ScyllaDB University LIVE, FREE Virtual Training Event | March 21
Register for Free
ScyllaDB Documentation Logo Documentation
  • Server
  • Cloud
  • Tools
    • ScyllaDB Manager
    • ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack
    • ScyllaDB Operator
  • Drivers
    • CQL Drivers
    • DynamoDB Drivers
  • Resources
    • ScyllaDB University
    • Community Forum
    • Tutorials
Download
ScyllaDB Docs ScyllaDB Open Source ScyllaDB Architecture ScyllaDB SSTable Format ScyllaDB SSTable - 3.x SSTables 3.0 Statistics File Format

Caution

You're viewing documentation for a previous version. Switch to the latest stable version.

SSTables 3.0 Statistics File Format¶

This file stores metadata for SSTable. There are 4 types of metadata:

  1. Validation metadata - used to validate SSTable correctness.

  2. Compaction metadata - used for compaction.

  3. Statistics - some information about SSTable which is loaded into memory and used for faster reads/compactions.

  4. Serialization header - keeps information about SSTable schema.

General structure¶

The file is composed of two parts. First part is a table of content which allows quick access to a selected metadata. Second part is a sequence of metadata stored one after the other. Let’s define array template that will be used in this document.

struct array<LengthType, ElementType> {
    LengthType number_of_elements;
    ElementType elements[number_of_elements];
}

Table of content

using toc = array<be32<int32_t>, toc_entry>;

struct toc_entry {
    // Type of metadata
    // | Type                 | Integer representation |
    // |----------------------|------------------------|
    // | Validation metadata  | 0                      |
    // | Compaction metadata  | 1                      |
    // | Statistics           | 2                      |
    // | Serialization header | 3                      |
    be32<int32_t> type;
    // Offset, in the file, at which this metadata entry starts
    be32<int32_t> offset;
}

The toc array is sorted by the type field of its members.

Validation metadata entry¶

struct validation_metadata {
    // Name of partitioner used to create this SSTable.
    // Represented by UTF8 string encoded using modified UTF-8 encoding.
    // You can read more about this encoding in:
    // https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/DataInput.html#modified-utf-8
    // https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/DataInput.html#readUTF()
    Modified_UTF-8_String partitioner_name;
    // The probability of false positive matches in the bloom filter for this SSTable
    be64<double> bloom_filter_fp_chance;
}

Compaction metadata entry¶

// Serialized HyperLogLogPlus which can be used to estimate the number of partition keys in the SSTable.
// If this is not present then the same estimation can be computed using Summary file.
// Encoding is described in:
// https://github.com/addthis/stream-lib/blob/master/src/main/java/com/clearspring/analytics/stream/cardinality/HyperLogLogPlus.java
using compaction_metadata = array<be32<int32_t>, be8>;

Statistics entry¶

This entry contains some parts of EstimatedHistogram, StreamingHistogram and CommitLogPosition types. Let’s have a look at them first.

EstimatedHistogram¶

// Each bucket represents values from (previous bucket offset, current offset].
// Offset for last bucket is +inf.
using estimated_histogram = array<be32<int32_t>, bucket>;

struct bucket {
    // Offset of the previous bucket
    // In the first bucket this is offset of the first bucket itself because there's no previous bucket.
    // The offset of the first bucket is repeated in second bucket as well.
    be64<int64_t> prev_bucket_offset;
    // This bucket value
    be64<int64_t> value;
}

StreamingHistogram¶

struct streaming_histogram {
    // Maximum number of buckets this historgam can have
    be32<int32_t> bucket_number_limit;
    array<be32<int32_t>, bucket> buckets;
}

struct bucket {
    // Offset of this bucket
    be64<double> offset;
    // Bucket value
    be64<int64_t> value;
}

CommitLogPosition¶

struct commit_log_position {
    be64<int64_t> segment_id;
    be32<int32_t> position_in_segment;
}

