Initializing a multiple node cluster (multiple data centers)

A deployment scenario for a Cassandra cluster with multiple data centers.

1. Suppose you install Cassandra on these nodes:

   node0 10.168.66.41 (seed1)
   node1 10.176.43.66
   node2 10.168.247.41
   node3 10.176.170.59 (seed2)
   node4 10.169.61.170
   node5 10.169.30.138

   Note: It is a best practice to have more than one seed node per data center.
2. If you have a firewall running in your cluster, you must open certain ports for communication between the nodes. See Configuring firewall port access.
3. If Cassandra is running, you must stop the server and clear the data:

   Doing this removes the default cluster_name (Test Cluster) from the system table. All nodes must use the same cluster name.

   Windows installations:

   1. Stop Cassandra:

      C:\> net stop DataStax_Cassandra_Community_server

   2. Clear the data:

      C:\> rmdir /s "Program Files\DataStax Community\apache-cassandra\data"

4. Set the properties in the cassandra.yaml file for each node:
   Note: After making any changes in the cassandra.yaml file, you must restart the node for the changes to take effect.

   Properties to set:

   • num_tokens: recommended value: 256
   • -seeds: internal IP address of each seed node

     Seed nodes do not bootstrap, which is the process of a new node joining an existing cluster. For new clusters, the bootstrap process on seed nodes is skipped.

   • listen_address:

     If not set, Cassandra asks the system for the local address, the one associated with its hostname. In some cases Cassandra doesn't produce the correct address and you must specify the listen_address.

   • endpoint_snitch: name of snitch (See endpoint_snitch.) If you are changing snitches, see Switching snitches.
   • auto_bootstrap: false (Add this setting only when initializing a fresh cluster with no data.)

   Note: If the nodes in the cluster are identical in terms of disk layout, shared libraries, and so on, you can use the same copy of the cassandra.yaml file on all of them.

   Example:

   cluster_name: 'MyCassandraCluster'
   num_tokens: 256
   seed_provider:
     - class_name: org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleSeedProvider
       parameters:
            - seeds:  "10.168.66.41,10.176.170.59"
   listen_address:
   endpoint_snitch: GossipingPropertyFileSnitch

   Note: Include at least one node from each data center.
5. In the cassandra-rackdc.properties file, assign the data center and rack names you determined in the Prerequisites. For example:

   Nodes 0 to 2

   ## Indicate the rack and dc for this node
   dc=DC1
   rack=RAC1

   Nodes 3 to 5

   ## Indicate the rack and dc for this node
   dc=DC2
   rack=RAC1

6. After you have installed and configured Cassandra on all nodes, start the seed nodes one at a time, and then start the rest of the nodes.
   Note: If the node has restarted because of automatic restart, you must first stop the node and clear the data directories, as described above.

   C:\> net startDataStax_Cassandra_Community_server

7. To check that the ring is up and running, run:
   Package installations:

   C:\> %CASSANDRA_HOME%\nodetool status

   Each node should be listed and it's status and state should be UN (Up Normal).

   

   The location of the cassandra.yaml file depends on the type of installation:

   Package installations	/etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
   Tarball installations	install_location/resources/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml
   Windows installations	C:\Program Files\DataStax Community\apache-cassandra\conf\cassandra.yaml