ScyllaDB: High-Performance NoSQL Database

ScyllaDB is a high-performance, distributed NoSQL database that's compatible with Apache Cassandra and Amazon DynamoDB. It's designed to provide ultra-low latency and high throughput for modern applications that require massive scale.

Overview

ScyllaDB is a drop-in replacement for Apache Cassandra that offers significantly better performance through its C++ implementation and shared-nothing architecture. It's designed for applications that need:

Ultra-low latency: Sub-millisecond response times
High throughput: Millions of operations per second
Linear scalability: Add nodes to increase capacity
Fault tolerance: Built-in replication and consistency
Cassandra compatibility: Drop-in replacement for existing Cassandra applications

Key Features

🚀 Performance Features

C++ Implementation: Native performance without JVM overhead
Shared-Nothing Architecture: No shared resources between nodes
Async I/O: Non-blocking operations for maximum concurrency
Memory-First Design: Optimized for modern hardware
Smart Caching: Intelligent data caching strategies

🔧 Operational Features

Cassandra Compatibility: Drop-in replacement for existing applications
DynamoDB Compatibility: ScyllaDB Cloud supports DynamoDB API
Multi-DC Support: Geographic distribution and disaster recovery
Backup & Restore: Point-in-time recovery capabilities
Monitoring: Built-in metrics and observability

📊 Data Model Features

Wide-Column Store: Flexible schema design
Time-Series Support: Optimized for time-based data
JSON Support: Native JSON data type
Counter Support: Distributed counters
TTL Support: Automatic data expiration

Architecture

Core Components

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Client Node   │    │   Client Node   │    │   Client Node   │
└─────────┬───────┘    └─────────┬───────┘    └─────────┬───────┘
          │                      │                      │
          └──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┘
                                 │
                    ┌─────────────┴─────────────┐
                    │      Load Balancer        │
                    └─────────────┬─────────────┘
                                  │
        ┌─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┐
        │                         │                         │
┌───────▼────────┐    ┌───────────▼──────────┐    ┌───────▼────────┐
│  ScyllaDB Node │    │   ScyllaDB Node      │    │  ScyllaDB Node │
│  (Data Center) │    │   (Data Center)      │    │  (Data Center) │
└────────────────┘    └──────────────────────┘    └────────────────┘

Data Distribution

Partitioning: Consistent hashing for data distribution
Replication: Configurable replication factor per keyspace
Consistency Levels: Tunable consistency for CAP theorem trade-offs
Snitch: Network topology awareness for optimal routing

Installation

Docker Installation

# Pull ScyllaDB image
docker pull scylladb/scylla:latest

# Run single-node cluster
docker run --name scylla-node \
  -p 9042:9042 \
  -p 7000:7000 \
  -p 7001:7001 \
  -p 9160:9160 \
  -p 9180:9180 \
  -p 10000:10000 \
  scylladb/scylla:latest \
  --smp 1 --memory 750M --overprovisioned 1

Multi-Node Cluster

# Node 1
docker run --name scylla-node1 \
  -p 9042:9042 \
  -p 7000:7000 \
  -p 7001:7001 \
  -p 9160:9160 \
  -p 9180:9180 \
  -p 10001:10000 \
  -e SEEDS="scylla-node1" \
  scylladb/scylla:latest \
  --smp 1 --memory 750M --overprovisioned 1

# Node 2
docker run --name scylla-node2 \
  -p 9043:9042 \
  -p 7002:7000 \
  -p 7003:7001 \
  -p 9161:9160 \
  -p 9181:9180 \
  -p 10001:10000 \
  -e SEEDS="scylla-node1,scylla-node2" \
  scylladb/scylla:latest \
  --smp 1 --memory 750M --overprovisioned 1

Native Installation (Ubuntu/Debian)

# Add ScyllaDB repository
curl -fsSL https://downloads.scylladb.com/deb/ubuntu/scylladb-2023.1.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/scylladb-2023.1.gpg
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://downloads.scylladb.com/deb/ubuntu jammy scylladb-2023.1" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/scylladb.list

# Install ScyllaDB
sudo apt update
sudo apt install scylla

# Configure and start
sudo scylla_setup
sudo systemctl start scylla-server
sudo systemctl enable scylla-server

Configuration

Basic Configuration (`/etc/scylla/scylla.yaml`)