Whole entry¶

struct statistics {
    // In bytes, uncompressed sizes of partitions
    estimated_histogram partition_sizes;
    // Number of cells per partition
    estimated_histogram column_counts;
    commit_log_position commit_log_upper_bound;
    // Typically in microseconds since the unix epoch, although this is not enforced
    be64<int64_t> min_timestamp;
    // Typically in microseconds since the unix epoch, although this is not enforced
    be64<int64_t> max_timestamp;
    // In seconds since the unix epoch
    be32<int32_t> min_local_deletion_time;
    // In seconds since the unix epoch
    be32<int32_t> max_local_deletion_time;
    be32<int32_t> min_ttl;
    be32<int32_t> max_ttl;
    // compressed_size / uncompressed_size
    be64<double> compression_rate;
    // Histogram of cell tombstones.
    // Keys are local deletion times of tombstones
    streaming_histogram tombstones;
    be32<int32_t> level;
    // The difference, measured in milliseconds, between repair time and midnight, January 1, 1970 UTC
    be64<int64_t> repaired_at;
    // Minimum and Maximum clustering key prefixes present in the SSTable (valid since the "md" SSTable format).
    // Note that:
    // - Clustering rows always have the full clustering key.
    // - Range tombstones may have a partial clustering key prefix.
    // - Partition tombstones implicitly apply to the full, unbound clustering range.
    // Therefore, an empty (min|max)_clustering_key denotes a respective unbound range,
    // derived either from an open-ended range tombstone, or from a partition tombstone.
    clustering_bound min_clustering_key;
    clustering_bound max_clustering_key;
    be8<bool> has_legacy_counters;
    be64<int64_t> number_of_columns;
    be64<int64_t> number_of_rows;

    // Version MA of SSTable 3.x format ends here.
    // It contains only one commit log position interval - [NONE = new CommitLogPosition(-1, 0), upper bound of commit log]

    commit_log_position commit_log_lower_bound;

    // Version MB of SSTable 3.x format ends here.
    // It contains only one commit log position interval - [lower bound of commit log, upper bound of commit log].

    array<be32<int32_t>, commit_log_interval> commit_log_intervals;

    // Versions MC and MD of SSTable 3.x format end here.

    // UUID of the host that wrote the SSTable.
    // Qualifies all commitlog positions in the SSTable Statistics file.

    UUID host_id;
}

using clustering_bound = array<be32<int32_t>, clustering_column>;
using clustering_column = array<be16<uint16_t>, be8>;

struct commit_log_interval {
    commit_log_position start;
    commit_log_position end;
}

Serialization header¶

struct serialization_header {
    vint<uint64_t> min_timestamp;
    vint<uint32_t> min_local_deletion_time;
    vint<uint32_t> min_ttl;
    // If partition key has one column then this is the type of this column.
    // Otherwise, this is a CompositeType that contains types of all partition key columns.
    type partition_key_type;
    array<vint<uint32_t>, type> clustering_key_types;
    columns static_columns;
    columns regular_columns;
}

using columns = array<vint<uint32_t>, column>;

struct column {
    array<vint<uint32_t>, be8> name;
    type column_type;
}

// UTF-8 string
using type = array<vint<uint_32_t>, be8>;

Type encoding¶

Type is just a byte buffer with an unsigned variant integer (32-bit) length. It is a UTF-8 string. All leading spaces, tabs and newlines are skipped. Null or empty string is a bytes type. First segment of non-blank characters should contain only alphanumerical characters and special chars like '-', '+', '.', '_', '&'. This is the name of the type. If type name does not contain any ‘.’ then it gets “org.apache.cassandra.db.marshal.” prepended to itself. Then an “instance” static field is taken from this class. If the first non-blank character that follows type name is ‘(’ then “getInstance” static method is invoked instead. Remaining string is passed to this method as a parameter. There are following types:

Type

Parametrized

Ascii Type

No

Boolean Type

No

Bytes Type

No

Byte Type

No

ColumnToCollection Type

Yes

Composite Type

Yes

CounterColumn Type

No

Date Type

No

Decimal Type

No

Double Type

No

Duration Type

No

DynamicComposite Type

Yes

Empty Type

No

Float Type

No

Frozen Type

Yes

InetAddress Type

No

Int32 Type

No

Integer Type

No

LexicalUUID Type

No

List Type

Yes

Long Type

No

Map Type

Yes

PartitionerDefinedOrder

Yes

Reversed Type

Yes

Set Type

Yes

Short Type

No

SimpleDate Type

No

Timestamp Type

No

Time Type

No

TimeUUID Type

No

Tuple Type

Yes

User Type

Yes

UTF8 Type

No

UUID Type

No

Copyright

© 2016, The Apache Software Foundation.

Apache®, Apache Cassandra®, Cassandra®, the Apache feather logo and the Apache Cassandra® Eye logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. No endorsement by The Apache Software Foundation is implied by the use of these marks.

Was this page helpful?

