# Administration Guide

For training material, also check out the [Admin Procedures lesson](https://university.scylladb.com/courses/scylla-operations/lessons/admin-procedures-and-basic-monitoring/) on ScyllaDB University.

## System Requirements

Make sure you have met the [System Requirements](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/getting-started/system-requirements.md)  before you install and configure ScyllaDB.

## Download and Install

See the [getting started page](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/getting-started/index.md) for info on installing ScyllaDB on your platform.

### System Configuration

See [System Configuration Guide](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/getting-started/system-configuration.md#system-configuration-files-and-scripts) for details on optimum OS settings for ScyllaDB. (These settings are performed automatically in the ScyllaDB packages, Docker containers, and Amazon AMIs.)

<a id="admin-scylla-configuration"></a>

## ScyllaDB Configuration

ScyllaDB configuration files are:

| Installed location                                                                       | Description                      |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| `/etc/default/scylla-server` (Ubuntu/Debian)<br/>`/etc/sysconfig/scylla-server` (others) | Server startup options           |
| `/etc/scylla/scylla.yaml`                                                                | Main ScyllaDB configuration file |
| `/etc/scylla/cassandra-rackdc.properties`                                                | Rack & dc configuration file     |

<a id="check-your-current-version-of-scylla"></a>

### Check your current version of ScyllaDB

This command allows you to check your current version of ScyllaDB. Note that this command is not the [nodetool version](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/nodetool-commands/version.md) command which reports the CQL version.
If you are looking for the CQL or Cassandra version, refer to the CQLSH reference for [SHOW VERSION](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/cql/cqlsh.md#cqlsh-show-version).

```shell
scylla --version
```

Output displays the ScyllaDB version. Your results may differ.

```shell
4.4.0-0.20210331.05c6a40f0
```

<a id="admin-address-configuration-in-scylla"></a>

### Address Configuration in ScyllaDB

The following addresses can be configured in scylla.yaml:

| Address Type            | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|-------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| listen_address          | Address ScyllaDB listens for connections from other nodes. See storage_port and ssl_storage_ports.                                                                                                                                          |
| rpc_address             | Address on which ScyllaDB is going to expect CQL client connections. See rpc_port, native_transport_port and native_transport_port_ssl in the [Networking](#cqlsh-networking) parameters.                                                   |
| broadcast_address       | Address that is broadcasted to tell other ScyllaDB nodes to connect to. Related to listen_address above.                                                                                                                                    |
| broadcast_rpc_address   | Address that is broadcasted to tell the clients to connect to. Related to rpc_address.                                                                                                                                                      |
| seeds                   | The broadcast_addresses of the existing nodes. You must specify the address of at least one existing node.                                                                                                                                  |
| endpoint_snitch         | Node’s address resolution helper.                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| api_address             | Address for REST API requests. See api_port in the [Networking](#cqlsh-networking) parameters.                                                                                                                                              |
| prometheus_address      | Address for Prometheus queries. See prometheus_port in the [Networking](#cqlsh-networking) parameters and [ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack](https://monitoring.docs.scylladb.com/stable/) for more details.                                       |
| replace_node_first_boot | Host ID of a dead node this ScyllaDB node is replacing. Refer to [Replace a Dead Node in a ScyllaDB Cluster](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/procedures/cluster-management/replace-dead-node.md) for more details. |

#### NOTE
When the listen_address, rpc_address, broadcast_address, and broadcast_rpc_address parameters are not set correctly, ScyllaDB does not work as expected.

### scylla-server

The `scylla-server` file contains configuration related to starting up the ScyllaDB server.

