Instaclustr announced the availability of three open source projects
purpose-built to expand developers’ capabilities using Apache
Cassandra and address pain points. These projects include an open
source Cassandra operator for more seamlessly running and operating Cassandra
within Kubernetes, and open source LDAP and Kerberos authenticator plug-ins for
Cassandra.
With Kubernetes emerging as the dominant container orchestration solution – and
with Cassandra recognized for providing scalable applications with highly
reliable data storage – more and more developers are seeking to use these
powerful solutions in tandem. While running Cassandra on Kubernetes can be
relatively simple to begin with, Kubernetes provides only a limited
understanding of database functionality: it’s blind to key details of the
database being written to, and has incomplete capabilities for storing data
in-state.
With the open source Cassandra operator, Instaclustr and partner
contributors have now introduced a solution that functions as a
Cassandra-as-a-Service on Kubernetes, specifically designed to alleviate
persistent challenges developers face when combining these technologies. The
Cassandra operator takes deployment and operations duties completely off of
developers’ plates. It provides a consistent environment and set of operations
founded in best practices, and is reproducible across production clusters and
development, staging, and QA environments. These advantages allow developers to
focus their attention on product development – with the full strengths of
Kubernetes and Cassandra at their disposal. The Cassandra operator is now ready
to use in development environments through GitHub. The project continues to
undergo improvements, with plans to add components and capabilities that will
expand the operator’s value for developers.
To meet developers’ increasing demand for LDAP integration into Cassandra,
Instaclustr has also created and released an open source LDAP authenticator
plug-in that works closely with the existing CassandraAuthorizer
implementation. This plug-in enables developers to much more quickly reap the
benefits of secure LDAP authentication without any need to write their own
solutions, and to transition to using the authenticator with zero downtime.
The LDAP
authenticator is freely available on GitHub, along with setup and usage
instructions.
Additionally, Instaclustr has released an open
source Kerberos authenticator that makes Kerberos’ industry-leading
secure authentication and true single sign-on capabilities available to
developers using Apache Cassandra. This project also includes a Kerberos
authenticator plugin for the Cassandra Java driver.
Instaclustr customers with Apache
Cassandra Enterprise Support can receive assistance implementing and
running the LDAP and Kerberos authenticators. Enterprise support for the
Cassandra operator will start next year.
“Our commitment to delivering 100% open source data-layer solutions for our
managed platform extends to the development of new open source tools –
especially when we recognize specific needs felt by our customers,” said Ben
Bromhead, CTO, Instaclustr. “With these open source projects, we’ve set out to
empower any developer who wishes to pair Cassandra with Kubernetes, or take
advantage of LDAP or Kerberos authentication within their Cassandra
deployments. We invite anyone interested to join our community of contributors,
and suggest or offer improvements to these open source projects.”
