[CASSANDRA-44] It is difficult to modify the set of ColumnFamliies in an existing cluster

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Normal
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.7 beta 1
• Assignee: Gary Dusbabek
• Reporter: Eric Evans

Authors

Gary Dusbabek

• Created: 01/Apr/09 21:58
• Updated: 16/Apr/19 09:33
• Resolved: 06/Apr/10 16:04

Description

ColumnFamilies may be added when cassandr is not running by editing the configuration file.

If you need to delete or re-order CFs, you must

1) kill cassandra
2) start it again and wait for log replay to finish
3) kill cassandra AGAIN

Alternatively on Cassandra 0.4.2 or later:
1) run nodeprobe flush and wait for it to finish
2) kill cassandra

Then:
4) make your edits (now there is no data in the commitlog)
5) manually remove the sstable files (-Data.db, -Index.db, and -Filter.db) for the CFs you removed, and rename files for CFs you renamed
6) start cassandra and your edits should take effect

Issue Links

• depends upon: CASSANDRA-915 disallow column family names containing hyphens
• depends upon: CASSANDRA-620 Add per-keyspace replication factor (possibly even replication strategy)
• depends upon: CASSANDRA-818 refactor database descriptor so that KS and CF descriptions are contained within serializable classes.
• is related to: CASSANDRA-932 Use cfids instead of cfnames for major operations.
• is related to: CASSANDRA-929 Push migrations out instead of waiting for gossip to detect them.
• is related to: CASSANDRA-976 clean up dropped keyspaces' directories

Sub-Tasks

• refactor database descriptor so that KS and CF descriptions are contained within serializable classes.: Resolved
• Create an additional system keyspace to store KS definitions and migration data.: Resolved
• Add the ability to add/remove/rename column families on a single node.: Resolved
• Add the ability to add/remove/rename keyspaces on a single node.: Resolved
• Add hooks that recognize when system KS is updated.: Resolved
• Implement a replication strategy for the KS that holds KS/CF defnitions.: Resolved
• Use hashes for cfids: Resolved