Adding a Connection to Cassandra

1. In the application console, navigate to the Connections page.
2. At the Add Connections panel, select the icon for the connection you want to add.
3. If the Cassandra icon is not available, click the Add More icon to download and install the Cassandra connector from the CData site.

For required properties, see the Settings tab.

For connection properties that are not typically required, see the Advanced tab.

Connecting 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

• 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

• 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.

Authenticating to Cassandra

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.

• 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.

• 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.

Securing Cassandra Connections

You can set UseSSL to negotiate SSL/TLS encryption when you connect. By default, the Sync App 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.

Kerberos

To authenticate to Cassandra with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to KERBEROS.

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

Retrieve Kerberos Tickets

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

Note: If you would prefer not to edit KRB5CCNAME, you can use the KerberosTicketCache property to set the file path manually. After this is set, the Sync App uses the specified 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.

Enabling Cross-Realm Authentication

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

You can use the following properties to gain greater control over Cassandra API features and the strategies the Sync App 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.

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 Sync App 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 Sync App 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.

The Sync App 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 Sync App will scan to do so. The columns identified during the discovery process depend on the FlattenArrays and FlattenObjects properties.

Flattening 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
}

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.

Flattening 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 ]

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

The Sync App can return JSON structures as column values. The Sync App 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

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

JSON_COUNT

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

JSON_SUM

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

JSON_MIN

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

JSON_MAX

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;

{ "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 Mappings

The Sync App 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.

This section details a selection of advanced features of the Cassandra Sync App.

User Defined Views

The Sync App supports the use of user defined views, virtual tables whose contents are decided by a pre-configured user defined query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. For an overview of creating and configuring custom views, see User Defined Views .

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how Sync App handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats;. For further information, see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" .

Firewall and Proxy

Configure the Sync App for compliance with Firewall and Proxy, including Windows proxies. You can also set up tunnel connections.

Query Processing

For further information, see Query Processing.

Logging

Customizing the SSL Configuration

To enable TLS, set UseSSL to True.

With this configuration, the Sync App attempts to negotiate TLS with the server. The server certificate is validated against the default system trusted certificate store. You can override how the certificate gets validated using the SSLServerCert connection property.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert connection property.

Client SSL Certificates

The Cassandra Sync App 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.

Connecting Through a Firewall or Proxy

Set the following properties:

• To use a proxy-based firewall, set FirewallType, FirewallServer, and FirewallPort.
• To tunnel the connection, set FirewallType to TUNNEL.
• To authenticate, specify FirewallUser and FirewallPassword.
• To authenticate to a SOCKS proxy, additionally set FirewallType to SOCKS5.

The connection string 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 in the connection string for this provider. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Kerberos

SSL

SSH

Firewall

Logging

Schema

Miscellaneous

This section provides a complete list of the Authentication properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

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

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.

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

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.

The port for the Cassandra database.

Remarks

The port for the Cassandra database.

The host name or IP address of the LDAP server.

Remarks

The host name or IP address of the LDAP server.

Specifies the user ID of the authenticating Cassandra user account.

Remarks

The authenticating server requires both User and Password to validate the user's identity.

Specifies the password of the authenticating user account.

Remarks

The authenticating server requires both User and Password to validate the user's identity.

The port for the LDAP server.

Remarks

The port for the LDAP server.

The name of the Cassandra keyspace.

Remarks

The name of the Cassandra keyspace containing the tables.

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.

Remarks

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

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

Remarks

Specify the password of the default LDAP user.

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

Remarks

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

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

Remarks

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

This field sets whether SSL is enabled.

Remarks

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

This section provides a complete list of the Kerberos properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

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

Remarks

The Kerberos properties are used when using SPNEGO or Windows Authentication. The Sync App 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 Sync App 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 Sync App 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).
• Domain Name and Host: If the Kerberos Realm and Kerberos KDC could not be inferred from another location, the Sync App will infer them from the configured domain name and host.

The Kerberos Realm used to authenticate the user.

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 Sync App 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 Sync App 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)
• Domain Name and Host: If the Kerberos Realm and Kerberos KDC could not be inferred from another location, the Sync App will infer them from the user-configured domain name and host. This might work in some Windows environments.

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

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.

The principal name for the Kerberos Domain Controller. Used in the format host/user@realm.

Remarks

If the user you are using for the database doesn't match the user that is in the Kerberos database, this should be set to the Kerberos principal name.

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

Remarks

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

The Kerberos realm of the service.

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).

The Kerberos KDC of the service.

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).

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

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.

This section provides a complete list of the SSL properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Specifies the TLS/SSL client certificate store for SSL Client Authentication (2-way SSL). This property works in conjunction with other SSL-related properties to establish a secure connection.

Remarks

This property specifies the client certificate store for SSL Client Authentication. Use this property alongside SSLClientCertType, which defines the type of the certificate store, and SSLClientCertPassword, which specifies the password for password-protected stores. When SSLClientCert is set and SSLClientCertSubject is configured, the driver searches for a certificate matching the specified subject.