<a id="admin-scylla-yaml"></a>

## scylla.yaml

scylla.yaml is equivalent to the Apache Cassandra cassandra.yaml configuration file and it is compatible with relevant parameters. Below is a **subset** of scylla.yaml with parameters you are likely to update. For a full list of parameters, look at the file itself.

```yaml
# The name of the cluster. This is mainly used to prevent machines in
# one logical cluster from joining another.
cluster_name: 'Test Cluster'

# This defines the number of tokens randomly assigned to this node on the ring
# The more tokens, relative to other nodes, the larger the proportion of data
# that this node will store. You probably want all nodes to have the same number
# of tokens assuming they have equal hardware capability.
num_tokens: 256

# Directory where Scylla should store data on disk.
data_file_directories:
    - /var/lib/scylla/data

# commit log.  when running on magnetic HDD, this should be a
# separate spindle than the data directories.
commitlog_directory: /var/lib/scylla/commitlog

# schema commit log. A special commitlog instance
# used for schema and system tables.
# When running on magnetic HDD, this should be a
# separate spindle than the data directories.
# schema_commitlog_directory: /var/lib/scylla/commitlog/schema

# seed_provider class_name is saved for future use.
# A seed address is mandatory.
seed_provider:
    # The addresses of hosts that will serve as contact points for the joining node.
    # It allows the node to discover the cluster ring topology on startup (when
    # joining the cluster).
    # Once the node has joined the cluster, the seed list has no function.
    - class_name: org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleSeedProvider
      parameters:
          # In a new cluster, provide the address of the first node.
          # In an existing cluster, specify the address of at least one existing node.
          # If you specify addresses of more than one node, use a comma to separate them.
          # For example: "<IP1>,<IP2>,<IP3>"
          - seeds: "127.0.0.1"

# Address or interface to bind to and tell other Scylla nodes to connect to.
# You _must_ change this if you want multiple nodes to be able to communicate!
#
# Setting listen_address to 0.0.0.0 is always wrong.
listen_address: localhost

# Address to broadcast to other Scylla nodes
# Leaving this blank will set it to the same value as listen_address
# broadcast_address: 1.2.3.4

# port for the CQL native transport to listen for clients on
# For security reasons, you should not expose this port to the internet.  Firewall it if needed.
native_transport_port: 9042

# Uncomment to enable experimental features
# experimental: true
```

By default scylla.yaml is located at `/etc/scylla/scylla.yaml`. Note that the file will open as read-only unless you edit it as the root user or by using sudo.

### scylla.yaml Required Settings

The following configuration items must be set

| Item           | Content                                                                                                                             |
|----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| cluster_name   | Name of the cluster, all the nodes in the cluster must have the same name                                                           |
| seeds          | IP address of an existing node in the cluster. It allows a new node to discover the cluster ring topology when joining the cluster. |
| listen_address | IP address that the Scylla use to connect to other Scylla nodes in the cluster                                                      |
| rpc_address    | IP address of the interface for CQL client connections                                                                              |

<a id="yaml-enabling-experimental-features"></a>

### Enabling Experimental Features

There are two ways to enable experimental features:

* Enable all experimental features (which may be risky)
* Enable only the features you want to try

#### Enable All Experimental Features

To enable all experimental features to add to the scylla.yaml:

```yaml
experimental: true
```

#### Enable Specific Experimental Features

To enable specific experimental features, add to the scylla.yaml the list of experimental features you want to enable, by setting the experimental_features array.
The list of valid elements for this array can be obtained from `scylla --help`.
Note that this list is version specific. Your results may be different.
For example:

```yaml
experimental_features:
 - cdc
 - lwt
```

<a id="ipv6-addresses"></a>

### IPv6 Addresses

You can use IPv6 addresses wherever an IPv4 address is used, including client-to-node and node-to-node communication, Scylla Manager to Scylla nodes (Scylla Manager Agent), and Monitoring to nodes.

For example:

```yaml
- seeds: "2a05:d018:223:f00:971d:14af:6418:fe2d"
- listen_address: 2a05:d018:223:f00:971d:14af:6418:fe2d
- broadcast_rpc_address: 2a05:d018:223:f00:971d:14af:6418:fe2d
```

To enable IPv6 addressing, set the following parameter in scylla.yaml:

```yaml
enable_ipv6_dns_lookup: true
```

To read the rest of the [Administration Guide](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/admin.md) (from the top).

To go to the System Configuration documentation, click [here](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/system-configuration/index.md).

<a id="object-storage-configuration"></a>

## Configuring Object Storage

ScyllaDB can communicate directly with S3-compatible object storage. Before
using features that rely on object storage, you must first enable and
configure access to the storage endpoints.

