Apache Cassandra Connection Details

Introduction

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8803 of the connector.

Get Started

Cassandra Version Support

The connector supports CQL versions 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0

Establish a Connection

Connect to Cassandra

You can connect directly to Cassandra instances, as well as Cosmos DB and DataStax Astra DB via their Cassandra APIs.

Cassandra

Set the following to connect to a Cassandra instance:

• Server: Set this to the the host name or IP address of the server hosting the Cassandra database. You can specify the port at the end of this property or in Port.
• Port: Set this to the port on which the Cassandra database is hosted, if you haven't specified the port as part of the Server connection property.
• Database: Set this to the name of the Cassandra keyspace containing your tables.
• ConsistencyLevel: Set this to the number of the replicas that you want to enforce a response from before queries are considered a success.
• User: Set this to the username used to access your Cassandra database.
• Password: Set this to the password used to access your Cassandra database.

Cosmos DB

If you're using Cosmos DB as your Cassandra data store, specify the following values to connect:

• Server: Set this to the Host value, the FQDN of the server provisioned for your account. You can specify the port at the end of this property or in Port.
• Port: Set this to the port on which your Cosmos DB instance is hosted, if you haven't specified the port as part of the Server connection property.
• Database: Set this to the database you want to read from and write to.
• ConsistencyLevel: Set this to the number of the replicas that you want to enforce a response from before queries are considered a success.
• User: Set this to your Cosmos DB account name.
• Password: Set this to the account key associated with the Cosmos DB account.

DataStax Astra DB

If you're using Astra DB as your Cassandra data store, specify the following values to connect:

• Server: Set this to the server in your BASE_ADDRESS value. You can also specify the port here or in Port.
• Port: Set this to the port on which your Astra DB instance is hosted, if you haven't specified the port as part of the Server connection property.
• Database: Set this to the database you want to read from and write to.
• ConsistencyLevel: Set this to the number of the replicas that you want to enforce a response from before queries are considered a success.
• User: Set this to your Astra DB username.
• Password: Set this to the password associated with your Astra DB username.

Secure Bundle Connection

You can configure any connection as a secure bundle by setting the following connection properties:

• Server: Set this to your server name.
• Port: Set this to 29042.
• User: Set this to the Atra DB user.
• Password: Set this to Astra DB user password.
• SSLClientCert: Set this to the path to the identity.jks file.
• SSLClientCertType: Set this JKSFILE.
• SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password for the identity.jks file.
• SSLClientCertSubject: Set this to CERTIFICATE SUBJECT INFORMATION.
• UseSSL: Set this to true.

See Secure connect bundle contents for a list of files that are included in a secure bundle.

Authenticate to Cassandra

The connector supports Basic authentication with login credentials and the additional authentication features of DataStax Enterprise (DSE). 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

Set AuthScheme to Basic to authenticate with login credentials alone.

In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to "PasswordAuthenticator".

DSE

Set the AuthScheme property to DSE to authenticate with login credentials and the DSE Unified Authenticator.

In the file, set the authenticator property to "com.datastax.bdp.cassandra.auth.DseAuthenticator".

Kerberos

Set the following to authenticating using Kerberos:

• AuthScheme: Set this to KERBEROS.
• KerberosKDC: Set this to the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) service used to authenticate the user.
• KerberosRealm: Set this to the Kerberos Realm used to authenticate the user.
• KerberosSPN: Set this to the service principal name (SPN) for the Kerberos Domain Controller.

Next, configure these YAML files as described below:

• 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.

Please see Using Kerberos for more details on how to set connection properties in order to connect to Kerberos.

LDAP

Set the following to authenticate:

• AuthScheme: Set this to LDAP to authenticate an LDAP user.
• LDAPServer: Set this to the host name or IP address of the LDAP server.
• LDAPPassword: The password of the default LDAP user.

Next, configure these YAML files as described below:

• 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.

Secure Cassandra Connections

You can set UseSSL to negotiate SSL/TLS encryption when you connect. By default, the connector attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

Use Kerberos

Use Kerberos

Authenticating to Cassandra via Kerberos requires you to define authentication properties and to choose how Kerberos should retrieve authentication tickets.

