Cassandra to Databricks
real-time replication
TwinCommit replicates Apache Cassandra to Databricks in real time by reading the Cassandra transaction log and applying every committed change exactly once and in commit order. Use it to feed Databricks with live Cassandra data for analytics, AI and reporting, with no triggers or capture tables on the source.
Cassandra
log reader
commit-ordered · exactly-once
Databricks
native writer
How capture works on Cassandra
TwinCommit tails the CDC commit-log segments on every node, deduplicates replica writes, and orders mutations by write timestamp per partition.
Prerequisites
- ✓cdc_enabled: true in cassandra.yaml
- ✓WITH cdc = true on replicated tables
- ✓Agent sidecar or shared volume access to cdc_raw on each node
How apply works on Databricks
Micro-batches are staged as Parquet in your cloud storage and applied with Delta MERGE through a SQL warehouse. Deletes, updates and ordering are preserved per key.
Requirements
- ✓A SQL warehouse or all-purpose cluster
- ✓A Unity Catalog volume or external location for staging
- ✓A service principal with MODIFY on the target schema
Setup
Set up Cassandra → Databricks in four steps
- 1
Prepare Cassandra
Run twincommit check. It verifies cdc_enabled: true in cassandra.yaml and the other prerequisites, and prints the exact fix for anything missing.
- 2
Point at Databricks
Add a target block for Databricks. TwinCommit can generate target DDL with twincommit ddl -apply.
- 3
Snapshot
twincommit snapshot copies each table under a brief share lock and records the exact log position.
- 4
Stream
twincommit run streams every committed change from that position, exactly once and in commit order.
source:
type: cassandra
contact_points: [cass-1, cass-2, cass-3]
cdc_dir: /var/lib/cassandra/cdc_raw
target:
type: databricks
host: adb-1234567890.12.azuredatabricks.net
warehouse: replication-wh
catalog: main
schema: replica
tables:
- source: sales.orders
- source: sales.customersCassandra to Databricks replication FAQ
How does TwinCommit replicate Cassandra to Databricks?
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TwinCommit reads changes from the Cassandra transaction log, buffers them per transaction, and applies each committed transaction to Databricks in commit order. Micro-batches are staged as Parquet in your cloud storage and applied with Delta MERGE through a SQL warehouse. Deletes, updates and ordering are preserved per key.
Does Cassandra to Databricks replication need triggers or capture tables?
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No. TwinCommit reads the Cassandra log directly and creates no objects in the source database.
Is Cassandra to Databricks replication exactly-once?
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Yes. TwinCommit commits its checkpoint in the same Databricks transaction as the data, so a crash or restart never loses or duplicates a transaction.
What Cassandra versions are supported?
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Apache Cassandra 4.0, 4.1, 5.0 · DataStax Enterprise 6.8+ · Astra DB (target) · ScyllaDB (target).
Stream Cassandra to Databricks today.
Download the free Developer edition, or have one of our replication engineers walk you through a migration plan.