https://foojay.io/today/author/aaron-ploetz/Articles written by Aaron Ploetz on foojay.io - Friends Of OpenJDKHugoen-usThu, 09 Jun 2022 20:36:25 +0000https://foojay.io/today/tombstones-and-ghost-data-dont-have-to-be-scary/Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:36:25 +0000https://foojay.io/today/tombstones-and-ghost-data-dont-have-to-be-scary/<p><img src="https://foojay.io/today/tombstones-and-ghost-data-dont-have-to-be-scary/1_g5MhVmTyqdCWG_-LkItmNg-1024x679.jpeg" alt="" width="1024" height="679" loading="lazy" decoding="async"></p> <p><em><strong>Working with tombstones can be one of the more frustrating aspects of Apache Cassandra®. Problems with tombstones can happen when a large number of deletes occur within a short period of time, resulting in slower queries and disk bloat. This article will discuss tombstones, including the purpose they serve, and strategies/methods on how to avoid them.</strong></em></p> <p><a href="https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/4.0/cassandra/operating/compaction/index.html#why-tombstones" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tombstones</a> in <a href="https://cassandra.apache.org/_/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apache Cassandra</a><em>®</em> are written markers that are created whenever a value is deleted. Their purpose is to indicate that any prior values have been deleted. When a read occurs, it pulls data from the sorted string table (SSTable) files on a node that may contain the data. All prior values for the requested key are returned, ordered by write-time.</p>