Retrieve Kerberos Tickets

Kerberos tickets are used to authenticate the requester's identity. The use of tickets instead of formal logins/passwords eliminates the need to store passwords locally or send them over a network. Users are reauthenticated (tickets are refreshed) whenever they log in at their local computer or enter kinit USER at the command prompt.

The connector provides three ways to retrieve the required Kerberos ticket, depending on whether or not the KRB5CCNAME and/or KerberosKeytabFile variables exist in your environment.

MIT Kerberos Credential Cache File

This option enables you to use the MIT Kerberos Ticket Manager or kinit command to get tickets. With this option there is no need to set the User or Password connection properties.

This option requires that KRB5CCNAME has been created in your system.

To enable ticket retrieval via MIT Cerberos Credential Cache Files:

1. Ensure that the KRB5CCNAME variable is present in your environment.
2. Set KRB5CCNAME to a path that points to your credential cache file. (For example, C:\krb_cache\krb5cc_0 or /tmp/krb5cc_0.) The credential cache file is created when you use the MIT Kerberos Ticket Manager to generate your ticket.

3. To obtain a ticket:

   1. Open the MIT Kerberos Ticket Manager application.
   2. Click Get Ticket.
   3. Enter your principal name and password.
   4. Click OK.

   If the ticket is successfully obtained, the ticket information appears in Kerberos Ticket Manager and is stored in the credential cache file.

The connector uses the cache file to obtain the Kerberos ticket to connect to Cassandra.

Keytab File

If your environment lacks the KRB5CCNAME environment variable, you can retrieve a Kerberos ticket using a Keytab File.

To use this method, set the User property to the desired username, and set the KerberosKeytabFile property to a file path pointing to the keytab file associated with the user.

User and Password

If your environment lacks the KRB5CCNAME environment variable and the KerberosKeytabFile property has not been set, you can retrieve a ticket using a user and password combination.

To use this method, set the User and Password properties to the user/password combination that you use to authenticate with Cassandra.

Enable Cross-Realm Authentication

More complex Kerberos environments can require cross-realm authentication where multiple realms and KDC servers are used. For example, they might use one realm/KDC for user authentication, and another realm/KDC for obtaining the service ticket.

To enable this kind of cross-realm authentication, set the KerberosRealm and KerberosKDC properties to the values required for user authentication. Also, set the KerberosServiceRealm and KerberosServiceKDC properties to the values required to obtain the service ticket.

Fine-Tuning Data Access

Fine Tuning Data Access

You can use the following properties to gain greater control over Cassandra API features and the strategies the connector uses to surface them:

• AllowFiltering: Set this property to allow the server to process slow-performing searches.

• UseJsonFormat: Set this property to use CQL literals instead of JSON.

• QueryPassthrough: This property enables you to use native CQL statements instead of SQL.

• RowScanDepth: This property determines the number of rows that will be scanned to detect column data types when generating table metadata.

  This property applies if you are working with the dynamic schemas generated from Automatic Schema Discovery or if you are using QueryPassthrough.

NoSQL Database

Cassandra is a NoSQL database that provides high performance, availability, and scalability. However, these capabilities are not necessarily incompatible with a standards-compliant query language like SQL-92. The connector models Cassandra tables into relational tables and translates SQL queries into calls to the Cassandra API, the CQL (Cassandra Query Language) binary protocol.

The equivalent of a table in Cassandra is a column family. Column families contain columns of related data. Like other NoSQL databases, Cassandra allows complex types of fields such as set, list, and map. A column family is a nested map data structure. This can be represented as a JSON object.

The connector offers two ways to model Cassandra objects. The Automatic Schema Discovery scheme automatically finds the data types in a Cassandra object by scanning a configured number of rows of the object. You can use RowScanDepth, FlattenArrays, and FlattenObjects to control the relational representation of the tables in Cassandra.

Automatic Schema Discovery

The connector automatically infers a relational schema by inspecting a series of Cassandra documents in a collection. You can use the RowScanDepth property to define the number of documents the connector will scan to do so. The columns identified during the discovery process depend on the FlattenArrays and FlattenObjects properties.