Certificate store designations vary by platform. On Windows, certificate stores are identified by names such as MY (personal certificates), while in Java, the certificate store is typically a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

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

For PFXFile types, set this property to the filename. For PFXBlob types, set this property to the binary contents of the file in PKCS12 format.

Specifies the type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate for SSL Client Authentication. Choose from a variety of key store formats depending on your platform and certificate source.

Remarks

This property determines the format and location of the key store used to provide the client certificate. Supported values include platform-specific and universal key store formats. The available values and their usage are:

Specifes the password required to access the TLS/SSL client certificate store. Use this property if the selected certificate store type requires a password for access.

Remarks

This property provides the password needed to open a password-protected certificate store. This property is necessary when using certificate stores that require a password for decryption, as is often recommended for PFX or JKS type stores.

If the certificate store type does not require a password, for example USER or MACHINE on Windows, this property can be left blank. Ensure that the password matches the one associated with the specified certificate store to avoid authentication errors.

Specifes the subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate to locate it in the certificate store. Use a comma-separated list of distinguished name fields, such as CN=www.server.com, C=US. The wildcard * selects the first certificate in the store.

Remarks

This property determines which client certificate to load based on its subject. The Sync App searches for a certificate that exactly matches the specified subject. If no exact match is found, the Sync App looks for certificates containing the value of the subject. If no match is found, no certificate is selected.

The subject should follow the standard format of a comma-separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For example, CN=www.server.com, OU=Test, C=US. Common fields include the following:

Note: If any field contains special characters, such as commas, the value must be quoted. For example: CN="Example, Inc.", C=US.

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

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.

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

This section provides a complete list of the SSH properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

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

Remarks

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

A certificate to be used for authenticating the SSHUser.

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 Sync App generates it from the private key. The Sync App 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 Sync App will select the first key in the store, but you can specify a specific key using SSHClientCertSubject.

The password of the SSHClientCert key if it has one.

Remarks

This property is required for SSH tunneling when using certificate-based authentication. If the SSH certificate is in a password-protected key store, provide the password using this property to access the certificate.

The subject of the SSH client certificate.

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, [email protected]". Common fields and their meanings are displayed below.

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

The type of SSHClientCert private key.

Remarks

This property can take one of the following values:

The SSH server.

Remarks

The SSH server.

The SSH port.

Remarks

The SSH port.

The SSH user.

Remarks

The SSH user.

The SSH password.

Remarks

The SSH password.

The SSH server fingerprint.

Remarks

The SSH server fingerprint.

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

Remarks

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

This section provides a complete list of the Firewall properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Specifies the protocol the provider uses to tunnel traffic through a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

A proxy-based firewall (or proxy firewall) is a network security device that acts as an intermediary between user requests and the resources they access. The proxy accepts the request of an authenticated user, tunnels through the firewall, and transmits the request to the appropriate server.

Because the proxy evaluates and transfers data backets on behalf of the requesting users, the users never connect directly with the servers, only with the proxy.

The following table provides port number information for each of the supported protocols.

Identifies the IP address, DNS name, or host name of a proxy used to traverse a firewall and relay user queries to network resources.

Remarks

A proxy-based firewall (or proxy firewall) is a network security device that acts as an intermediary between user requests and the resources they access. The proxy accepts the request of an authenticated user, tunnels through the firewall, and transmits the request to the appropriate server.

Because the proxy evaluates and transfers data backets on behalf of the requesting users, the users never connect directly with the servers, only with the proxy.

Specifies the TCP port to be used for a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

A proxy-based firewall (or proxy firewall) is a network security device that acts as an intermediary between user requests and the resources they access. The proxy accepts the request of an authenticated user, tunnels through the firewall, and transmits the request to the appropriate server.

Because the proxy evaluates and transfers data backets on behalf of the requesting users, the users never connect directly with the servers, only with the proxy.

Identifies the user ID of the account authenticating to a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

A proxy-based firewall (or proxy firewall) is a network security device that acts as an intermediary between user requests and the resources they access. The proxy accepts the request of an authenticated user, tunnels through the firewall, and transmits the request to the appropriate server.

Because the proxy evaluates and transfers data backets on behalf of the requesting users, the users never connect directly with the servers, only with the proxy.

Specifies the password of the user account authenticating to a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

A proxy-based firewall (or proxy firewall) is a network security device that acts as an intermediary between user requests and the resources they access. The proxy accepts the request of an authenticated user, tunnels through the firewall, and transmits the request to the appropriate server.

Because the proxy evaluates and transfers data backets on behalf of the requesting users, the users never connect directly with the servers, only with the proxy.

This section provides a complete list of the Logging properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Specifies the core modules to include in the log file. Use a semicolon-separated list of module names. By default, all modules are logged.

Remarks

This property lets you customize the log file content by specifying the logging modules to include. Logging modules categorize logged information into distinct areas, such as query execution, metadata, or SSL communication. Each module is represented by a four-character code, with some requiring a trailing space for three-letter names.

