Top 10 Cassandra Monitoring Tools [2023 Review] - Sematext (2023)

A large amount of data requires special tools.Cassandra ApacheIt is one of those databases that can handle large amounts of data spread across many commodity servers and offers high availability and fault tolerance with no single point of failure. Developed under the auspices ofApache Software Foundation, ensures full visibility of the code base, and is free. With the ability to spread data across multiple data centers and masterless, asynchronous replication, we get a workhorse that can handle anything we throw at it.

However, handling large amounts of data in different data centers spread across different geographic locations requiresgood surveillance. Monitoring that provides a holistic view of the cluster, reads, writes, peers, and caches. Monitoring where you don't have to use multiple tools to get thereCassandra Metrics,operating system metrics, zJVM-Metriken. One that ensures easy delivery of not only the metrics themselves, but also the logs. Finally, one that allows you to act on the data by providing it.real time alarmand notification mechanisms.

In other words, you need a reliable performance tracking solution. Since there are so many options, we've done the legwork for you andreviewed the best Cassandra monitoring toolsto help you decide which one is right for your monitoring needs.

1. Sematexto

sematext cloudis a full-stack monitoring solution that is easy to configure and provides a comprehensive view of your IT infrastructure, includingApache Cassandra Monitoring. Sematext Monitoring makes it easy by bringing all Apche Cassandra metrics, logs, dashboards, and alerts together in one place.

It doesn't matter what platform you're running on – Sematext gives you the juice you need to fix Cassandra node integrity and performance issues:

• Detect and identify slow nodes that can affect Cassandra cluster responsiveness
• Alerts about slow or excessive reads and writes
• Monitoring of failed or pending cluster operations, cache hits, etc.
• Track SSTable compressions, counts, and sizes over time

With Sematext, you can track Cassandra metrics in real time and get more detailed information about the health of your database.

Characteristics:

• oautomatic service discoveryenables manual self-monitoring for your Apache Cassandra clusters.
• Comprehensive support formicroserviciosand containerized environments - support forKubernetes,stevedoreand Docker Swarm with the ability to see Apache Cassandra running on it; a collection of your metrics, logs, and events.
• red,database,Complain, zinventory monitoringin addition to Apache Cassandra metrics that provide a complete overview of the environment.
• Alarmwith anomaly detection and support for external notification services like PagerDuty, OpsGenie, VictorOps, WebHooks, etc.
• Powerful dashboard capabilities to graphically display all data sent to Sematext.
• Scheduled reports.
• Developedmanage recordsSolution with filtering, full text search, alerts, scheduled reports, AWS S3, Google Cloud, Azure IBM Cloud, Digital Ocean and MinIO archive integrations, Elasticsearch compatible API and syslog support, giving you the ability to access not only to Apache Cassandra push metrics, but also logs.

To start monitoring Apache Cassandra, simply install the agent in your environment by following the instructions on the screen. It doesn't matter if it'spure metal,virtual machine, oContainer, get metrics for Apache Cassandra and the hardware it runs on. For example, the container that runs Apache Cassandra. After that, you get out-of-the-box reports for every important group of metrics. Quick and easy.

Prices:

oPricesdepends on the number of monitored hosts or containers. Metric monitoring is flexible and measured hourly, making it suitable for dynamic environments that scale up and down. you only pay for what you use. Log pricing is based on volume and retention, with a volume discount per GB as log volume or data retention increases. A limited free plan is available for metrics and logs, with paid plans starting at $3.6/mo for metrics and $50/mo for logs.

To learn more about Sematext Cloud, watch our short video below.

2. Cassandra's Tracking of the New Relic

New Relic como End-to-End Opower of observationThe solution provided by the Apache Cassandra integration is available in a software-as-a-service model. Its monitoring capabilities include critical database, JVM, operating system metrics, and inventory data for complete visibility into the cluster and runtime environment. Combined with Alerts and the New Relic Query Language, the platform provides everything you need to get Apache Cassandra under control.

Characteristics:

• Application performance monitoring with dashboards and full Apache Cassandra support.
• Centralization and analysis of logs so you can send not only Apache Cassandra metrics, but also logs.
• Integrated alarm with anomaly detection.
• Rich and powerful query language: NRQL.
• Integration with popular cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform makes it easy to monitor Apache Cassandra on popular platforms.

Installation is fairly straightforward and requires you to follow instructions that depend on the environment Apache Cassandra is working in. If you're running an orchestrated environment, you'll need to modify some YAML files, but that's not a very difficult step. If New Relic becomes your platform of choice, just follow the documentation carefully and you should be fine.

Preis:

Prices based on available dates and users. Your user type (Standard, Pro, Enterprise) determines the features available and the amount of data you can send at no additional charge. For example, the standard plan includes up to 5 users with full access and unlimited basic users without access to features like APM, infrastructure monitoring, synthetics, serverless monitoring, and more.

3. Monitor Datadog Apache Cassandra

Datadog is a full-stack monitoring tool for your Apache Cassandra clusters, as well as an advanced set of features needed to monitor your infrastructure, applications, containers, networks, and logs. After configuring the agent configuration, you can use the relevant database, JVM, and operating system metrics for graphs and correlations.

