Cobli’s Journey from Cassandra to ScyllaDB: Dissecting a Real-Life Database Migration Process

Cobli's blog post chronicles their transition from Apache Cassandra to ScyllaDB, detailing their strategic approach to this significant database migration. Initially guided by ScyllaDB's documented method, which included dual writing and validation phases, Cobli opted for a more aggressive "stop-the-world" approach due to time and resource constraints. This alternative method involved halting services temporarily to migrate data in time blocks, ensuring data consistency by leveraging the immutable nature of their time-series data. Despite the potential for downtime and other risks such as low post-migration visibility, Cobli's approach prioritized predictability in migration time and operational security. The decision was influenced by the need to avoid extensive reconfigurations and redeployments associated with ScyllaDB's approach, particularly given their numerous client systems and streaming data processing jobs. The post concludes with the anticipation of further insights and learnings from the ongoing migration process.