Flatten Objects

If FlattenObjects is set, all nested objects will be flattened into a series of columns. For example, consider the following document:

{
  id: 12,
  name: "Lohia Manufacturers Inc.",
  address: {street: "Main Street", city: "Chapel Hill", state: "NC"},
  offices: ["Chapel Hill", "London", "New York"],
  annual_revenue: 35,600,000
}

This document will be represented by the following columns:

If FlattenObjects is not set, then the address.street, address.city, and address.state columns will not be broken apart. The address column of type string will instead represent the entire object. Its value would be {street: "Main Street", city: "Chapel Hill", state: "NC"}. See JSON Functions for more details on working with JSON aggregates.

Flatten Arrays

The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten array values into columns of their own. This is only recommended for arrays that are expected to be short, for example the coordinates below:

"coord": [ -73.856077, 40.848447 ]

The FlattenArrays property can be set to 2 to represent the array above as follows:

It is best to leave other unbounded arrays as they are and piece out the data for them as needed using JSON Functions.

JSON Functions

The connector can return JSON structures as column values. The connector enables you to use standard SQL functions to work with these JSON structures. The examples in this section use the following array:

[
     { "grade": "A", "score": 2 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 6 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 10 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 9 },
     { "grade": "B", "score": 14 }
]

JSON_EXTRACT

The JSON_EXTRACT function can extract individual values from a JSON object. The following query returns the values shown below based on the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_EXTRACT(grades,'[0].grade') AS Grade, JSON_EXTRACT(grades,'[0].score') AS Score FROM Students;

JSON_COUNT

The JSON_COUNT function returns the number of elements in a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the number of elements specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_COUNT(grades,'[x]') AS NumberOfGrades FROM Students;

JSON_SUM

The JSON_SUM function returns the sum of the numeric values of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the total of the values specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_SUM(score,'[x].score') AS TotalScore FROM Students;

JSON_MIN

The JSON_MIN function returns the lowest numeric value of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the minimum value specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_MIN(score,'[x].score') AS LowestScore FROM Students;

JSON_MAX

The JSON_MAX function returns the highest numeric value of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the maximum value specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_MAX(score,'[x].score') AS HighestScore FROM Students;

JSON

The JSON function can be used to retrieve the entire table as a JSON string. See the following query and its result as an example:

SELECT JSON(*) FROM Customers;

The query above will return the entire table as shown.

{ "id": 12, "name": "Lohia Manufacturers Inc.", "address": { "street": "Main Street", "city": "Chapel Hill", "state": "NC"}, "offices": [ "Chapel Hill", "London", "New York" ], "annual_revenue": 35,600,000 }

Data Type Mapping

Data Type Mappings

The connector maps types from the data source to the corresponding data type available in the schema. The table below documents these mappings.

Note that string columns can map to different data types depending on their length.

System Tables

You can query the system tables described in this section to access schema information, information on data source functionality, and batch operation statistics.

Schema Tables

The following tables return database metadata for Cassandra:

• sys_catalogs: Lists the available databases.
• sys_schemas: Lists the available schemas.
• sys_tables: Lists the available tables and views.
• sys_tablecolumns: Describes the columns of the available tables and views.
• sys_procedures: Describes the available stored procedures.
• sys_procedureparameters: Describes stored procedure parameters.
• sys_keycolumns: Describes the primary and foreign keys.
• sys_indexes: Describes the available indexes.

Data Source Tables

The following tables return information about how to connect to and query the data source:

• sys_connection_props: Returns information on the available connection properties.
• sys_sqlinfo: Describes the SELECT queries that the connector can offload to the data source.

Query Information Tables

The following table returns query statistics for data modification queries, including batch operations:

• sys_identity: Returns information about batch operations or single updates.

sys_catalogs

Lists the available databases.

The following query retrieves all databases determined by the connection string:

SELECT * FROM sys_catalogs

Columns

sys_schemas

Lists the available schemas.

The following query retrieves all available schemas:

SELECT * FROM sys_schemas

Columns

sys_tables

Lists the available tables.

The following query retrieves the available tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_tables

Columns

sys_tablecolumns

Describes the columns of the available tables and views.

The following query returns the columns and data types for the ""."Sample".Products table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='Products' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='Sample'

Columns

sys_procedures

Lists the available stored procedures.

The following query retrieves the available stored procedures:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedures

Columns

sys_procedureparameters

Describes stored procedure parameters.

The following query returns information about all of the input parameters for the SelectEntries stored procedure:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedureparameters WHERE ProcedureName='SelectEntries' AND Direction=1 OR Direction=2

Columns

sys_keycolumns

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the ""."Sample".Products table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='Products' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='Sample'

Columns

sys_foreignkeys

Describes the foreign keys.

