, and secrets management
• Cloud Provider Integration: Native support for AWS, GCP, and Azure Kubernetes services
• Observability: Built-in Prometheus metrics and distributed tracing

Overview

In this modernized tutorial, we’ll deploy a production-ready Cassandra cluster using:

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

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:

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The Kafka Ecosystem - Kafka Core, Streams, Connect, ksqlDB, and Schema Registry - 2025 Edition

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Updates and Changes

• Cloud-Native First - Fully integrated with Kubernetes and serverless
• AI/ML Integration - Direct pipelines to machine learning frameworks
• 200+ Connectors - Massive expansion of Kafka Connect ecosystem
• ksqlDB Maturity - Production-ready SQL streaming at scale
• Automated Operations - Self-healing, auto-scaling ecosystem
• Enhanced Security - Zero-trust architecture support

Deprecated Features

• ❌ Standalone REST Proxy - Replaced by API gateways
• ❌ Manual deployments - Cloud-native automation standard
• ❌ Legacy monitoring - Unified observability platforms
• ❌ Custom integration scripts - Managed connectors preferred

Ready to explore the complete Kafka ecosystem? Let’s discover how each component transforms streaming data into business value.

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