Storage endpoints define where data can be stored and are specified in
the `scylla.yaml` configuration file. The relevant section of `scylla.yaml`
should follow this format:

```yaml
object_storage_endpoints:
  - name: http[s]://<endpoint_address_or_domain_name>[:<port_number>]
    aws_region: <region_name> # optional, e.g. us-east-1
    iam_role_arn: <iam_role> # optional
```

Example:

```yaml
object_storage_endpoints:
  - name: https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
    aws_region: us-east-1
    iam_role_arn: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:instance-profile/my-instance-instance-profile
```

The `aws_region` option can also be specified using
the `AWS_DEFAULT_REGION` environment variable.

The AWS-related credentials options (`aws_access_key_id`,
`aws_secret_access_key`, `aws_session_token`) can be configured using
the following environment variables:

> - `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`
> - `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`
> - `AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`

The ScyllaDB S3 client will first attempt to access credentials from environment variables.
If it fails to obtain credentials, it will then try to retrieve them from the
AWS Security Token Service (STS) or the EC2 Instance Metadata Service.

#### NOTE
- All AWS-related parameters must be either present or absent as a group.
- When set, these values are used by the S3 client to sign requests.
- If not set, requests are sent unsigned, which may not be accepted by all servers.

<a id="admin-oci-object-storage"></a>

### Using Oracle OCI Object Storage

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Object Storage is compatible with the Amazon
S3 API, so ScyllaDB can use it without any special configuration beyond
specifying the OCI S3-compatible endpoint.

**Endpoint URL format**

OCI S3-compatible endpoint URLs follow this pattern:

```none
https://<namespace>.compat.objectstorage.<region>.oci.customer-oci.com:443
```

Where:

* `<namespace>` is your OCI Object Storage namespace.
* `<region>` is the OCI region identifier, e.g. `us-ashburn-1`.

**Credentials**

OCI does not expose an instance metadata endpoint compatible with AWS STS/EC2,
so credentials **must** be supplied explicitly via environment variables. You
need to create a Customer Secret Key in the OCI Console and set:

```bash
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<customer_secret_key_access_key>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<customer_secret_key_secret>
```

#### NOTE
The `iam_role_arn` field is specific to AWS IAM and should be omitted
when configuring an OCI endpoint.

**Configuration example**

```yaml
object_storage_endpoints:
  - name: https://idedxcgnkfkt.compat.objectstorage.us-ashburn-1.oci.customer-oci.com:443
    aws_region: us-ashburn-1
```

<a id="admin-compression"></a>

## Compression

In ScyllaDB, you can configure compression at rest and compression in transit.
For compression in transit, you can configure compression between nodes or between the client and the node.

<a id="admin-client-node-compression"></a>

### Client - Node Compression

Compression between the client and the node is set by the driver that the application is using to access ScyllaDB.

For example:

* [ScyllaDB Python Driver](https://python-driver.docs.scylladb.com/master/api/cassandra/cluster.html#cassandra.cluster.Cluster.compression)
* [ScyllaDB Java Driver](https://github.com/scylladb/java-driver/tree/3.7.1-scylla/manual/compression)
* [Go Driver](https://godoc.org/github.com/gocql/gocql#Compressor)

Refer to [ScyllaDB Drivers](https://docs.scylladb.com/stable/drivers/index.html) for more drivers.

<a id="internode-compression"></a>

### Internode Compression

Internode compression is configured in the scylla.yaml

internode_compression controls whether traffic between nodes is compressed.

* all  - all traffic is compressed.
* dc   - traffic between different datacenters is compressed.
* rack - traffic between different racks is compressed.
* none - nothing is compressed (default).

## Configuring TLS/SSL in scylla.yaml

ScyllaDB supports encryption between nodes and between client and node. See the ScyllaDB [ScyllaDB TLS/SSL guide:](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/security/index.md) for configuration settings.

<a id="cqlsh-networking"></a>

## Networking

The ScyllaDB ports are detailed in the table below. For ScyllaDB Manager ports, see the [ScyllaDB Manager Documentation](https://manager.docs.scylladb.com/).