The following query retrieves all foreign keys which refer to other tables:

SELECT * FROM sys_foreignkeys WHERE ForeignKeyType = 'FOREIGNKEY_TYPE_IMPORT'

Columns

sys_primarykeys

Describes the primary keys.

The following query retrieves the primary keys from all tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_primarykeys

Columns

sys_indexes

Describes the available indexes. By filtering on indexes, you can write more selective queries with faster query response times.

The following query retrieves all indexes that are not primary keys:

SELECT * FROM sys_indexes WHERE IsPrimary='false'

Columns

sys_connection_props

Returns information on the available connection properties and those set in the connection string.

When querying this table, the config connection string should be used:

jdbc:cdata:cassandra:config:

This connection string enables you to query this table without a valid connection.

The following query retrieves all connection properties that have been set in the connection string or set through a default value:

SELECT * FROM sys_connection_props WHERE Value <> ''

Columns

sys_sqlinfo

Describes the SELECT query processing that the connector can offload to the data source.

Discover the Data Source's SELECT Capabilities

Below is an example data set of SQL capabilities. Some aspects of SELECT functionality are returned in a comma-separated list if supported; otherwise, the column contains NO.

The following query retrieves the operators that can be used in the WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM sys_sqlinfo WHERE Name = 'SUPPORTED_OPERATORS'

Note that individual tables may have different limitations or requirements on the WHERE clause; refer to the NoSQL Database section for more information.

Columns

sys_identity

Returns information about attempted modifications.

The following query retrieves the Ids of the modified rows in a batch operation:

SELECT * FROM sys_identity

Columns

Important Notes

Configuration Files and Their Paths

• All references to adding configuration files and their paths refer to files and locations on the Jitterbit agent where the connector is installed. These paths are to be adjusted as appropriate depending on the agent and the operating system. If multiple agents are used in an agent group, identical files will be required on each agent.

Advanced Features

This section details a selection of advanced features of the Cassandra connector.

User Defined Views

The connector allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how connector handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Proxy

To configure the connector using private agent proxy settings, select the Use Proxy Settings checkbox on the connection configuration screen.

Query Processing

The connector offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to Cassandra and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

User Defined Views

The Jitterbit Connector for Cassandra allows you to define a virtual table whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These are called User Defined Views, which are useful in situations where you cannot directly control the query being issued to the driver, e.g. when using the driver from Jitterbit. The User Defined Views can be used to define predicates that are always applied. If you specify additional predicates in the query to the view, they are combined with the query already defined as part of the view.

There are two ways to create user defined views:

• Create a JSON-formatted configuration file defining the views you want.
• DDL statements.

Define Views Using a Configuration File

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM \"\".\"Sample\".Products WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json"

Define Views Using DDL Statements

The connector is also capable of creating and altering the schema via DDL Statements such as CREATE LOCAL VIEW, ALTER LOCAL VIEW, and DROP LOCAL VIEW.

Create a View

To create a new view using DDL statements, provide the view name and query as follows:

CREATE LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 20;

If no JSON file exists, the above code creates one. The view is then created in the JSON configuration file and is now discoverable. The JSON file location is specified by the UserDefinedViews connection property.

Alter a View

To alter an existing view, provide the name of an existing view alongside the new query you would like to use instead:

ALTER LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE TimeModified > '3/1/2020';

The view is then updated in the JSON configuration file.

Drop a View

To drop an existing view, provide the name of an existing schema alongside the new query you would like to use instead.

DROP LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName]

This removes the view from the JSON configuration file. It can no longer be queried.

Schema for User Defined Views

User Defined Views are exposed in the UserViews schema by default. This is done to avoid the view's name clashing with an actual entity in the data model. You can change the name of the schema used for UserViews by setting the UserViewsSchemaName property.

Work with User Defined Views

For example, a SQL statement with a User Defined View called UserViews.RCustomers only lists customers in Raleigh:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh';

An example of a query to the driver:

SELECT * FROM UserViews.RCustomers WHERE Status = 'Active';

Resulting in the effective query to the source:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh' AND Status = 'Active';

That is a very simple example of a query to a User Defined View that is effectively a combination of the view query and the view definition. It is possible to compose these queries in much more complex patterns. All SQL operations are allowed in both queries and are combined when appropriate.

