Automated Continuous Cosmos DB Replication to Apache Cassandra

Always-on applications rely on automatic failover capabilities and real-time data access. CData Sync integrates live Cosmos DB data into your Apache Cassandra instance, allowing you to consolidate all of your data into a single location for archiving, reporting, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.

Configure Cassandra as a Replication Destination

Using CData Sync, you can replicate Cosmos DB data to Apache Cassandra. To add a replication destination, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select Apache Cassandra as a destination.

3. Enter the necessary connection properties. CData Sync supports Basic authentication with login credentials and the additional authentication features of DataStax Enterprise (DSE) Cassandra. The following sections detail connection properties your authentication method may require.

   You need to set AuthScheme to the value corresponding to the authenticator configured for your system. You specify the authenticator in the authenticator property in the cassandra.yaml file. This file is typically found in /etc/dse/cassandra or through the DSE Unified Authenticator on DSE Cassandra.

   Basic Authentication

   Basic authentication is supported through Cassandra's built-in default PasswordAuthenticator.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'BASIC' and set the User and Password properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to 'PasswordAuthenticator.'

   Kerberos Authentication

   Kerberos authentication is supported through DataStax Enterprise Unified Authentication.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'KERBEROS' and set the User and Password properties.
   • Set the KerberosKDC, KerberosRealm, and KerberosSPN properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to "com.datastax.bdp.cassandra.auth.DseAuthenticator."
   • Modify the authentication_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the default_schema and other_schemas properties as 'kerberos.'
   • Modify the kerberos_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the keytab, service_principle, http_principle and qop properties.

   LDAP Authentication

   LDAP authentication is supported through DataStax Enterprise Unified Authentication.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'LDAP' and set the User and Password properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to "com.datastax.bdp.cassandra.auth.DseAuthenticator."
   • Modify the authentication_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the default_schema and other_schemas properties as 'ldap.'
   • Modify the ldap_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the server_host, server_port, search_dn, search_password, user_search_base, and user_search_filter properties.

   Using PKI

   You can specify a client certificate to authenticate CData Sync with SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword.

4. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure the Cosmos DB Connection

You can configure a connection to Cosmos DB from the Connections tab. To add a connection to your Cosmos DB account, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a source (Cosmos DB).
3. Configure the connection properties.
   
   

   To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

   • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
   • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.
4. Click Connect to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure Replication Queries

CData Sync enables you to control replication with a point-and-click interface and with SQL queries. For each replication you wish to configure, navigate to the Jobs tab and click Add Job. Select the Source and Destination for your replication.

Replicate Entire Tables

To replicate an entire table, click Add Tables in the Tables section, choose the table(s) you wish to replicate, and click Add Selected Tables.

Customize Your Replication

You can use the Columns and Query tabs of a task to customize your replication. The Columns tab allows you to specify which columns to replicate, rename the columns at the destination, and even perform operations on the source data before replicating. The Query tab allows you to add filters, grouping, and sorting to the replication.

Schedule Your Replication

In the Schedule section, you can schedule a job to run automatically, configuring the job to run after specified intervals ranging from once every 10 minutes to once every month.

Once you have configured the replication job, click Save Changes. You can configure any number of jobs to manage the replication of your Cosmos DB data to Apache Cassandra.