![image](operating-scylla/security/Scylla-Ports2.png)

<a id="networking-ports"></a>

ScyllaDB uses the following ports:

|   Port | Description                              | Protocol   |
|--------|------------------------------------------|------------|
|   9042 | CQL (native_transport_port)              | TCP        |
|   9142 | SSL CQL (secure client to node)          | TCP        |
|   7000 | Inter-node communication (RPC)           | TCP        |
|   7001 | SSL inter-node communication (RPC)       | TCP        |
|  10000 | ScyllaDB REST API                        | TCP        |
|   9180 | Prometheus API                           | TCP        |
|   9100 | node_exporter (Optionally)               | TCP        |
|  19042 | Native shard-aware transport port        | TCP        |
|  19142 | Native shard-aware transport port  (ssl) | TCP        |

If you’re using ScyllaDB Alternator, ensure that the ports configured
for Alternator with the `alternator_port` or `alternator_https_port` parameter
are open. See [ScyllaDB Alternator](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/alternator/alternator.md) for details.

#### NOTE
For ScyllaDB Manager ports, see the [ScyllaDB Manager](https://manager.docs.scylladb.com/) documentation.

All ports above need to be open to external clients (CQL) and other nodes (RPC). REST API port can be kept closed for incoming external connections.

### Advanced networking

It is possible that a client, or another node, may need to use a different IP address to connect to a ScyllaDB node from the address that the node is listening on. This is the case when a node is behind port forwarding. ScyllaDB allows for setting alternate IP addresses.

Do not set any IP address to `0.0.0.0`.

| Address Type              | Description                                                                                                                                                                                | Default        |
|---------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|
| listen_address (required) | Address ScyllaDB listens for connections from other nodes. See storage_port and ssl_storage_ports.                                                                                         | No default     |
| rpc_address (required)    | Address on which ScyllaDB is going to expect CQL clients connections. See rpc_port, native_transport_port and native_transport_port_ssl in the [Networking](#cqlsh-networking) parameters. | No default     |
| broadcast_address         | Address that is broadcasted to tell other ScyllaDB nodes to connect to. Related to listen_address above.                                                                                   | listen_address |
| broadcast_rpc_address     | Address that is broadcasted to tell the clients to connect to. Related to rpc_address.                                                                                                     | rpc_address    |

If other nodes can connect directly to `listen_address`, then `broadcast_address` does not need to be set.

If clients can connect directly to `rpc_address`, then `broadcast_rpc_address` does not need to be set.

#### NOTE
For tips and examples on how to configure these addresses, refer to [How to Properly Set Address Values in scylla.yaml](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/kb/yaml-address.md)

<a id="admin-core-dumps"></a>

## Core dumps

On RHEL and CentOS, the [Automatic Bug Reporting Tool](https://abrt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) conflicts with ScyllaDB coredump configuration. Remove it before installing ScyllaDB: `sudo yum remove -y abrt`

ScyllaDB places any core dumps in `var/lib/scylla/coredump`. They are not visible with the `coredumpctl` command. See the [System Configuration Guide](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/getting-started/system-configuration.md) for details on core dump configuration scripts. Check with ScyllaDB support before sharing any core dump, as they may contain sensitive data.

## Schedule fstrim

ScyllaDB sets up daily fstrim on the filesystem(s),
containing your ScyllaDB commitlog and data directory. This utility will
discard, or trim, any blocks no longer in use by the filesystem.

## Experimental Features

ScyllaDB uses experimental flags to expose non-production-ready features safely. These features are not stable enough to be used in production, and their API will likely change, breaking backward or forward compatibility.

In recent ScyllaDB versions, these features are controlled by the `experimental_features` list in scylla.yaml, allowing one to choose which experimental to enable.
Use `scylla --help` to get the list of experimental features.

<a id="admin-keyspace-storage-options"></a>

## Keyspace storage options

By default, SStables of a keyspace are stored in a local directory.
As an alternative, you can configure your keyspace to be stored
on Amazon S3 or another S3-compatible object store.

Before creating keyspaces with object storage, you need to
[configure](#object-storage-configuration) the object storage
credentials and endpoint.