# Cluster configuration
cluster_name: "MyCluster"
seeds: "192.168.1.10,192.168.1.11,192.168.1.12"

# Network configuration
listen_address: 192.168.1.10
rpc_address: 192.168.1.10
broadcast_address: 192.168.1.10
broadcast_rpc_address: 192.168.1.10

# Performance tuning
num_tokens: 256
partitioner: org.apache.cassandra.dht.Murmur3Partitioner
data_file_directories:
  - /var/lib/scylla/data
commitlog_directory: /var/lib/scylla/commitlog
saved_caches_directory: /var/lib/scylla/saved_caches

# Memory configuration
memtable_total_space_in_mb: 2048
memtable_flush_writers: 2

# Compaction configuration
compaction_throughput_mb_per_sec: 16
compaction_preheat_key_cache: false

# Security
authenticator: PasswordAuthenticator
authorizer: CassandraAuthorizer

Advanced Configuration

# Performance optimizations
concurrent_reads: 32
concurrent_writes: 32
concurrent_counter_writes: 32
concurrent_materialized_view_writes: 32

# Memory management
memtable_heap_space_in_mb: 2048
memtable_offheap_space_in_mb: 2048

# Caching
key_cache_size_in_mb: 100
key_cache_save_period: 14400
row_cache_size_in_mb: 0
row_cache_save_period: 0

# Logging
logback_conf: /etc/scylla/logback.xml

Data Modeling

Keyspace Creation

-- Create keyspace with replication strategy
CREATE KEYSPACE my_keyspace
WITH replication = {
    'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy',
    'datacenter1': 3,
    'datacenter2': 2
};

-- Use the keyspace
USE my_keyspace;

Table Design

-- User profiles table
CREATE TABLE users (
    user_id uuid PRIMARY KEY,
    username text,
    email text,
    first_name text,
    last_name text,
    created_at timestamp,
    updated_at timestamp
);

-- User sessions with clustering key
CREATE TABLE user_sessions (
    user_id uuid,
    session_id uuid,
    login_time timestamp,
    logout_time timestamp,
    ip_address inet,
    user_agent text,
    PRIMARY KEY (user_id, session_id)
);

-- Time-series data
CREATE TABLE sensor_readings (
    sensor_id text,
    timestamp timestamp,
    temperature double,
    humidity double,
    pressure double,
    PRIMARY KEY (sensor_id, timestamp)
) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (timestamp DESC);

Secondary Indexes

-- Create secondary index
CREATE INDEX ON users (email);
CREATE INDEX ON users (username);

-- Create custom index
CREATE CUSTOM INDEX user_email_idx ON users (email)
USING 'org.apache.cassandra.index.sasi.SASIIndex';

CQL (Cassandra Query Language)

Basic Operations

-- Insert data
INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email, first_name, last_name, created_at)
VALUES (uuid(), 'john_doe', '[email protected]', 'John', 'Doe', toTimestamp(now()));

-- Select data
SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000;

-- Update data
UPDATE users
SET email = '[email protected]', updated_at = toTimestamp(now())
WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000;

-- Delete data
DELETE FROM users WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000;

Batch Operations

-- Batch insert
BEGIN BATCH
    INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email) VALUES (uuid(), 'user1', '[email protected]');
    INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email) VALUES (uuid(), 'user2', '[email protected]');
    INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email) VALUES (uuid(), 'user3', '[email protected]');
APPLY BATCH;

Aggregation Queries

-- Count users
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;

-- Group by with aggregation
SELECT sensor_id, AVG(temperature) as avg_temp, MAX(temperature) as max_temp
FROM sensor_readings
WHERE timestamp > '2023-01-01'
GROUP BY sensor_id;

Application Integration

Python with ScyllaDB

from cassandra.cluster import Cluster
from cassandra.auth import PlainTextAuthProvider
import uuid
from datetime import datetime

# Connect to ScyllaDB
cluster = Cluster(['localhost'], port=9042)
session = cluster.connect()

# Create keyspace and table
session.execute("""
    CREATE KEYSPACE IF NOT EXISTS my_app
    WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1}
""")

session.execute("USE my_app")

session.execute("""
    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (
        user_id uuid PRIMARY KEY,
        username text,
        email text,
        created_at timestamp
    )
""")

# Insert data
user_id = uuid.uuid4()
session.execute("""
    INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email, created_at)
    VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s)
""", (user_id, 'john_doe', '[email protected]', datetime.now()))

