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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Microservices Architecture - 2025 Edition

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Changes Since 2017

• Service Mesh Evolution - Sidecar-less architectures (Istio Ambient Mesh, Linkerd)
• Serverless Microservices - 30% cost reduction with event-driven, on-demand services
• Event-Driven Architecture - Asynchronous communication and real-time processing
• Advanced Observability - AI-powered analytics with OpenTelemetry and automated incident detection
• Zero Trust Security - Built-in authentication, encryption, and granular authorization
• Modern Frameworks - Quarkus, Micronaut optimized for cloud-native and serverless

Key Improvements

• ✅ Enhanced Performance - Fast startup times and low memory footprint
• ✅ Automated Operations - AIOps for predictive scaling and self-healing
• ✅ Domain-Driven Design - Bounded contexts and modular monolith patterns
• ✅ Edge Computing - Processing closer to users for reduced latency

Modern Microservices Architecture 2025

The term “Microservices Architecture” has evolved from a trend to a foundational approach for building scalable, resilient, and maintainable distributed systems. Unlike the complex vendor-driven SOA approaches of the past, modern microservices in 2025 embrace cloud-native principles, automated operations, and developer productivity.

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Kubernetes StatefulSet Modern Patterns - 2025 Edition

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Changes Since 2020

• ZooKeeper Deprecated - KRaft, etcd, and Consul are modern alternatives
• Operator Patterns - Automated lifecycle management for complex stateful apps
• CSI Drivers - Advanced storage operations, snapshots, and backup integration
• PVC Cleanup - Automated volume management for StatefulSets
• Security Enhanced - RBAC, network policies, and secret management
• Cloud-Native Ready - Mature operators for Redis, PostgreSQL, MongoDB

Key Improvements

• ✅ Better Performance - Improved memory management and resource optimization
• ✅ Enhanced Security - Encryption, RBAC, and least privilege patterns
• ✅ Automated Operations - Operators handle complex lifecycle management
• ✅ Modern Storage - CSI drivers with snapshot and backup capabilities

Modern StatefulSet Patterns

StatefulSets remain the foundation for running stateful applications in Kubernetes. However, the ecosystem has evolved significantly with better tooling, operators, and modern alternatives to legacy technologies like ZooKeeper.

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Set up Kubernetes on Mac 2025: Modern Local Development

🚀 What’s New in This 2025 Update

Major Changes Since 2019

• Minikube Alternatives - Kind, k3s, and Rancher Desktop now preferred
• Helm 3 - No more Tiller, improved security and simplicity
• Containerd Runtime - Docker deprecated, containerd is standard
• Apple Silicon Native - Full M1/M2/M3 support across all tools
• Enhanced Security - Built-in security scanning and policies
• Better Resource Management - Improved performance on macOS

Quick Comparison

• ✅ Kind - Best for CI/CD and multi-node testing
• ✅ k3s - Lightest weight, perfect for edge cases
• ✅ Rancher Desktop - Best GUI experience
• ✅ Docker Desktop - Easiest setup, higher resource usage

Modern Kubernetes Setup on macOS 2025

Setting up Kubernetes for local development has evolved significantly. This guide covers the best practices and tools for productive K8s development on macOS, including full Apple Silicon support.

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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 Consulting Services - 2025

🚀 Kafka Consulting Services 2025

What’s New in Our Consulting Practice

• KRaft Migration Experts - Seamless ZooKeeper to KRaft transitions
• Cloud-Native Specialists - Kubernetes, serverless, and managed services
• AI/ML Integration - Streaming data pipelines for machine learning
• Multi-Cloud Expertise - AWS, GCP, Azure, and hybrid deployments
• Security First - Zero-trust architectures and compliance
• Cost Optimization - Right-sizing and efficient resource usage

Expert Kafka Consulting for Modern Data Platforms

Transform your data infrastructure with Apache Kafka 4.0. Cloudurable’s expert consultants help organizations build, optimize, and operate high-performance streaming platforms that process billions of events daily.

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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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AWS Cassandra Cluster Tutorial 5 (2025): Modern Cassandra Deployment with CDK, EKS, and Infrastructure as Code

Cassandra Cluster Tutorial 5 (2025) - Modern AWS Cassandra Deployment with CDK, EKS, and Infrastructure as Code

This Cassandra tutorial is designed for developers and DevOps/SRE teams who want to deploy production-ready Cassandra clusters in AWS using modern practices and tools available in 2025.