<a id="admin-views-with-tablets"></a>

## Views with Tablets

Materialized Views (MV) and Secondary Indexes (SI) are supported in keyspaces that use tablets
only when the keyspaces are [RF-rack-valid](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/reference/glossary.md#term-RF-rack-valid-keyspace).

When a keyspace contains a Materialized View or Secondary Index, some operations are restricted to maintain
the RF-rack condition. The following actions are not allowed while the view or index is present:

* Altering the keyspace’s replication factor to a value that would violate the RF-rack-valid property
* Adding a node in a new rack in an existing datacenter
* Removing the last node in a rack

## Monitoring

ScyllaDB exposes interfaces for online monitoring, as described below.

### Monitoring Interfaces

[ScyllaDB Monitoring Interfaces](https://monitoring.docs.scylladb.com/stable/reference/monitoring_apis.html)

### Monitoring Stack

[Scylla Monitoring Stack](https://monitoring.docs.scylladb.com)

<!-- REST -->

## Admin REST API

ScyllaDB exposes a REST API to retrieve administrative information from a node and execute
administrative operations. For example, it allows you to check or update configuration,
retrieve cluster-level information, and more.

The [nodetool](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/master/operating-scylla/nodetool.md) CLI tool uses the REST API
to interact with the ScyllaDB process.

You can interact with the REST API directly using `curl`, ScyllaDB’s CLI for REST API, or the Swagger UI.

### Swagger UI

#### WARNING
Do not expose the REST API externally for production systems.

The following example is only for demonstration, as it exposes the REST API externally and will allow
external access to administration-level information and operations on your cluster.
The API is by default bound to an internal IP (127.0.0.1), blocked for external connections.

You can interact with the REST API using the Swagger UI at `your-ip:10000/ui`.

The following example shows using the Swagger UI with Docker.

1. Run:
   > ```sh
   > docker run --name some-scylla -p 10000:10000 -d scylladb/scylla:latest --api-address 0.0.0.0
   > ```
2. Go to [http://localhost:10000/ui/](http://localhost:10000/ui/).
   > ![Swagger screen capture](operating-scylla/scylla_swagger_ui.jpeg)

### CLI for REST API

ScyllaDB ships with `scylla-api-client`, a lightweight tool that provides a command-line interface
for the ScyllaDB API. The tool allows you to:

* List the API functions with their parameters and print detailed help for each function.
* Invoke the API commands using the command line.

When invoking a function, `scylla-api-client` performs basic validation of the function arguments and
prints the result to the standard output. You can use commonly available command line utilities
to print the results in the JSON format.

To avoid errors, you should prefer `scylla-api-client` over `curl` and similar HTTP tools for interacting
with the ScyllaDB REST API.

### Usage

Run `scylla-api-client --help` for information about all the available options.

**Examples:**

* `scylla-api-client --list-modules` - Shows all the API modules.
* `scylla-api-client --list-module-commands system` - Shows all the API commands for the `system` module.
* `scylla-api-client system uptime_ms` - Gets the system uptime (in milliseconds).
* `scylla-api-client system log POST --message "hello world" --level warn` - Writes the “hello world” message to the ScyllaDB log using the “warn” logging level.

## Un-contents

ScyllaDB is designed for high performance before tuning, for fewer layers that interact in unpredictable ways, and to use better algorithms that do not require manual tuning. The following items are found in the manuals for other data stores but do not need to appear here.

### Configuration un-contents

* Generating tokens
* Configuring virtual nodes

### Operations un-contents

* Tuning Bloom filters
* Data caching
* Configuring memtable throughput
* Configuring compaction
* Compression

### Testing compaction and compression

* Tuning Java resources
* Purging gossip state on a node

## Help with ScyllaDB

Contact [Support](https://www.scylladb.com/product/support/), or visit the ScyllaDB [Community](https://www.scylladb.com/open-source-community/) page for peer support.

© 2016, The Apache Software Foundation.

Apache®, Apache Cassandra®, Cassandra®, the Apache feather logo and the Apache Cassandra® Eye logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. No endorsement by The Apache Software Foundation is implied by the use of these marks.