Characteristics:

• Apache Cassandra application performance monitoring with a host of additional integrations available and distributed tracing support.
• Centralization and analysis of logs so you can send Cassandra logs and correlate them with metrics.
• Network and host monitoring.
• Warning with machine learning capabilities.
• Collaboration tools for team discussions that simplify managing multiple large clusters.
• API that allows working with data, labels and dashboards.

It is only necessary to install the DataDog agent. If you already have the agent installed, you're ready to go. otherwise, just download the agent package and follow the instructions. The only thing to note is that the default limit is 350 metrics per monitored instance. Therefore, you may be forced to contact DataDog Support if you need to collect more metrics or limit the collection of JMX metrics in the DataDog JMX Agent configuration. You can also collect Apache Cassandra logs automatically if you want a complete view of your distributed database.

Preis:

Based on role, host and volumePricesCombined: Each part of the solution is priced differently and is billed annually or as needed. On-demand billing makes the tool 17-20% more expensive than the annual price at the time of writing.

4. ManageEngine Application Manager

ManageEngine Applications Manager is a single integrated application performance monitor for infrastructure and applications, including Apache Cassandra. It supports multiple infrastructure architectures, such as bare metal, virtual machines, and containers, and includes a wide range of application integrations. All of this, combined with actionable alerts and powerful reporting, provides a proper observability solution for your Apache Cassandra and entire infrastructure.

Characteristics:

• Apache Cassandra application performance monitoring with a host of additional integrations available.
• Alert engine with notification support.
• Docker and Kubernetes integrations make it easy to monitor Cassandra execution in different environments.
• Support for Apache Cassandra metrics when running on popular cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and OpenStack.

Adding Apache Cassandra monitoring requires creating a monitoring binding with type Cassandra and specifying the location where the database runs and the JMX port that exposes the metrics. You can choose to monitor a single instance of our database or, by default, discover all the nodes that make up the cluster and tell the platform which monitoring group to assign the data to. Once this is done, the metrics should be present in the dedicated section of the platform that provides the metrics. You can find out which metrics are being monitored by consulting the official documentation.

Preis:

ManageEngine Applications Manager comes in two versions: Professional and Enterprise. The price depends on the version chosen, the number of monitors and the number of users using the product with the free version available.

5. AppDynamics-APM

AppDynamics focuses on large companies. Available in software-as-a-service and on-premises models, AppDynamics provides the ability to connect Apache Cassandra application performance metrics with infrastructure data, alerts, and business metrics. A combination of these allows you to monitor Apache Cassandra and the entire stack your services run on. It provides information about your environment, from high-level transactions that executives understand to useful information at the code level.DevOpsand developers.

Characteristics:

• Apache Cassandra monitoring with high-level transaction visibility for back-end calls.
• Infrastructure monitoring with network components, databases and server visibility that provides information on the status, use and flow between each element.
• Machine learning with support for anomaly detection and root cause analysis capabilities.
• Notification with email templates and period summary features.

You need an extension to enable Apache Cassandra on your already installed AppDynamics Machine Agent or Server Infrastructure & Monitoring. It requires some manual steps, but it is very well documented in the AppDynamics documentation. After going through all the steps, you will have a good overview of your Apache Cassandra metrics along with all the other metrics already collected. You can also follow the steps in the user interface with easy installation and configuration instructions. One thing to note, though it's not a blocker: the UI didn't load correctly for me when using Mozilla Firefox, even though Chrome worked without issue.

Preis:

Agent and feature based pricing is used, making pricing opaque. The amount you pay for the solution depends on the features you need and want to use on the platform. (green room) For example, visibility into CPU, memory, and disk metrics, which are critical to Apache Cassandra, requires the APM Advanced plan.

6. Dynamic tracing

Dynatrace is a full-stack observability solution compatible with Apache Cassandra. It offers an easy-to-use approach to monitoring your database, infrastructure, and logs. Available in a software-as-a-service and on-premises model, it meets most of your monitoring needs when it comes to Apache Cassandra performance, its logs, and the infrastructure on which it runs.

Characteristics:

• Apache Cassandra performance monitoring with dashboards and additional integrations for commonly used tools and code-level monitoring.
• Best-in-class log analysis support with automatic detection of common application and system log types.
• Diagnostic tools enable memory dumps, exceptions, and CPU analysis, which is useful for troubleshooting Apache Cassandra.
• Stauer,Kubernetesand OpenShift integrations that make it easy to monitor Cassandra in different environments.
• Support for Apache Cassandra metrics when running on popular cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

After installing Dynatrace OneAgent on a host or multiple hosts, enabling Apache Cassandra JMX metrics monitoring is as simple as enabling one of the switches in the appropriate configuration panel. When you're done, Dynatrace will start monitoring all your Apache Cassandra clusters and see all the relevant metrics related to the dedicated technology.

Preis:

Prices are organized by features. Application performance monitoring pricing is tied to hosts and the amount of storage available on a host. Each 16 GB is a host drive and prices are calculated based on the number of host drives in an hour. The logarithmic portion of the solution is calculated as a function of volume.

7. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor provides Apache Cassandra cluster monitoring for those who want to run a local monitoring solution on Microsoft Windows. Provides information about Apache Cassandra metrics along with Windows and Linux metrics based on the chosen environment. With out-of-the-box alerting and dashboard capabilities, the solution is a good candidate for monitoring not just Apache Cassandra but the entire environment.

Characteristics:

• Microsoft Windows-based platform for your environment, including Apache Cassandra
• Out-of-the-box alert to track Cassandra metrics
• Easy integration with Microsoft Windows based services like Active Directory or IIS

Preis:

Subscription and perpetual license options start at $1,275, with a 30-day free trial.

8. Prometheus and Grafana

Powerful Open Source Combination:PrometheusmiGrafanait combines great flexibility with the backend and allows monitoring of metrics that are not unique to Apache Cassandra. The powerful query language allows you to retrieve data and activate built-in alert capabilities. With a variety of integration configurations available for Prometheus and Grafana, it's easy to create an observability platform for your entire environment. However, keep in mind that an initial installation and configuration step will be required, as well as ongoing updates, maintenance, etc. This can be time consuming and therefore expensive, especially if you are not familiar with the tools.

Characteristics:

• Datastore implements a large data store that allows you to collect any Apache Cassandra metric you can think of.
• A large number of available integrations maintained by the creators and the community help configure Apache Cassandra monitoring and much more.
• Out-of-the-box alerts based on the powerful Prometheus query language to alert on virtually any Apache Cassandra-related metric.
• Efficient storage of time series.
• Great visualization flexibility that allows you to create interesting data graphs.

Installing Prometheus and Grafana is easy by downloading the Prometheus and Grafana packages followed by a simple setup. Also, you only need the JAR configuration of the exporter and the Java agent, which are publicly available. Once this is done, you can use Grafana's pre-built dashboards to directly access the metrics and explore them in an organized way.

Preis:

Free, but you must pay the price for maintaining and storing your metrics.

9. Zabbix

ZabbixGenericNameis an open source tool that can monitor Apache Cassandra in real time with a suitable extension model. It is popular for database monitoring and as a monitoring solution for large and small businesses. If you are looking for a solution with a large community that is well supported and free, you should check out Zabbix. Its multi-system agents allow you to collect key performance indicators in your environment and create alerts on them. With model-based configuration and auto-discovery, you can speed up even the largest setups.

Characteristics:

• Problem detection and prediction engine with flexible thresholds and severity levels that define the importance of helping.
• Flexible, multi-tenant, multilingual user interface with dashboard capabilities and geolocation support for large organizations with globally distributed data centers, perfectly suited for multiple Apache Cassandra clusters spread across multiple data centers.
• Support for customizable notifications with out-of-the-box support for email, SMS, Slack, Hipchat, and XMPP and escalation workflow.
• Template-based host management and auto-discovery for monitoring large environments, suitable for dynamically changing Apache Cassandra environments.

Installing and configuring Zabbix reminded me of the good old days of installing and running Apache with PHP and MySQL. I had to take care of all the necessary software and add additional templates to get metrics for Cassandra. Keep that in mind when choosing Zabbix as your solution.

Preis:

Zabbix is ​​open source and free. However, you can sign up for support, advice and training if you want to expand your knowledge of the platform quickly and efficiently.

10. Graphite and Grafana

graphitemiGrafanais another open source monitoring combo that combines great flexibility with the backend for measuring Apache Cassandra metrics and much more. You can start using the Graphite UI out of the box, but if you prefer, Grafana can be your UI of choice as it offers even more graphical possibilities and options. As with Prometheus and Grafana, building an observability platform for the entire environment is easy with multiple Graphite-compatible solutions as a metric store. Please note that an initial installation and configuration step is required and can be time consuming.

Characteristics:

• Efficient time-based data storage that allows you to collect any Apache Cassandra metric you can think of.
• A variety of available integrations help configure monitoring for Apache Cassandra and much more.
• Alert based on Grafana functionality.
• Great visualization flexibility that allows you to create interesting data graphs.

Like Zabbix, Graphite took a bit of work to install and configure, but once I got it up and running, everything I needed was there. The added bonus is that Grafana is compatible with Graphite as the source of the metrics, so not only do I get a very efficient way to store the metrics, but I also get modern and flexible software to create the dashboards I need.

Preis:

Free, but you must pay the price for maintaining and storing your metrics.

Apache Cassandra is not a simple system. It is a complicated distributed database that can handle large amounts of data without a single point of failure and is fault tolerant. It is designed to distribute data across multiple data centers spread across different geographic locations. Such software requires special handling and needs a good observability solution to monitor its activity.

You want to make sure you have all the key metrics under control. Your platform should provide real-time out-of-the-box alerts so you're notified of issues as soon as they occur and before your users notice service degradation.

Finally, choose a tool that allows you to monitor your entire infrastructure and software stack. Not only when it comes to metrics, but also logs, real user monitoring, etc. You need a solution that allows youcorrelate everythingin a place like sematext. There is a 14-day free trial to test all the features. Take the chance!

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