PREVIOUS
SSTables 3.0 Data File Format
NEXT
SSTables 3.0 Summary File Format
  • Create an issue
  • Edit this page

On this page

  • SSTables 3.0 Statistics File Format
    • General structure
    • Validation metadata entry
    • Compaction metadata entry
    • Statistics entry
      • EstimatedHistogram
      • StreamingHistogram
      • CommitLogPosition
      • Whole entry
    • Serialization header
      • Type encoding
ScyllaDB Open Source
  • 6.2
    • master
    • 6.2
    • 6.1
    • 6.0
    • 5.4
    • 5.2
    • 5.1
  • Getting Started
    • Install ScyllaDB
      • Launch ScyllaDB on AWS
      • Launch ScyllaDB on GCP
      • Launch ScyllaDB on Azure
      • ScyllaDB Web Installer for Linux
      • Install ScyllaDB Linux Packages
      • Install scylla-jmx Package
      • Run ScyllaDB in Docker
      • Install ScyllaDB Without root Privileges
      • Air-gapped Server Installation
      • ScyllaDB Housekeeping and how to disable it
      • ScyllaDB Developer Mode
    • Configure ScyllaDB
    • ScyllaDB Configuration Reference
    • ScyllaDB Requirements
      • System Requirements
      • OS Support by Linux Distributions and Version
      • Cloud Instance Recommendations
      • ScyllaDB in a Shared Environment
    • Migrate to ScyllaDB
      • Migration Process from Cassandra to ScyllaDB
      • ScyllaDB and Apache Cassandra Compatibility
      • Migration Tools Overview
    • Integration Solutions
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Spark
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with KairosDB
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Presto
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Elasticsearch
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Kubernetes
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with the JanusGraph Graph Data System
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with DataDog
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Kafka
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with IOTA Chronicle
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Spring
      • Shard-Aware Kafka Connector for ScyllaDB
      • Install ScyllaDB with Ansible
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Databricks
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with Jaeger Server
      • Integrate ScyllaDB with MindsDB
    • Tutorials
  • ScyllaDB for Administrators
    • Administration Guide
    • Procedures
      • Cluster Management
      • Backup & Restore
      • Change Configuration
      • Maintenance
      • Best Practices
      • Benchmarking ScyllaDB
      • Migrate from Cassandra to ScyllaDB
      • Disable Housekeeping
    • Security
      • ScyllaDB Security Checklist
      • Enable Authentication
      • Enable and Disable Authentication Without Downtime
      • Creating a Custom Superuser
      • Generate a cqlshrc File
      • Reset Authenticator Password
      • Enable Authorization
      • Grant Authorization CQL Reference
      • Certificate-based Authentication
      • Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
      • Encryption: Data in Transit Client to Node
      • Encryption: Data in Transit Node to Node
      • Generating a self-signed Certificate Chain Using openssl
      • Configure SaslauthdAuthenticator
    • Admin Tools
      • Nodetool Reference
      • CQLSh
      • Admin REST API
      • Tracing
      • ScyllaDB SStable
      • ScyllaDB Types
      • SSTableLoader
      • cassandra-stress
      • SSTabledump
      • SSTableMetadata
      • ScyllaDB Logs
      • Seastar Perftune
      • Virtual Tables
      • Reading mutation fragments
      • Maintenance socket
      • Maintenance mode
      • Task manager
    • ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack
    • ScyllaDB Operator
    • ScyllaDB Manager
    • Upgrade Procedures
      • ScyllaDB Versioning
      • ScyllaDB Open Source Upgrade
      • ScyllaDB Open Source to ScyllaDB Enterprise Upgrade
      • ScyllaDB Image
      • ScyllaDB Enterprise
    • System Configuration
      • System Configuration Guide
      • scylla.yaml
      • ScyllaDB Snitches
    • Benchmarking ScyllaDB
    • ScyllaDB Diagnostic Tools
  • ScyllaDB for Developers
    • Develop with ScyllaDB
    • Tutorials and Example Projects
    • Learn to Use ScyllaDB
    • ScyllaDB Alternator
    • ScyllaDB Drivers
      • ScyllaDB CQL Drivers
      • ScyllaDB DynamoDB Drivers
  • CQL Reference
    • CQLSh: the CQL shell
    • Appendices
    • Compaction
    • Consistency Levels
    • Consistency Level Calculator
    • Data Definition
    • Data Manipulation
      • SELECT
      • INSERT
      • UPDATE
      • DELETE
      • BATCH
