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+<!--
+Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
+may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
+may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
+implied. See the License for the specific language governing
+permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
+LICENSE file.
+-->
+
+# Cassandra (0.7, 0.8, 1.x) drivers for YCSB
+
+**For Cassandra 2 CQL support, use the `cassandra2-cql` binding.  The Thrift drivers below are deprecated, and the CQL driver here does not support Cassandra 2.1+.**
+
+There are three drivers in the Cassandra binding:
+
+* `cassandra-7`: Cassandra 0.7 Thrift binding.
+* `cassandra-8`: Cassandra 0.8 Thrift binding.
+* `cassandra-10`: Cassandra 1.0+ Thrift binding.
+* `cassandra-cql`: Cassandra CQL binding, for Cassandra 1.x to 2.0. See `cassandra2/README.md` for details on parameters.
+
+# `cassandra-10`
+
+## Creating a table
+
+Using `cassandra-cli`:
+
+      create keyspace usertable with placement_strategy = 'org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleStrategy' and strategy_options = {replication_factor:1};
+
+      create column family data with column_type = 'Standard' and comparator = 'UTF8Type';
+
+**Note that `replication_factor` and consistency levels (below) will affect performance.**
+
+## Configuration Parameters
+
+- `hosts` (**required**)
+  - Cassandra nodes to connect to.
+  - No default.
+
+* `port`
+  - Thrift port for communicating with Cassandra cluster.
+  * Default is `9160`.
+
+- `cassandra.columnfamily`
+  - Column family name - must match the column family for the table created (see above).
+  - Default value is `data`
+
+- `cassandra.username`
+- `cassandra.password`
+  - Optional user name and password for authentication. See http://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/security/security_config_native_authenticate_t.html for details.
+
+* `cassandra.readconsistencylevel`
+* `cassandra.scanconsistencylevel`
+* `cassandra.writeconsistencylevel`
+
+  - Default value is `ONE`
+  - Consistency level for reads and writes, respectively. See the [DataStax documentation](http://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/dml/dml_config_consistency_c.html) for details.
+  - *Note that the default setting does not provide durability in the face of node failure. Changing this setting will affect observed performance.* See also `replication_factor`, above.
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+<!--
+Copyright (c) 2015 YCSB contributors. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you
+may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
+may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
+implied. See the License for the specific language governing
+permissions and limitations under the License. See accompanying
+LICENSE file.
+-->
+
+# Apache Cassandra 2.x CQL binding
+
+Binding for [Apache Cassandra](http://cassandra.apache.org), using the CQL API
+via the [DataStax
+driver](http://docs.datastax.com/en/developer/java-driver/2.1/java-driver/whatsNew2.html).
+
+To run against the (deprecated) Cassandra Thrift API, use the `cassandra-10` binding.
+
+## Creating a table for use with YCSB
+
+For keyspace `ycsb`, table `usertable`:
+
+    cqlsh> create keyspace ycsb
+        WITH REPLICATION = {'class' : 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 3 };
+    cqlsh> USE ycsb;
+    cqlsh> create table usertable (
+        y_id varchar primary key,
+        field0 varchar,
+        field1 varchar,
+        field2 varchar,
+        field3 varchar,
+        field4 varchar,
+        field5 varchar,
+        field6 varchar,
+        field7 varchar,
+        field8 varchar,
+        field9 varchar);
+
+**Note that `replication_factor` and consistency levels (below) will affect performance.**
+
+## Cassandra Configuration Parameters
+
+- `hosts` (**required**)
+  - Cassandra nodes to connect to.
+  - No default.
+
+* `port`
+  * CQL port for communicating with Cassandra cluster.
+  * Default is `9042`.
+
+- `cassandra.keyspace`
+  Keyspace name - must match the keyspace for the table created (see above).
+  See http://docs.datastax.com/en/cql/3.1/cql/cql_reference/create_keyspace_r.html for details.
+
+  - Default value is `ycsb`
+
+- `cassandra.username`
+- `cassandra.password`
+  - Optional user name and password for authentication. See http://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/security/security_config_native_authenticate_t.html for details.
+
+* `cassandra.readconsistencylevel`
+* `cassandra.writeconsistencylevel`
+
+  * Default value is `ONE`
+  - Consistency level for reads and writes, respectively. See the [DataStax documentation](http://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/2.0/cassandra/dml/dml_config_consistency_c.html) for details.
+  * *Note that the default setting does not provide durability in the face of node failure. Changing this setting will affect observed performance.* See also `replication_factor`, above.