Learn about the new Apache Cassandra features and why you should upgrade to 4.1. Also, some upcoming features.

1. What’s New:
Apache Cassandra 4.1+
Features & Future
Learn about the new Apache Cassandra features and why you
should upgrade to 4.1. Also, some upcoming features.
Rahul Xavier Singh Anant Corporation
Cassandra Lunch 129

2. Apache Cassandra 4.0/4.1
Is a major upgrade. It
means new features, but it
also means dropping
support for old 2.x/3.x.

3. We help platform owners
reach beyond their potential
to serve a global customer
base that demands
Everything, Now.

4. We design with our
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Framework, and manage
platforms with our Approach
so our clients
Think & Grow Big.

5. Our Customers

6. Agenda
● Use/Development:
New CQL Features/
Consistency Updates + ACID
● Security & Operations/ Cloud
Native Features

7. ● CQL Improvements: Several
○ Group by time range in GROUP BY clause.
○ LWTs now allow the use of CONTAINS and CONTAINS KEY
conditions in conditional updates:
"UPDATE sessions SET draft= 1 WHERE session_id = '{guid}' IF
session_preference CONTAINS KEY ‘allow_drafts’"
○ IF EXISTS and IF NOT EXISTS in ALTER statements.
● CEP-14: Paxos improvements. Less round trips for
writes.
● Config: New & Improved Configuration Format
● 5.0: CEP-15: General Purpose Transactions Based on
Accord (Apple Paper) + CEP-7 Storage Attached Index
Better Development/Use

8. Better Operability
● CEP-10: Cluster and Code Simulations for exploring
state space and correctness testing
● CEP-3: Guardrails for preventing common
anti-patterns and warnings/failures logging. (Apache
Cassandra Blog)
● CEP-13: Denylisting to reduce overloaded partition
keys effect on nodes and cluster
● SSTable Identifiers to make it easy to manage
SSTables
● Pluggable Memtables / Schema Management

9. Better Security
● CEP-16: Auth Plugin Support for CQLSH for
authentication to source credentials from LDAP,
Kerberos, and other stores
● CEP-9: Pluggable SSLContext creation for 3rd party
SSL/TLS providers
● Passwords: Support for pre-hashed passwords in CQL
for eliminating plain text credentials
● Improvements in nodetool, backup and restore
● Improvements in GRANT/REVOKE/LIST statements
● New system tables for security and monitoring

10. Better Cloud
● CQL Improvements: Several
○ The GROUP BY clause in CQL queries can now group by time range.
○ LWTs now allow the use of CONTAINS and CONTAINS KEY
conditions in conditional updates:
"UPDATE sessions SET draft= 1 WHERE session_id = '{guid}' IF
session_preference CONTAINS KEY ‘allow_drafts’"
○ IF EXISTS and IF NOT EXISTS in ALTER statements.
● CEP-14: Paxos improvements. Less round trips for
writes.
● Config: New & Improved Configuration Format
● FUTURE: CEP-15: General Purpose Transactions Based
on Accord (Apple Paper)

11. 11
Key Takeaways for Cassandra 4.1
It’s time to upgrade.
Better security
Better developer experience
Better operability
- Cassandra Community will only
support 2 major versions at a time.
- Guardrails, denylisting, monitoring
via system views make it easier to
stop bad things from happening.
- Being able to extend SSContext
allows for integration to Vault,
AWS KMS, etc.
- Pluggable Memtable, Schema
makes it easier to optimize for use
case.
- Continued improvements to CQL,
Consistency engines
Better extendability

12. Resources
● https:/
/cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/cassandra/new/index.html
● https:/
/www.datastax.com/blog/its-time-to-upgrade-to-cassandra-4-1
● https:/
/www.instaclustr.com/blog/apache-cassandra-4-1-discover-whats-new/
● https:/
/github.com/apache/cassandra/blob/cassandra-4.1/NEWS.txt
● https:/
/cloud7.news/development/apache-cassandra-4-1-is-now-available/

13. 13
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