For example, EXEC logs query execution, and INFO logs general provider messages. To include multiple modules, separate their names with semicolons as follows: INFO;EXEC;SSL.

The Verbosity connection property takes precedence over the module-based filtering specified by this property. Only log entries that meet the verbosity level and belong to the specified modules are logged. Leave this property blank to include all available modules in the log file.

For a complete list of available modules and detailed guidance on configuring logging, refer to the Advanced Logging section in Logging.

This section provides a complete list of the Schema properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Specifies the location of a directory containing schema files that define tables, views, and stored procedures. Depending on your service's requirements, this may be expressed as either an absolute path or a relative path.

Remarks

The Location property is only needed if you want to either customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, etc.) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

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

Optional setting that restricts the schemas reported to a subset of all available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC .

Remarks

Listing all available database schemas can take extra time, thus degrading performance. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string saves time and improves performance.

Optional setting that restricts the tables reported to a subset of all available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC .

Remarks

Listing all available tables from some databases can take extra time, thus degrading performance. Providing a list of tables in the connection string saves time and improves performance.

If there are lots of tables available and you already know which ones you want to work with, you can use this property to restrict your viewing to only those tables. To do this, 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: If you are connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you must specify each table you want to view by its fully qualified name. This avoids ambiguity between tables that may exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Optional setting that restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC .

Remarks

Listing all available views from some databases can take extra time, thus degrading performance. Providing a list of views in the connection string saves time and improves performance.

If there are lots of views available and you already know which ones you want to work with, you can use this property to restrict your viewing to only those views. To do this, 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: If you are connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you must specify each view you want to examine by its fully qualified name. This avoids ambiguity between views that may exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

This section provides a complete list of the Miscellaneous properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

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.

Remarks

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"]

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

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 }
]

Specifies the maximum rows returned for queries without aggregation or GROUP BY.

Remarks

This property sets an upper limit on the number of rows the Sync App returns for queries that do not include aggregation or GROUP BY clauses. This limit ensures that queries do not return excessively large result sets by default.

When a query includes a LIMIT clause, the value specified in the query takes precedence over the MaxRows setting. If MaxRows is set to "-1", no row limit is enforced unless a LIMIT clause is explicitly included in the query.

This property is useful for optimizing performance and preventing excessive resource consumption when executing queries that could otherwise return very large datasets.

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

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.

Specifies additional hidden properties for specific use cases. These are not required for typical provider functionality. Use a semicolon-separated list to define multiple properties.

Remarks

This property allows advanced users to configure hidden properties for specialized scenarios. These settings are not required for normal use cases but can address unique requirements or provide additional functionality. Multiple properties can be defined in a semicolon-separated list.

Note: It is strongly recommended to set these properties only when advised by the support team to address specific scenarios or issues.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting

Specifies the maximum number of results to return from Cassandra, per page. This setting overrides the default page size set by the datasource, which is optimized for most use cases.

Remarks

You may want to adjust the default pagesize to optimize results for a particular object or service endpoint you are querying. Be aware that increasing the page size may improve performance, but it could also result in higher memory consumption per page.

Specifies the pseudocolumns to expose as table columns. Use the format 'TableName=ColumnName;TableName=ColumnName'. The default is an empty string, which disables this property.

Remarks

This property allows you to define which pseudocolumns the Sync App exposes as table columns.

To specify individual pseudocolumns, use the following format: "Table1=Column1;Table1=Column2;Table2=Column3"

To include all pseudocolumns for all tables use: "*=*"

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

Remarks

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

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

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.

Specifies the maximum time, in seconds, that the provider waits for a server response before throwing a timeout error. The default is 60 seconds. Set to 0 to disable the timeout.

Remarks

This property controls the maximum time, in seconds, that the Sync App waits for an operation to complete before canceling it. If the timeout period expires before the operation finishes, the Sync App cancels the operation and throws an exception.

The timeout applies to each individual communication with the server rather than the entire query or operation. For example, a query could continue running beyond 60 seconds if each paging call completes within the timeout limit.

Setting this property to 0 disables the timeout, allowing operations to run indefinitely until they succeed or fail due to other conditions such as server-side timeouts, network interruptions, or resource limits on the server. Use this property cautiously to avoid long-running operations that could degrade performance or result in unresponsive behavior.

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

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 Sync App. 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.

INSERT INTO users (user_id, emails) VALUES (@user_id, @emails)

INSERT INTO users (user_id, emails) VALUES (@user_id, @emails)

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

Specifies a filepath to a JSON configuration file defining custom views. The provider automatically detects and uses the views specified in this file.

Remarks

This property allows you to define and manage custom views through a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. These views are automatically recognized by the Sync App and enable you to execute custom SQL queries as if they were standard database views. The JSON file defines each view as a root element with a child element called "query", which contains the SQL query for the view. For example:

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

You can define multiple views in a single file and specify the filepath using this property. For example: UserDefinedViews=C:\Path\To\UserDefinedViews.json. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the Sync App.

Refer to User Defined Views for more information.

Map Cassandra VARINT to String value.

Remarks

Map Cassandra VARINT to String value.