    • Data Types
    • Definitions
    • Global Secondary Indexes
    • Expiring Data with Time to Live (TTL)
    • Functions
    • Wasm support for user-defined functions
    • JSON Support
    • Materialized Views
    • Non-Reserved CQL Keywords
    • Reserved CQL Keywords
    • Service Levels
    • ScyllaDB CQL Extensions
  • Alternator: DynamoDB API in Scylla
    • Getting Started With ScyllaDB Alternator
    • ScyllaDB Alternator for DynamoDB users
  • Features
    • Lightweight Transactions
    • Global Secondary Indexes
    • Local Secondary Indexes
    • Materialized Views
    • Counters
    • Change Data Capture
      • CDC Overview
      • The CDC Log Table
      • Basic operations in CDC
      • CDC Streams
      • CDC Stream Generations
      • Querying CDC Streams
      • Advanced column types
      • Preimages and postimages
      • Data Consistency in CDC
    • Workload Attributes
  • ScyllaDB Architecture
    • Data Distribution with Tablets
    • ScyllaDB Ring Architecture
    • ScyllaDB Fault Tolerance
    • Consistency Level Console Demo
    • ScyllaDB Anti-Entropy
      • ScyllaDB Hinted Handoff
      • ScyllaDB Read Repair
      • ScyllaDB Repair
    • SSTable
      • ScyllaDB SSTable - 2.x
      • ScyllaDB SSTable - 3.x
    • Compaction Strategies
    • Raft Consensus Algorithm in ScyllaDB
    • Zero-token Nodes
  • Troubleshooting ScyllaDB
    • Errors and Support
      • Report a ScyllaDB problem
      • Error Messages
      • Change Log Level
    • ScyllaDB Startup
      • Ownership Problems
      • ScyllaDB will not Start
      • ScyllaDB Python Script broken
    • Upgrade
      • Inaccessible configuration files after ScyllaDB upgrade
    • Cluster and Node
      • Handling Node Failures
      • Failure to Add, Remove, or Replace a Node
      • Failed Decommission Problem
      • Cluster Timeouts
      • Node Joined With No Data
      • NullPointerException
      • Failed Schema Sync
    • Data Modeling
      • ScyllaDB Large Partitions Table
      • ScyllaDB Large Rows and Cells Table
      • Large Partitions Hunting
      • Failure to Update the Schema
    • Data Storage and SSTables
      • Space Utilization Increasing
      • Disk Space is not Reclaimed
      • SSTable Corruption Problem
      • Pointless Compactions
      • Limiting Compaction
    • CQL
      • Time Range Query Fails
      • COPY FROM Fails
      • CQL Connection Table
    • ScyllaDB Monitor and Manager
      • Manager and Monitoring integration
      • Manager lists healthy nodes as down
    • Installation and Removal
      • Removing ScyllaDB on Ubuntu breaks system packages
  • Knowledge Base
    • Upgrading from experimental CDC
    • Compaction
    • Consistency in ScyllaDB
    • Counting all rows in a table is slow
    • CQL Query Does Not Display Entire Result Set
    • When CQLSh query returns partial results with followed by “More”
    • Run ScyllaDB and supporting services as a custom user:group
    • Customizing CPUSET
    • Decoding Stack Traces
    • Snapshots and Disk Utilization
    • DPDK mode
    • Debug your database with Flame Graphs
    • How to Change gc_grace_seconds for a Table
    • Gossip in ScyllaDB
    • Increase Permission Cache to Avoid Non-paged Queries
    • How does ScyllaDB LWT Differ from Apache Cassandra ?
    • Map CPUs to ScyllaDB Shards
    • ScyllaDB Memory Usage
    • NTP Configuration for ScyllaDB
    • Updating the Mode in perftune.yaml After a ScyllaDB Upgrade
    • POSIX networking for ScyllaDB
    • ScyllaDB consistency quiz for administrators
    • Recreate RAID devices
    • How to Safely Increase the Replication Factor
    • ScyllaDB and Spark integration
    • Increase ScyllaDB resource limits over systemd
    • ScyllaDB Seed Nodes
    • How to Set up a Swap Space
    • ScyllaDB Snapshots
    • ScyllaDB payload sent duplicated static columns
    • Stopping a local repair
    • System Limits
    • How to flush old tombstones from a table
    • Time to Live (TTL) and Compaction
    • ScyllaDB Nodes are Unresponsive
    • Update a Primary Key
    • Using the perf utility with ScyllaDB
    • Configure ScyllaDB Networking with Multiple NIC/IP Combinations
  • Reference
    • AWS Images
    • Azure Images
    • GCP Images
    • Configuration Parameters
    • Glossary
    • Limits
    • API Reference (BETA)
    • Metrics (BETA)
  • ScyllaDB FAQ
  • Contribute to ScyllaDB
Docs Tutorials University Contact Us About Us
© 2025, ScyllaDB. All rights reserved. | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | ScyllaDB, and ScyllaDB Cloud, are registered trademarks of ScyllaDB, Inc.
Last updated on 08 May 2025.
Powered by Sphinx 7.4.7 & ScyllaDB Theme 1.8.6