SSL Configuration

Customize the SSL Configuration

By default, the connector attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Client SSL Certificates

The Cassandra connector also supports setting client certificates. Set the following to connect using a client certificate.

• SSLClientCert: The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
• SSLClientCertType: The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertPassword: The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Advanced Configurations Properties

The advanced configurations properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Kerberos

SSL

SSH

Schema

Miscellaneous

Authentication

This section provides a complete list of authentication properties you can configure.

AuthScheme

The scheme used for authentication. Accepted entries are Basic, DSE, Kerberos, and LDAP.

Possible Values

Basic, DSE, Kerberos, LDAP

Data Type

string

Default Value

Basic

Remarks

Set this property to authenticate to open-source or DataStax Enterprise (DSE) Cassandra instances.

Together with Password and User, this field is used to authenticate against the server. Basic is the default option. Use the following options to select your authentication scheme:

• Basic: Set this to authenticate with login credentials and Cassandra's built-in authentication.
• DSE: Set this to authenticate with login credentials and the DSE Unified Authenticator.
• Kerberos: Set this to use Kerberos to authenticate.
• LDAP: Set this to use LDAP to authenticate.

See the Getting Started section for guides to using each authentication method.

Server

The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Cassandra database.

Data Type

string

Default Value

localhost

Remarks

The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Cassandra database. To connect to a distributed system, you can set Server to a comma-separated list of servers and ports, separated by colons. You will also need to set ConsistencyLevel.

Note that you must specify all of the servers required by your selected consistency level.

Port

The port for the Cassandra database.

Data Type

string

Default Value

9042

Remarks

The port for the Cassandra database.

LDAPServer

The host name or IP address of the LDAP server.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The host name or IP address of the LDAP server.

User

The Cassandra user account used to authenticate.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Together with Password, this field is used to authenticate against the Cassandra server.

Password

The password used to authenticate the user.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The User and Password are together used to authenticate with the server.

LDAPPort

The port for the LDAP server.

Data Type

string

Default Value

389

Remarks

The port for the LDAP server.

Database

The name of the Cassandra keyspace.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The name of the Cassandra keyspace containing the tables.

DefaultLDAPUser

The default LDAP user used to connect to and communicate with the server, it must be set if the LDAP server do not allow anonymous bind.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Specify the default LDAP user in case the LDAP server do not allow anonymous login.

LDAPPassword

The password of the default LDAP user. It must be set if the LDAP server do not allow anonymous bind.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Specify the password of the default LDAP user.

SearchBase

The search base for your LDAPServer, used to look up users.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The search base for your LDAPServer, used to look up users.

SearchFilter

The search filter for looking up usernames in LDAP. The default setting is (uid=), When using Active Directory set the filter to (sAMAccountName=).

Data Type

string

Default Value

uid=

Remarks

The search filter for looking up usernames in LDAP. The default setting is (uid=).

UseSSL

This field sets whether SSL is enabled.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

This field sets whether the connector will attempt to negotiate TLS/SSL connections to the server. By default, the connector checks the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, set SSLServerCert.

Kerberos

This section provides a complete list of Kerberos properties you can configure.

KerberosKDC

The Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) service used to authenticate the user.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The Kerberos properties are used when using SPNEGO or Windows Authentication. The connector will request session tickets and temporary session keys from the Kerberos KDC service. The Kerberos KDC service is conventionally colocated with the domain controller.

If Kerberos KDC is not specified, the connector will attempt to detect these properties automatically from the following locations:

• KRB5 Config File (krb5.ini/krb5.conf): If the KRB5_CONFIG environment variable is set and the file exists, the connector will obtain the KDC from the specified file. Otherwise, it will attempt to read from the default MIT location based on the OS: C:\ProgramData\MIT\Kerberos5\krb5.ini (Windows) or /etc/krb5.conf (Linux).
• Java System Properties: Using the system properties java.security.krb5.realm and java.security.krb5.kdc.
• Domain Name and Host: If the Kerberos Realm and Kerberos KDC could not be inferred from another location, the connector will infer them from the configured domain name and host.

