---
id: 7e4c30e0-616e-11ee-8c99-0242ac120002
---

# Cassandra Traffic Trace Using tcpdump
---

This incident type involves tracing the network traffic associated with Cassandra, a distributed NoSQL database management system. The purpose of this trace is to diagnose any issues or potential problems with the database's performance, security, or availability. Tcpdump, a command-line packet analyzer, is commonly used to capture and analyze this network traffic data. This analysis can help identify issues such as slow query response times, network latency, or security threats.

### Parameters
```shell
export INTERFACE="PLACEHOLDER"

export CASSANDRA_PORT="PLACEHOLDER"

export PATH_TO_CASSANDRA_YAML_FILE="PLACEHOLDER"
```

## Debug

### Capture Cassandra traffic on a specific network interface
```shell
sudo tcpdump -i ${INTERFACE} port ${CASSANDRA_PORT} -w cassandra_traffic.pcap
```

### View captured traffic in real-time
```shell
sudo tcpdump -i ${INTERFACE} port ${CASSANDRA_PORT} -A
```

### Check if Cassandra is running
```shell
nodetool status
```

### Check Cassandra's system log for errors
```shell
tail -f /var/log/cassandra/system.log
```

### Monitor Cassandra's performance metrics (requires nodetool)
```shell
watch -n 1 nodetool cfstats
```

### Analyze captured traffic with Wireshark
```shell
wireshark cassandra_traffic.pcap
```

### Check Cassandra's JVM heap usage (requires nodetool)
```shell
nodetool info | grep HeapMemoryUsage
```

## Repair

### Check if the Cassandra cluster is properly configured. Ensure that there are no configuration errors in the Cassandra.yaml file.
```shell


#!/bin/bash



# Set the path to the Cassandra configuration file

CASSANDRA_CONFIG=${PATH_TO_CASSANDRA_YAML_FILE}



# Check if the configuration file exists

if [ -f $CASSANDRA_CONFIG ]; then

  echo "Cassandra configuration file found at $CASSANDRA_CONFIG"

else

  echo "Cassandra configuration file not found at $CASSANDRA_CONFIG"

  exit 1

fi



# Check if there are any syntax errors in the configuration file

CONFIG_ERRORS=$(cassandra -f -C $CASSANDRA_CONFIG 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep -i 'Error' | wc -l)



if [ $CONFIG_ERRORS -gt 0 ]; then

  echo "Cassandra configuration file has syntax errors"

  exit 1

else

  echo "Cassandra configuration file is valid"

fi



exit 0


```


This incident type involves tracing the network traffic associated with Cassandra, a distributed NoSQL database management system. The purpose of this trace is to diagnose any issues or potential problems with the database's performance, security, or availability. Tcpdump, a command-line packet analyzer, is commonly used to capture and analyze this network traffic data. This analysis can help identify issues such as slow query response times, network latency, or security threats.


A DoS (Denial of Service) attack on a Tomcat server occurs when attackers flood the server with an overwhelming amount of traffic, causing the server to become unresponsive and unable to handle legitimate requests. This attack results in service disruptions, making the server unavailable to users. The goal of the DoS attack is to make the targeted service unavailable to its users, causing inconvenience or financial losses to the organization that operates the server.


DoS Attack on Tomcat Server

A host conntrack limit incident occurs when the number of conntrack is approaching the limit of a particular host. This can cause network connectivity issues and can potentially affect the performance of the host. The incident may need to be investigated and resolved by a software engineer or network administrator.


Host conntrack limit incident

This type of incident occurs when a node in the Kafka cluster is not being fully utilized. Kafka is a distributed streaming platform, and each node in the cluster is responsible for processing and storing a portion of the data. If a node is underutilized, it means that it is not processing as much data as it should be, which can lead to performance issues and potential data loss. Therefore, it is important to identify and address underutilized nodes in a Kafka cluster to ensure optimal performance and data reliability.


Kafka node underutilization check incident.

This incident type refers to an issue where the network bandwidth on one or more Kafka nodes becomes fully saturated, causing the node(s) to experience performance degradation or even failure. This can result in message delivery delays or loss, and can also impact other nodes that rely on the affected node(s) for message replication. The saturation can be caused by a variety of factors, such as increased message traffic, misconfiguration, or hardware issues.


Network Saturation Check for Kafka Nodes

This incident type is related to a high request rate on a Kafka producer. This could be caused by a sudden increase in traffic or a malfunction in the producer system. This incident can cause delays in message processing and may lead to data loss or system failure if not addressed promptly. It is important to identify the root cause of this incident and take appropriate measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.


High request rate on Kafka producer.

```shell
export INTERFACE="PLACEHOLDER"

export CASSANDRA_PORT="PLACEHOLDER"

export PATH_TO_CASSANDRA_YAML_FILE="PLACEHOLDER"
```


### Capture Cassandra traffic on a specific network interface

```shell
sudo tcpdump -i ${INTERFACE} port ${CASSANDRA_PORT} -w cassandra_traffic.pcap
```

### View captured traffic in real-time

```shell
sudo tcpdump -i ${INTERFACE} port ${CASSANDRA_PORT} -A
```

### Check if Cassandra is running

```shell
nodetool status
```

### Check Cassandra's system log for errors

```shell
tail -f /var/log/cassandra/system.log
```

### Monitor Cassandra's performance metrics (requires nodetool)

```shell
watch -n 1 nodetool cfstats
```

### Analyze captured traffic with Wireshark

```shell
wireshark cassandra_traffic.pcap
```

### Check Cassandra's JVM heap usage (requires nodetool)

```shell
nodetool info | grep HeapMemoryUsage
```


### Check if the Cassandra cluster is properly configured. Ensure that there are no configuration errors in the Cassandra.yaml file.

```shell


#!/bin/bash



# Set the path to the Cassandra configuration file

CASSANDRA_CONFIG=${PATH_TO_CASSANDRA_YAML_FILE}



# Check if the configuration file exists

if [ -f $CASSANDRA_CONFIG ]; then

  echo "Cassandra configuration file found at $CASSANDRA_CONFIG"

else

  echo "Cassandra configuration file not found at $CASSANDRA_CONFIG"

  exit 1

fi



# Check if there are any syntax errors in the configuration file

CONFIG_ERRORS=$(cassandra -f -C $CASSANDRA_CONFIG 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep -i 'Error' | wc -l)



if [ $CONFIG_ERRORS -gt 0 ]; then

  echo "Cassandra configuration file has syntax errors"

  exit 1

else

  echo "Cassandra configuration file is valid"

fi



exit 0


```


Cassandra Traffic Trace Using tcpdump

Overview

Parameters

Debug

Capture Cassandra traffic on a specific network interface

View captured traffic in real-time

Check if Cassandra is running

Check Cassandra's system log for errors

Monitor Cassandra's performance metrics (requires nodetool)

Analyze captured traffic with Wireshark

Check Cassandra's JVM heap usage (requires nodetool)

Repair

Check if the Cassandra cluster is properly configured. Ensure that there are no configuration errors in the Cassandra.yaml file.

Learn more

Related Runbooks

DoS Attack on Tomcat Server

Host conntrack limit incident

Kafka node underutilization check incident.

Network Saturation Check for Kafka Nodes

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