What is ScyllaDB ?

ScyllaDB is a high-performance NoSQL database system, fully compatible with Apache Cassandra. If you are using ScyllaDB Enterprise, you are operating under the ScyllaDB Proprietary Software License Agreement⁠ and “Evaluation License”.

How to use this image

Start a scylla server instance

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise

Run nodetool utility

$ docker exec -it some-scylla nodetool status
Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address     Load       Tokens  Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  172.17.0.2  125.51 KB  256     100.0%            c9155121-786d-44f8-8667-a8b915b95665  rack1

Run cqlsh utility

$ docker exec -it some-scylla cqlsh
Connected to Test Cluster at 172.17.0.2:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 2.1.8 | CQL spec 3.2.1 | Native protocol v3]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh>

Make a cluster

$ docker run --name some-scylla2 -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --seeds="$(docker inspect --format='{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' some-scylla)"

Check scylla logs

$ docker logs some-scylla | tail
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 5] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 3] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 1] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 2] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 4] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,836 [shard 7] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,837 [shard 6] database - Setting compaction strategy of system_traces.events to SizeTieredCompactionStrategy
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,839 [shard 0] database - Schema version changed to fea14d93-9c5a-34f5-9d0e-2e49dcfa747e
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,839 [shard 0] storage_service - Starting listening for CQL clients on 172.17.0.2:9042...
INFO  2016-08-04 06:57:40,840 [shard 0] storage_service - Thrift server listening on 172.17.0.2:9160 ...

Configuring data volume for storage

You can use Docker volumes to improve performance of Scylla.

Create a Scylla data directory /var/lib/scylla on the host, which is used by Scylla container to store all data:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/scylla/data /var/lib/scylla/commitlog

Launch Scylla using Docker's --volume command line option to mount the created host directory as a data volume in the container and disable Scylla's developer mode to run I/O tuning before starting up the Scylla node.

$ docker run --name some-scylla --volume /var/lib/scylla:/var/lib/scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --developer-mode=0

Configuring resource limits

Scylla utilizes all CPUs and all memory by default. To configure resource limits for your Docker container, you can use the --smp, --memory, and --cpuset command line options documented in the section "Command-line options".

If you run multiple Scylla instances on the same machine, it is highly recommended that you enable the --overprovisioned command line option, which enables certain optimizations for Scylla to run efficiently in an overprovisioned environment.

Restart Scylla

The Docker image uses supervisord to manage Scylla processes. You can restart Scylla in a Docker container using

docker exec -it some-scylla supervisorctl restart scylla

Command-line options

The Scylla image supports many command line options that are passed to the docker run command.

--seeds SEEDS

The -seeds command line option configures Scylla's seed nodes. If no --seeds option is specified, Scylla uses its own IP address as the seed.

For example, to configure Scylla to run with two seed nodes 192.168.0.100 and 192.168.0.200.

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --seeds 192.168.0.100,192.168.0.200

--listen-address ADDR

The --listen-address command line option configures the IP address the Scylla instance listens for client connections.

For example, to configure Scylla to use listen address 10.0.0.5:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --listen-address 10.0.0.5

--broadcast-address ADDR

The --broadcast-address command line option configures the IP address the Scylla instance tells other Scylla nodes in the cluster to connect to.

For example, to configure Scylla to use broadcast address 10.0.0.5:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --broadcast-address 10.0.0.5

--broadcast-rpc-address ADDR

The --broadcast-rpc-address command line option configures the IP address the Scylla instance tells clients to connect to.

For example, to configure Scylla to use broadcast RPC address 10.0.0.5:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --broadcast-rpc-address 10.0.0.5

--smp COUNT

The --smp command line option restricts Scylla to COUNT number of CPUs. The option does not, however, mandate a specific placement of CPUs. See the --cpuset command line option if you need Scylla to run on specific CPUs.

For example, to restrict Scylla to 2 CPUs:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --smp 2

--memory AMOUNT

The --memory command line options restricts Scylla to use up to AMOUNT of memory. The AMOUNT value supports both M unit for megabytes and G unit for gigabytes.

For example, to restrict Scylla to 4 GB of memory:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --memory 4G

--overprovisioned ENABLE

The --overprovisioned command line option enables or disables optimizations for running Scylla in an overprovisioned environment. If no --overprovisioned option is specified, Scylla defaults to running with optimizations disabled.

For example, to enable optimizations for running in an overprovisioned environment:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --overprovisioned 1

--cpuset CPUSET

The --cpuset command line option restricts Scylla to run on only on CPUs specified by CPUSET. The CPUSET value is either a single CPU (e.g. --cpuset 1), a range (e.g. --cpuset 2-3), or a list (e.g. --cpuset 1,2,5), or a combination of the last two options (e.g. --cpuset 1-2,5).

For example, to restrict Scylla to run on physical CPUs 0 to 2 and 4:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --cpuset 0-2,4

--developer-mode ENABLE

The --developer-mode command line option enables Scylla's developer mode, which relaxes checks for things like XFS and enables Scylla to run on unsupported configurations (which usually results in suboptimal performance). If no --developer-mode command line option is defined, Scylla defaults to running with developer mode enabled. It is highly recommended to disable developer mode for production deployments to ensure Scylla is able to run with maximum performance.

For example, to disable developer mode:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --developer-mode 0

--experimental ENABLE

The --experimental command line option enables Scylla's experimental mode. If no --experimental command line option is defined, Scylla defaults to running with experimental mode disabled. It is highly recommended to disable experimental mode for production deployments.

For example, to enable experimental mode:

$ docker run --name some-scylla -d scylladb/scylla-enterprise --experimental 1

User Feedback

Issues

For bug reports, please use Scylla's issue tracker⁠ on GitHub. Please read the How to report a Scylla problem⁠ page before you report bugs.

For general help, see Scylla's documentation⁠. For questions and comments, use Scylla's mailing lists⁠.

Contributing

Want to scratch your own itch and contribute a patch. We are eager to review and merge your code. Please consult the Contributing on Scylla page⁠