KerberosRealm

The Kerberos Realm used to authenticate the user.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The Kerberos properties are used when using SPNEGO or Windows Authentication. The Kerberos Realm is used to authenticate the user with the Kerberos Key Distribution Service (KDC). The Kerberos Realm can be configured by an administrator to be any string, but conventionally it is based on the domain name.

If Kerberos Realm is not specified, the connector will attempt to detect these properties automatically from the following locations:

• KRB5 Config File (krb5.ini/krb5.conf): If the KRB5_CONFIG environment variable is set and the file exists, the connector will obtain the default realm from the specified file. Otherwise, it will attempt to read from the default MIT location based on the OS: C:\ProgramData\MIT\Kerberos5\krb5.ini (Windows) or /etc/krb5.conf (Linux)
• Java System Properties: Using the system properties java.security.krb5.realm and java.security.krb5.kdc.
• Domain Name and Host: If the Kerberos Realm and Kerberos KDC could not be inferred from another location, the connector will infer them from the user-configured domain name and host. This might work in some Windows environments.

KerberosSPN

The service principal name (SPN) for the Kerberos Domain Controller.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

If the SPN on the Kerberos Domain Controller is not the same as the URL that you are authenticating to, use this property to set the SPN.

KerberosKeytabFile

The Keytab file containing your pairs of Kerberos principals and encrypted keys.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The Keytab file containing your pairs of Kerberos principals and encrypted keys.

KerberosServiceRealm

The Kerberos realm of the service.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The KerberosServiceRealm is the specify the service Kerberos realm when using cross-realm Kerberos authentication.

In most cases, a single realm and KDC machine are used to perform the Kerberos authentication and this property is not required.

This property is available for complex setups where a different realm and KDC machine are used to obtain an authentication ticket (AS request) and a service ticket (TGS request).

KerberosServiceKDC

The Kerberos KDC of the service.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The KerberosServiceKDC is used to specify the service Kerberos KDC when using cross-realm Kerberos authentication.

In most cases, a single realm and KDC machine are used to perform the Kerberos authentication and this property is not required.

This property is available for complex setups where a different realm and KDC machine are used to obtain an authentication ticket (AS request) and a service ticket (TGS request).

KerberosTicketCache

The full file path to an MIT Kerberos credential cache file.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property can be set if you wish to use a credential cache file that was created using the MIT Kerberos Ticket Manager or kinit command.

SSL

This section provides a complete list of SSL properties you can configure.

SSLClientCert

The TLS/SSL client certificate store for SSL Client Authentication (2-way SSL).

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The SSLClientCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by SSLClientCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in SSLClientCertPassword.

SSLClientCert is used in conjunction with the SSLClientCertSubject field in order to specify client certificates. If SSLClientCert has a value, and SSLClientCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. See SSLClientCertSubject for more information.

Designations of certificate stores are platform-dependent.

The following are designations of the most common User and Machine certificate stores in Windows:

In Java, the certificate store normally is a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

When the certificate store type is PFXFile, this property must be set to the name of the file. When the type is PFXBlob, the property must be set to the binary contents of a PFX file (for example, PKCS12 certificate store).

SSLClientCertType

The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Possible Values

USER, MACHINE, PFXFILE, PFXBLOB, JKSFILE, JKSBLOB, PEMKEY_FILE, PEMKEY_BLOB, PUBLIC_KEY_FILE, PUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_FILE, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, P7BFILE, PPKFILE, XMLFILE, XMLBLOB

Data Type

string

Default Value

USER

Remarks

This property can take one of the following values:

SSLClientCertPassword

The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password to open the certificate store.

SSLClientCertSubject

The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type

string

Default Value

*

Remarks

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property. If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For example, "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@company.com". The common fields and their meanings are shown below.

If a field value contains a comma, it must be quoted.

SSLServerCert

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Certificates are validated as trusted by the machine based on the System's trust store. The trust store used is the 'javax.net.ssl.trustStore' value specified for the system. If no value is specified for this property, Java's default trust store is used (for example, JAVA_HOME\lib\security\cacerts).

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

SSH

This section provides a complete list of SSH properties you can configure.

SSHAuthMode

The authentication method used when establishing an SSH Tunnel to the service.

Possible Values

None, Password, Public_Key

Data Type

string

Default Value

Password

Remarks

• None: No authentication is performed. The current User value is ignored, and the connection is logged in as anonymous.
• Password: The connector uses the values of User and Password to authenticate the user.
• Public_Key: The connector uses the values of User and SSHClientCert to authenticate the user. SSHClientCert must have a private key available for this authentication method to succeed.

