Run CQL at /usr/local/Cassandra/apache-cassandra-1.1.6 using bin/cqlsh with a host and port:

bin/cqlsh  –host <ip-adress> -p <port number>

Create a keyspace either at the Cassandra client or at CQL, as follows:

create keyspace <keyspace_name>; 

Create a column family at the Cassandra client or at CQL as follows:

use <keyspace_name>;
create column family <columnfamily name>;

For example, create the following table:

CREATE TABLE appUSers (
  user_name varchar,
  Dept varchar,
  email varchar,
  PRIMARY KEY (user_name));

Insert a few records into the column family from the command line:

INSERT INTO appUSers (user_name, Dept, email)
  VALUES ('shilpi', 'bigdata, '[email protected]');

Retrieve the data from the column family:

SELECT * FROM appUSers LIMIT 10;