> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mindsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Apache Cassandra

This is the implementation of the Cassandra data handler for MindsDB.

[Cassandra](https://cassandra.apache.org/_/index.html) is a free and open-source, distributed, wide-column store, NoSQL database management system designed to handle large amounts of data across many commodity servers, providing high availability with no single point of failure.

## Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Install MindsDB locally via [Docker](/setup/self-hosted/docker) or [Docker Desktop](/setup/self-hosted/docker-desktop).
2. To connect Apache Cassandra to MindsDB, install the required dependencies following [this instruction](/setup/self-hosted/docker#install-dependencies).
3. Install or ensure access to Apache Cassandra.

## Implementation

As ScyllaDB is API-compatible with Apache Cassandra, the Cassandra data handler extends the ScyllaDB handler and uses the `scylla-driver` Python library.

The required arguments to establish a connection are as follows:

* `host` is the host name or IP address of the Cassandra database.
* `port` is the port to use when connecting.
* `user` is the user to authenticate.
* `password` is the password to authenticate the user.
* `keyspace` is the keyspace to connect, the top level container for tables.
* `protocol_version` is not required and defaults to 4.

## Usage

In order to make use of this handler and connect to the Cassandra server in MindsDB, the following syntax can be used:

```sql theme={null}
CREATE DATABASE sc
WITH
  engine = "cassandra",
  parameters = {
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": "9043",
    "user": "user",
    "password": "pass",
    "keyspace": "test_data",
    "protocol_version": 4
  };
```

You can use this established connection to query your table as follows:

```sql theme={null}
SELECT *
FROM cassandra_datasource.example_table LIMIT 10;
```