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Using the CQL Shell to Execute Keyspace Operations in Cassandra

BeginnerGuided Project

In this guided project, you will use the Cassandra Query Language command line shell and execute keyspace operations in a Cassandra database.

4.5 (13 Reviews)

Language

  • English

Topic

  • Database

Enrollment Count

  • 133

Skills You Will Learn

  • Cassandra

Offered By

  • IBM

Estimated Effort

  • 35 minutes

Platform

  • SkillsNetwork

Last Update

  • July 24, 2025
About this Guided Project
Cassandra is a powerful non-relational database that has its own language, Cassandra Query Language (CQL). The CQL Shell client (cqlsh) is a Python-based command line shell that uses CQL for communicating with a Cassandra database cluster.

In this guided project, you will access a Cassandra server and then use cqlsh to communicate with the server and perform operations on a keyspace in a cluster, which is a collection of nodes. Nodes are layers of systems or storage units.

You will use a development strategy called SimpleStrategy to create the keyspace, a database object that controls replication for its contents. These contents can be tables, materialized views and user-defined types, functions, and aggregates.

As you will explore keyspace behaviors, you will gain experience working with data in Cassandra.

A Look at the Project Ahead
Once you have completed this project, you'll be able to:
  • Access the Cassandra server with cqlsh, the command line interface for using CQL
  • Run simple commands to learn more about the server, session, and available keyspaces
  • Perform operations to create, update, and remove a keyspace
  • Identify the keyspace for the current session and list the tables it contains

What You’ll Need
Just a web browser!

Everything else is provided to you via the IBM Skills Network Labs environment, where you will have access to the Cassandra service that we offer as part of the IBM Skills Network Labs environment. This platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari.

Your Instructor
Ramesh Sannareddy

Instructors

Rachael Jones

Sr. Digital Content Publisher

Sr. Digital Content Publisher located in Seattle, WA.

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Rav Ahuja

Global Program Director, IBM Skills Network

Rav Ahuja is a Global Program Director at IBM. He leads growth strategy, curriculum creation, and partner programs for the IBM Skills Network. Rav co-founded Cognitive Class, an IBM led initiative to democratize skills for in demand technologies. He is based out of the IBM Canada Lab in Toronto and specializes in instructional solutions for AI, Data, Software Engineering and Cloud. Rav presents at events worldwide and has authored numerous papers, articles, books and courses on subjects in managing and analyzing data. Rav holds B. Eng. from McGill University and MBA from University of Western Ontario.

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