# Query data
rows = session.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = %s", (user_id,))
for row in rows:
    print(f"User: {row.username}, Email: {row.email}")

Java with ScyllaDB

import com.datastax.oss.driver.api.core.CqlSession;
import com.datastax.oss.driver.api.core.cql.*;
import java.util.UUID;

public class ScyllaDBExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Connect to ScyllaDB
        CqlSession session = CqlSession.builder()
            .withKeyspace("my_app")
            .build();

        // Insert data
        UUID userId = UUID.randomUUID();
        PreparedStatement insertStmt = session.prepare(
            "INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email, created_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)"
        );

        session.execute(insertStmt.bind(
            userId,
            "john_doe",
            "[email protected]",
            java.time.Instant.now()
        ));

        // Query data
        PreparedStatement selectStmt = session.prepare(
            "SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = ?"
        );

        ResultSet rs = session.execute(selectStmt.bind(userId));
        for (Row row : rs) {
            System.out.println("User: " + row.getString("username"));
        }
    }
}

Node.js with ScyllaDB

const cassandra = require('cassandra-driver');
const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid');

// Connect to ScyllaDB
const client = new cassandra.Client({
    contactPoints: ['localhost'],
    localDataCenter: 'datacenter1',
    keyspace: 'my_app'
});

async function main() {
    await client.connect();

    // Insert data
    const userId = uuidv4();
    const query = 'INSERT INTO users (user_id, username, email, created_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)';
    await client.execute(query, [userId, 'john_doe', 'john@example.com, new Date()], { prepare: true });

    // Query data
    const selectQuery = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = ?';
    const result = await client.execute(selectQuery, [userId], { prepare: true });

    result.rows.forEach(row => {
        console.log(`User: ${row.username}, Email: ${row.email}`);
    });

    await client.shutdown();
}

main().catch(console.error);

Performance Optimization

Query Optimization

-- Use ALLOW FILTERING sparingly
SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '[email protected]' ALLOW FILTERING;

-- Use IN clause for multiple partition keys
SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id IN (uuid1, uuid2, uuid3);

-- Use LIMIT for pagination
SELECT * FROM user_sessions
WHERE user_id = ?
ORDER BY session_id
LIMIT 10;

Indexing Strategies

-- Create materialized views for complex queries
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW user_by_email AS
SELECT user_id, username, email, created_at
FROM users
WHERE email IS NOT NULL AND user_id IS NOT NULL
PRIMARY KEY (email, user_id);

-- Use SASI indexes for text search
CREATE CUSTOM INDEX user_name_idx ON users (username)
USING 'org.apache.cassandra.index.sasi.SASIIndex'
WITH OPTIONS = {
    'mode': 'CONTAINS',
    'analyzer_class': 'org.apache.cassandra.index.sasi.analyzer.NonTokenizingAnalyzer'
};

Consistency Levels

from cassandra import ConsistencyLevel

# Strong consistency
session.execute("INSERT INTO users (user_id, username) VALUES (?, ?)",
               (user_id, username),
               consistency_level=ConsistencyLevel.QUORUM)

# Eventual consistency for better performance
session.execute("INSERT INTO users (user_id, username) VALUES (?, ?)",
               (user_id, username),
               consistency_level=ConsistencyLevel.ONE)

Monitoring and Maintenance

Health Checks

# Check node status
nodetool status

# Check cluster information
nodetool info

# Check table statistics
nodetool tablestats my_keyspace.users

# Check compaction status
nodetool compactionstats

Backup and Restore

# Create snapshot
nodetool snapshot my_keyspace

# Create incremental backup
nodetool backup my_keyspace

# Restore from snapshot
sstableloader /path/to/snapshot/files

Performance Monitoring

-- Check table metrics
SELECT * FROM system_metrics.table_metrics;

-- Monitor query performance
SELECT * FROM system_traces.sessions;

-- Check cluster health
SELECT * FROM system.local;

Security

Authentication and Authorization

-- Create user
CREATE USER john_doe WITH PASSWORD 'secure_password';

-- Grant permissions
GRANT ALL PERMISSIONS ON KEYSPACE my_keyspace TO john_doe;
GRANT SELECT ON TABLE my_keyspace.users TO john_doe;

-- Create role
CREATE ROLE app_user;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE ON TABLE my_keyspace.users TO app_user;

