Enabling virtual nodes on an existing production cluster
Steps and recommendations for enabling virtual nodes (vnodes) on an existing production cluster.
For production clusters, enabling virtual nodes (vnodes) has less impact on performance if you bring up a another data center configured with vnodes already enabled and let Cassandra automatic mechanisms distribute the existing data into the new nodes. Using the shuffle utility can be an expensive process on a running production system because the data to be shuffled around. Bootstrapping a new data center is a much safer way to enable vnodes.
Warning: Using the shuffle utility is not
recommended.