SSHClientCert

A certificate to be used for authenticating the SSHUser.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

SSHClientCert must contain a valid private key in order to use public key authentication. A public key is optional, if one is not included then the connector generates it from the private key. The connector sends the public key to the server and the connection is allowed if the user has authorized the public key.

The SSHClientCertType field specifies the type of the key store specified by SSHClientCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in SSHClientCertPassword.

Some types of key stores are containers which may include multiple keys. By default the connector will select the first key in the store, but you can specify a specific key using SSHClientCertSubject.

SSHClientCertPassword

The password of the SSHClientCert key if it has one.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property is only used when authenticating to SFTP servers with SSHAuthMode set to PublicKey and SSHClientCert set to a private key.

SSHClientCertSubject

The subject of the SSH client certificate.

Data Type

string

Default Value

*

Remarks

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property.

If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For instance "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=example@jbexample.com". Common fields and their meanings are displayed below.

If a field value contains a comma it must be quoted.

SSHClientCertType

The type of SSHClientCert private key.

Possible Values

USER, MACHINE, PFXFILE, PFXBLOB, JKSFILE, JKSBLOB, PEMKEY_FILE, PEMKEY_BLOB, PPKFILE, PPKBLOB, XMLFILE, XMLBLOB

Data Type

string

Default Value

PEMKEY_FILE

Remarks

This property can take one of the following values:

SSHServer

The SSH server.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The SSH server.

SSHPort

The SSH port.

Data Type

string

Default Value

22

Remarks

The SSH port.

SSHUser

The SSH user.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The SSH user.

SSHPassword

The SSH password.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The SSH password.

SSHServerFingerprint

The SSH server fingerprint.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The SSH server fingerprint.

UseSSH

Whether to tunnel the Cassandra connection over SSH. Use SSH.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

By default the connector will attempt to connect directly to Cassandra. When this option is enabled, the connector will instead establish an SSH connection with the SSHServer and tunnel the connection to Cassandra through it.

Schema

This section provides a complete list of schema properties you can configure.

Location

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Data Type

string

Default Value

%APPDATA%\Cassandra Data Provider\Schema

Remarks

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the connector (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\Cassandra Data Provider\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

BrowsableSchemas

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

Tables

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Views

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Miscellaneous

This section provides a complete list of miscellaneous properties you can configure.

AggregationsSupported

Whether or not to support aggregations in the Cassandra server. Note that in queries to the provider, you must use single quotes to define strings.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

true

Remarks

AllowFiltering

When true, slow-performing queries are processed on the server.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

Cassandra by default does not allow filtering for queries that it predicts will have performance problems. These queries include filtering on a column that is not the primary key.

You can override the default behavior and rely on the server to process these queries by setting AllowFiltering to true.

CaseSensitivity

Enable case sensitivity to the CQL sending to the server, if set to True, the identifiers in the CQL will be enclosed in double quotation marks.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

true

Remarks

By default, SQL is case-insensitive. However, Cassandra supports case-sensitive table and column names. Setting this property to True will enable you to retrieve tables and columns based on their case-sensitive names.

ConsistencyLevel

The consistency level determines how many of the replicas of the data you are interacting with need to respond for the query to be considered a success.

Possible Values

ONE, TWO, THREE, QUORUM, ALL, LOCAL_QUORUM, EACH_QUORUM, SERIAL, LOCAL_SERIAL, LOCAL_ONE, ANY

Data Type

string

Default Value

ONE

Remarks

The consistency level determines how many of the replicas of the data you are interacting with need to respond for the query to be considered a success. You need to specify the appropriate replicas in the Server property.

Below are the possible values:

• ANY: At least one replica must return success in a write operation. This property guarantees that a write never fails; this consistency level delivers the lowest consistency and highest availability.
• ALL: All replicas must respond. This property provides the highest consistency and the lowest availability.
• ONE: At least one replica must respond. This is the default and suitable for most users, who do not typically require high consistency.
• TWO: At least two replicas must respond.
• THREE: At least three replicas must respond.
• QUORUM: A quorum of nodes must respond. The QUORUM properties provide high consistency with some failure tolerance.
• EACH_QUORUM: A quorum of nodes must respond where a quorum is calculated for each data center. This setting maintains consistency in each data center.
• SERIAL: A quorum of replicas performs a consensus algorithm to allow lightweight transactions.
• LOCAL_ONE: At least one replica in the local data center must respond.
• LOCAL_SERIAL: The consensus algorithm is calculated for the local data center.
• LOCAL_QUORUM: A quorum of nodes must respond where the quorum is calculated for the local data center.