What’s New in 2025

The landscape of deploying Cassandra on AWS has evolved significantly:

1. AWS CDK v2 has become the standard for infrastructure as code, offering type-safe infrastructure definitions
2. Kubernetes operators like K8ssandra provide production-ready Cassandra deployments
3. AWS Graviton3 processors offer 40% better price-performance for Cassandra workloads
4. Container-based deployments are now the norm, with EKS Anywhere for hybrid deployments
5. Service mesh integration with AWS App Mesh provides advanced traffic management
6. AWS Systems Manager replaces bastion hosts for secure access
7. GitOps workflows with AWS CodeCommit and FluxCD for infrastructure management

Cloudurable provides Cassandra training, Cassandra consulting, Cassandra support and helps setting up Cassandra clusters in AWS.

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Cassandra 5.0 Cluster Setup 2025: Docker, Vagrant, and Cloud-Native DevOps

What’s New in 2025

Key Updates and Changes

• Cassandra 5.0: Vector search, SAI indexes, unified compaction strategy
• Container-First: Docker and Kubernetes have replaced most Vagrant workflows
• Cloud-Native: Multi-cloud deployment with infrastructure as code
• ARM Support: Native ARM64 support for Apple Silicon and AWS Graviton
• Observability: Enhanced monitoring with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

Major Platform Evolution

• Docker Compose: Simplified multi-container orchestration
• Kubernetes: Production-ready Cassandra operators
• Testcontainers: Integration testing with ephemeral containers
• Colima/Podman: Docker alternatives for development
• GitOps: Infrastructure managed through Git workflows

The modern approach to Cassandra cluster development has evolved significantly since 2017. While Vagrant remains useful for certain scenarios, container-based development has become the standard for 2025.

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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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High-Speed Microservices 2025: Building Ultra-Low Latency Services in the Cloud Native Era

High-Speed Microservices 2025: Building Ultra-Low Latency Services in the Cloud Native Era

What’s New in 2025

The high-speed microservices landscape has transformed dramatically:

1. Virtual Threads (Project Loom) - Java 21’s virtual threads eliminate the need for complex async code
2. GraalVM Native Images - Sub-millisecond startup times and 10x memory reduction
3. WebAssembly (WASM) - Near-native performance with language agnosticism
4. eBPF - Kernel-level observability without performance overhead
5. Hardware acceleration - DPUs and SmartNICs offload network processing
6. Edge computing - Microservices at the edge with 5G and IoT
7. Quantum-safe cryptography - Preparing for post-quantum security
8. AI-powered optimization - Machine learning for auto-scaling and performance tuning

Cloudurable provides Microservices consulting, Kubernetes training, and cloud native architecture services to help organizations build high-performance systems.

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Kubernetes StatefulSet with ZooKeeper

Kubernetes StatefulSet with ZooKeeper as an example

Background

We were having a hard time deploying Kafka to Kubernetes. It worked fine when we were doing development and integration. We started with Minikube for local development.

If you are not interested in the background and want to skip to the meat of the matter go ahead and skip ahead.

We created a MicroSerivce that uses Kafka in Spring Boot. We ran Kafka in minikube with Helm 2. By the way, Minikube is a mini Kubernetes that easily runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Minikube is great for local application development and supports a lot of Kubernetes. It is great for local testing and we also used it for integration testing.

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kubectl cheatsheet (OSX/Mac)

These k8s/helm/OSX install notes are reproduced from Rick Hightower profile with permission of Rick Hightower.

Shell completion is a must while you are learning Kubernetes.

kubectl: shell completion

Shell Autocompletion set up guide

In 2019, Apple announced that macOS Catalina would now use Zsh (Z Shell) as the default shell, replacing bash. The zsh extends Bourne shell has improvements with features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.

Add autoload -Uz compinit; compinit; source <(kubectl completion zsh) to .zshrc if you are using bash still follow the instructions at shell Autocompletion set up guide just use the bash tab on that web page.

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Set up Kubernetes on Mac: Minikube, Helm, etc.

Set up docker, k8s and helm on a Mac Book Pro (OSX)

These k8s/helm/OSX install notes are reproduced from Rick Hightower with permission of Rick Hightower.

Install docker

 brew install docker

Install docker desktop for Mac.

Minikube

Use the version of k8s that the stable version of helm can use.

Install minikube

brew cask install minikube

Install hyperkit

brew install hyperkit

Run minikube that is compatible with the last stable helm relesae running on hyperkit

minikube start --kubernetes-version v1.15.4 --vm-driver=hyperkit --cpus=4 --disk-size='100000mb' --memory='6000mb'

• minikube
• start start mini kube
• Use k8s compatible with helm 2 --kubernetes-version v1.15.4
• Use the hyper kit driver --vm-driver=hyperkit
• Use 4 of 8 virtual cores (MacBook Pro comes with 16 virtual cores and 8 cores) --cpus=4
• Allocate 10GB of disk space --disk-size='100000mb' (Might need more
• Use 6 GB of memory --memory='6000mb'

Helm Install

Install helm or just follow this guide on Helm install on a Mac.

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