Can not start Cassandra 2.0 on Ubuntu 13.04 "upgrade to 1.2.5+ first"

Question

I tried to install Cassandra 2.0 on my Ubuntu 13.04, but I'm getting this error when i try to start it:

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Commitlog segment is too old to open; upgrade to 1.2.5+ first
    at org.apache.cassandra.db.commitlog.CommitLogDescriptor.fromFileName(CommitLogDescriptor.java:65)
    at org.apache.cassandra.db.commitlog.CommitLogSegment$CommitLogSegmentFileComparator.compare(CommitLogSegment.java:391)
    at org.apache.cassandra.db.commitlog.CommitLogSegment$CommitLogSegmentFileComparator.compare(CommitLogSegment.java:386)
    at java.util.TimSort.countRunAndMakeAscending(TimSort.java:324)
    at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:189)
    at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:173)
    at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:659)
    at org.apache.cassandra.db.commitlog.CommitLog.recover(CommitLog.java:124)
    at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.setup(CassandraDaemon.java:300)
    at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.activate(CassandraDaemon.java:443)
at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.main(CassandraDaemon.java:486)

Can anybody help me?

Answer 1

I'll expand a little on what @aurand is saying, here is how to upgrade Cassandra from 0.x or 1.1.x to 2.x.

First upgrade to 1.2.9 apt-get install cassandra=1.2.9.

Then run nodetool upgradesstables (you have to otherwise some unexpected things will happen) , follow this process with nodetool compactionstats (or even better watch -n 2 nodetool compactionstats) it may take days depending on your data.

Finally upgrade to the latest version apt-get install cassandra and run nodetool upgradesstables again. Then you're done.

Note: instead of nodetool upgradesstables you may use nodetool scrub but it seems to be recommended to use upgradesstables instead.

Answer 2

I came across the exact same problem on Ubuntu 14.04 and I was able to solve it by removing /var/lib/cassandra completely, as user2278196 suggested in the comments of his original question.

Mind you: I did this on a reasonably clean system, so I was completely sure I wouldn't loose any information.

I don't think you could do this on a machine that has actual data without losing it. Be careful!