FlattenArrays

By default, nested arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten the elements of nested arrays into columns of their own. Set FlattenArrays to the number of elements you want to return from nested arrays.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

By default, nested arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten the elements of nested arrays into columns of their own. This is only recommended for arrays that are expected to be short.

Set FlattenArrays to the number of elements you want to return from nested arrays. The specified elements are returned as columns. The zero-based index is concatenated to the column name. Other elements are ignored.

For example, you can return an arbitrary number of elements from an array of strings:

["FLOW-MATIC","LISP","COBOL"]

When FlattenArrays is set to 1, the preceding array is flattened into the following table:

FlattenObjects

Set FlattenObjects to true to flatten object properties into columns of their own. Otherwise, objects nested in arrays are returned as strings of JSON.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

Set FlattenObjects to true to flatten object properties into columns of their own. Otherwise, objects nested in arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The property name is concatenated onto the object name with an underscore to generate the column name.

For example, you can flatten the nested objects below at connection time:

[
     { "grade": "A", "score": 2 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 6 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 10 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 9 },
     { "grade": "B", "score": 14 }
]

When FlattenObjects is set to true and FlattenArrays is set to 1, the preceding array is flattened into the following table:

MaxRows

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Data Type

int

Default Value

-1

Remarks

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

NullToUnset

Use unset instead of NULL in CQL query when performing INSERT operations.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

In Cassandra 2.2 and above, when executing an INSERT query, a parameter value can be set to unset. Cassandra does not consider unset field values which helps to avoid tombstones.

When NULL values are inserted, it is possible to reach the tombstone threshold limits which causes an exception to be thrown when querying the data. Setting this property to true and submitting unset values avoids these tombstones from being created.

Note: This option is only available on INSERT operations as Cassandra does not support changing existing values to unset.

Other

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting

Pagesize

The maximum number of results to return per page from Cassandra.

Data Type

int

Default Value

5000

Remarks

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from Cassandra. Setting a higher value may result in better performance at the cost of additional memory allocated per page consumed.

PseudoColumns

This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

This setting is particularly helpful in Entity Framework, which does not allow you to set a value for a pseudo column unless it is a table column. The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3". You can use the "*" character to include all tables and all columns; for example, "*=*".

QueryPassthrough

This option passes the query to the Cassandra server as is.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

When this is set, queries are passed through directly to Cassandra.

RowScanDepth

The maximum number of rows to scan to look for the columns available in a table.

Data Type

int

Default Value

100

Remarks

The columns in a table must be determined by scanning table rows. This value determines the maximum number of rows that will be scanned.

Setting a high value may decrease performance. Setting a low value may prevent the data type from being determined properly, especially when there is null data.

Timeout

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Data Type

int

Default Value

60

Remarks

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the connector throws an exception.

UseJsonFormat

Whether to submit and return the JSON encoding for CQL data types.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

true

Remarks

Cassandra 2.2 introduced a CQL extension that allows you to JSON-encode CQL data types. By default, you use the JSON syntax to manipulate data and SELECT statements return JSON through the connector. Set this property to false to use CQL literals to interact with Cassandra data.

The syntax for CQL literals has several differences from JSON. For example:

• CQL strings are defined in single quotes, while JSON strings are defined in double quotes.
• CQL sets, tuples, and lists are JSON-encoded as arrays.
• User-defined types and CQL uuid types are JSON-encoded as objects.

Refer to the CQL documentation for more information on how to JSON-encode data types in your version of Cassandra. Below is an example SQL statement using JSON and CQL.

Note that in queries to the connector, you must use single quotes to define strings.

UserDefinedViews

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM \"\".\"Sample\".Products WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json

Note that the specified path is not embedded in quotation marks.

VarintToString

Map Cassandra VARINT to String value.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

true

Remarks

Map Cassandra VARINT to String value.