SSL/TLS Configuration

# Enable SSL
server_encryption_options:
  internode_encryption: all
  keystore: /etc/scylla/keystore.jks
  keystore_password: keystore_password
  truststore: /etc/scylla/truststore.jks
  truststore_password: truststore_password

client_encryption_options:
  enabled: true
  optional: false
  keystore: /etc/scylla/keystore.jks
  keystore_password: keystore_password

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Connection Issues

# Check if ScyllaDB is running
sudo systemctl status scylla-server

# Check network connectivity
telnet localhost 9042

Performance Issues

# Check memory usage
nodetool info | grep "Heap Memory"

# Check disk usage
df -h /var/lib/scylla/

# Check compaction status
nodetool compactionstats

Data Consistency Issues

# Repair data
nodetool repair my_keyspace

# Check data consistency
nodetool scrub my_keyspace

Log Analysis

# Check ScyllaDB logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/scylla/scylla.log

# Check system logs
sudo journalctl -u scylla-server -f

# Check GC logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/scylla/gc.log

Best Practices

Data Modeling

Design for Queries: Model data based on access patterns
Avoid Wide Partitions: Keep partition sizes manageable
Use Appropriate Data Types: Choose efficient data types
Plan for Growth: Design for future data volume

Performance

Use Prepared Statements: Avoid query parsing overhead
Batch Operations: Group related operations
Monitor Metrics: Track performance indicators
Tune Consistency: Balance consistency vs performance

Operations

Regular Backups: Implement automated backup strategies
Monitor Health: Set up comprehensive monitoring
Plan Scaling: Design for horizontal scaling
Test Recovery: Regularly test backup and restore procedures

Resources and References

Official Resources

Documentation: docs.scylladb.com
GitHub: github.com/scylladb/scylla
Community: community.scylladb.com

ScyllaDB Cloud: Managed ScyllaDB service
ScyllaDB Manager: Cluster management tool
ScyllaDB Monitoring: Built-in monitoring stack
ScyllaDB Tools: Utility tools for operations

Learning Resources

CQL Reference: Complete CQL documentation
Performance Tuning Guide: Optimization best practices
Migration Guide: Cassandra to ScyllaDB migration
Architecture Guide: Deep dive into ScyllaDB architecture

Overview​

Key Features​

🚀 Performance Features​

🔧 Operational Features​

📊 Data Model Features​

Architecture​

Core Components​

Data Distribution​

Installation​

Docker Installation​

Multi-Node Cluster​

Native Installation (Ubuntu/Debian)​

Configuration​

Basic Configuration (/etc/scylla/scylla.yaml)​

Advanced Configuration​

Data Modeling​

Keyspace Creation​

Table Design​

Secondary Indexes​

CQL (Cassandra Query Language)​

Basic Operations​

Batch Operations​

Aggregation Queries​

Application Integration​

Python with ScyllaDB​

Java with ScyllaDB​

Node.js with ScyllaDB​

Performance Optimization​

Query Optimization​

Indexing Strategies​

Consistency Levels​

Monitoring and Maintenance​

Health Checks​

Backup and Restore​

Performance Monitoring​

Security​

Authentication and Authorization​

SSL/TLS Configuration​

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

Log Analysis​

Best Practices​

Data Modeling​

Performance​

Operations​

Resources and References​

Official Resources​

Related Tools​

Learning Resources​

Overview

Key Features

🚀 Performance Features

🔧 Operational Features

📊 Data Model Features

Architecture

Core Components

Data Distribution

Installation

Docker Installation

Multi-Node Cluster

Native Installation (Ubuntu/Debian)

Configuration

Basic Configuration (`/etc/scylla/scylla.yaml`)

Advanced Configuration

Data Modeling

Keyspace Creation

Table Design

Secondary Indexes

CQL (Cassandra Query Language)

Basic Operations

Batch Operations

Aggregation Queries

Application Integration

Python with ScyllaDB

Java with ScyllaDB

Node.js with ScyllaDB

Performance Optimization

Query Optimization

Indexing Strategies

Consistency Levels

Monitoring and Maintenance

Health Checks

Backup and Restore

Performance Monitoring

Security

Authentication and Authorization

SSL/TLS Configuration

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Log Analysis

Best Practices

Data Modeling

Performance

Operations

Resources and References

Official Resources

Related Tools

Learning Resources