Replacing a dead node in a single-architecture cluster

Steps for replacing nodes in single-token architecture clusters, not vnodes.

Steps for replacing nodes in single-token architecture clusters, not vnodes.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that the node is dead using nodetool ring on any live node in the cluster.

    A Down status indicates the dead node:

  2. Install Cassandra on the replacement node.
  3. Remove any pre-existing Cassandra data on the replacement node: 
    C:\> rmdir /s "Program Files\DataStax-DDC\apache-cassandra\data"
  4. Set auto_bootstrap: true.
    If auto_bootstrap is not in the cassandra.yaml file, it automatically defaults to true.
  5. Set the initial_token in the cassandra.yaml file to the value of the dead node's token -1. 
    initial_token: 28356863910078205288614550619314017620
  6. Configure any non-default settings in the node's cassandra.yaml to match your existing cluster.
  7. Start the new nodes.
  8. After the new node has finished bootstrapping, check that it is up using nodetool ring.
  9. Run nodetool repair on each keyspace to ensure the node is fully consistent: 
    C:\> %CASSANDRA_HOME%\bin\nodetool repair -h 10.46.123.12 keyspace_name
  10. Remove the dead node.
    The location of the cassandra.yaml file depends on the type of installation:
    Windows 3.x installations C:\Program Files\DataStax-DDC\apache-cassandra\conf\cassandra.yaml