Configure gossip

When a node first starts up, it looks at its cassandra.yaml configuration file to determine the name of the cluster it belongs to; which seed nodes to contact to obtain information about the other nodes in the cluster; and other details including the messaging port and token range ownership.

In the cassandra.yaml file, set the following parameters:

Property Description

cluster_name

Name of the cluster that this node is joining. Must be the same for every node in the cluster.

listen_address

The IP address or hostname that the Cassandra process binds to for connecting this node to other nodes.

Default: localhost

Optional: listen_interface

Use this option instead of listen_address to specify the network interface by name, rather than the IP address or hostname.

Optional: broadcast_address

The public IP address this node uses to broadcast to other nodes outside the network or across regions in multi-region deployments. If this property is commented out, the node uses the same IP address or hostname as listen_address (default).

A node does not need a separate broadcast_address in a single-node or single-datacenter installation, or in an EC2-based network that supports automatic switching between private and public communication. It is necessary to set a separate listen_address and broadcast_address on a node with multiple physical network interfaces or other topologies where not all nodes have access to other nodes by their private IP addresses. For specific configurations, see the instructions for listen_address.

seed_provider

The Java class for the seed provider, and the seeds list (- seeds) which is a comma-delimited list of hosts (IP addresses) that gossip uses to learn the topology of the ring.

Default: SimpleSeedProvider and 127.0.0.1:7000

Making every node a seed node is not recommended because of increased maintenance and reduced gossip performance. Gossip optimization is not critical, but it is recommended to use a small seed list (approximately three nodes per datacenter) and set the same list on all nodes.

storage_port

The port nodes use to privately communicate with each other. Must be the same for every node in the cluster.

Default: 7000

Optional: initial_token

The token assigned to the node which is the first token of the range of tokens the node owns. This property is typically set for legacy clusters with single-node-per-token architecture, in which a node owns exactly one contiguous range in the ring space.

num_tokens

The number of tokens assigned to this node in a cluster that uses virtual nodes (vnodes).

Default: 16

Configure gossip

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