Tales From A Lazy Fat DBA

Hi Guys,

With a sharp rise in NoSQL databases, many of the organizations are making a transition from traditional databases to distributed and high performance databases like ‘Cassandra’. Cassandra has become Apache’s one of the most popular projects. Though there are multiple NoSQL databases available in the market but no one has the features like peer-to-peer architecture, HA and Fault tolerant, Column based, Highly perform-ant, Schema Less, tunable consistency, great analytical possibilities, easy to scale-up & scale-down, distributed and the list goes on and on and on.

Cassandra already proved it’s mettle and is magical for IoT, Sensor data, Event based, Time series data, voucher generation systems and with other data models. Datastax provides best in class database management software and wide-range services with 24×7 support to get more from your Cassandra. Alongside comes some really cool features and tools i.e. opscenter (GUI), Nodesync (for enti entropy repairs), great SOLR integration, dsetool (similar to nodetool with more capabilities), sstableloader, pre-flight check tool, yaml file compare tools, stress tools, extra commands i.e. dsefs and many more.

DataStax is a pioneer and they have their own Cassandra certification path/track to prove you have valid credentials to work with Cassandra database either as a developer or an administrator. Now question comes where to start ?? – In fact many of you have asked me about my latest credentials ‘Datastax Apache Cassandra 3.x Administrator Associate‘, I was getting questions like how to prepare, how to book the exam and many other related questions. So, this post will be all about covering topics like how to prepare and book exam along with few tips.

I would always prefer to go point wise to make things more ordered and easy to digest.

1. Create your account on Datastax Academy.
Link: https://auth.cloud.datastax.com/auth/realms/CloudUsers/login-actions/registration?client_id=absorb&tab_id=lv4-57nRbu4

2. Go to the option ‘Catalog’ to lookout for courses available.
You have to choose between the Administrator (3 course based curriculum) or Developer (3 Courses based curriculum) track. I have completed the ADMIN path and it has three courses DS101 (Introduction), DS201 (Foundations) and DS210 (Operations with Apache Cassandra). All of the courses are beautifully designed, contains large numbers of demos, presentations, guides, quiz and a pre-build Ubuntu VM where you can all exercises.

Though the presentations and program covers every topic and all major parameters and topics but still if you want to read in depth, they have their own document collection and can be accessed through their website https://docs.datastax.com/en/landing_page/doc/landing_page/current.html or from https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/

Note: There are few other specialized courses available too within the catalog i.e. Kafka connectors, DSE Graph, DSE Analytics, DSE Search etc.

3. Other learning platforms
– Github: https://github.com/datastax
Can be very useful specially if you are preparing for developer track.
– Youtube: Full of some great presentations, videos and some precious workshops and demos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DataStaxMedia
– Twitter: For news (about webinars etc.), press releases and other exciting information.
https://twitter.com/DataStax (@DataStax)

4. All set!
Once you are done with your all three of your courses under ADMIN track, you are done and ready for the certification. Go to ‘Datastax Certification’ widget within catalog and book your exam by creating your profile on their certification website.
https://certification.mettl.com/datastax/applicant/signup

Currently they are giving one free exam vouchers and those will be issued at the end of the series for participants of the workshop.

5. Once registered you have to choose your exam type – Admin or Developer.
Both of the exams has 60 questions that you have to complete within 90 minutes, exam fees (right now) is $145
Note: It’s good that you check your system comparability before the exam, for more details follow their official guidelines.

So, don’t wait, go and enroll for the course and grab a chance for giving free certification and more importantly stand out from the crowd. These widely accepted and recognized credentials will help you in your continued professional development and is an ideal way to gain a greater understanding of your industry, and to enhance your knowledge and skills. It also offers excellent chances to network among Cassandra geeks.

Hope It Helps!
Prashant Dixit