You are viewing a plain text version of this content. The canonical link for it is here.
Posted to commits@cassandra.apache.org by ru...@apache.org on 2020/06/03 18:30:43 UTC

[cassandra] branch trunk updated: Improving Cassandra configuration docs

This is an automated email from the ASF dual-hosted git repository.

rustyrazorblade pushed a commit to branch trunk
in repository https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/cassandra.git


The following commit(s) were added to refs/heads/trunk by this push:
     new 57a63f8  Improving Cassandra configuration docs
57a63f8 is described below

commit 57a63f8551448d10d39f67d138842e0c81414526
Author: polandll <lo...@gmail.com>
AuthorDate: Fri May 8 17:24:32 2020 -0700

    Improving Cassandra configuration docs
    
    * Update copyright date to 2020
    * Add glossary
    * Rearranged rackdc for better flow
    * Add topologies properties file
    * Add commitlog_archiving file
    * Add logback.xml info
    * jvm.options files
    * Removed invalid reference to wiki from configuration file
    
    Patch by Lorina Poland; Reviewed by Jon Haddad for CASSANDRA-15822
---
 conf/cassandra.yaml                                |    5 +-
 doc/Dockerfile                                     |    2 +-
 doc/source/conf.py                                 |    2 +-
 doc/source/configuration/cass_cl_archive_file.rst  |   46 +
 doc/source/configuration/cass_env_sh_file.rst      |  132 ++
 doc/source/configuration/cass_jvm_options_file.rst |   10 +
 doc/source/configuration/cass_logback_xml_file.rst |  157 ++
 doc/source/configuration/cass_rackdc_file.rst      |   67 +
 doc/source/configuration/cass_topo_file.rst        |   48 +
 doc/source/configuration/cass_yaml_file.rst        | 2074 ++++++++++++++++++++
 doc/source/configuration/index.rst                 |    8 +-
 doc/source/getting_started/configuring.rst         |   59 +-
 doc/source/glossary.rst                            |   35 +
 13 files changed, 2615 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)

diff --git a/conf/cassandra.yaml b/conf/cassandra.yaml
index 6db9557..3a44a09 100644
--- a/conf/cassandra.yaml
+++ b/conf/cassandra.yaml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Cassandra storage config YAML
 
 # NOTE:
-#   See http://wiki.apache.org/cassandra/StorageConfiguration for
+#   See https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/configuration/ for
 #   full explanations of configuration directives
 # /NOTE
 
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@ cluster_name: 'Test Cluster'
 # Specifying initial_token will override this setting on the node's initial start,
 # on subsequent starts, this setting will apply even if initial token is set.
 #
-# If you already have a cluster with 1 token per node, and wish to migrate to 
-# multiple tokens per node, see http://wiki.apache.org/cassandra/Operations
 num_tokens: 256
 
 # Triggers automatic allocation of num_tokens tokens for this node. The allocation
@@ -47,7 +45,6 @@ num_tokens: 256
 # that do not have vnodes enabled.
 # initial_token:
 
-# See http://wiki.apache.org/cassandra/HintedHandoff
 # May either be "true" or "false" to enable globally
 hinted_handoff_enabled: true
 
diff --git a/doc/Dockerfile b/doc/Dockerfile
index 8999464..fcb4c41 100644
--- a/doc/Dockerfile
+++ b/doc/Dockerfile
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y software-properties-common
 RUN wget -qO - https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/api/gpg/key/public | apt-key add - \
     && add-apt-repository --yes https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/deb/ \
     && apt-get update \
-    && apt-get install -y adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot ant
+    && apt-get install -y adoptopenjdk-11-hotspot ant
 
 
 RUN apt-get clean
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 7143b23..48f87a8 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ master_doc = 'index'
 
 # General information about the project.
 project = u'Apache Cassandra'
-copyright = u'2016, The Apache Cassandra team'
+copyright = u'2020, The Apache Cassandra team'
 author = u'The Apache Cassandra team'
 
 # The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_cl_archive_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_cl_archive_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc14440
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_cl_archive_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+.. _cassandra-cl-archive:
+
+commitlog-archiving.properties file 
+================================
+
+The ``commitlog-archiving.properties`` configuration file can optionally set commands that are executed when archiving or restoring a commitlog segment. 
+
+===========================
+Options
+===========================
+
+``archive_command=<command>``
+------
+One command can be inserted with %path and %name arguments. %path is the fully qualified path of the commitlog segment to archive. %name is the filename of the commitlog. STDOUT, STDIN, or multiple commands cannot be executed. If multiple commands are required, add a pointer to a script in this option.
+
+**Example:** archive_command=/bin/ln %path /backup/%name
+
+**Default value:** blank
+
+``restore_command=<command>``
+------
+One command can be inserted with %from and %to arguments. %from is the fully qualified path to an archived commitlog segment using the specified restore directories. %to defines the directory to the live commitlog location.
+
+**Example:** restore_command=/bin/cp -f %from %to
+
+**Default value:** blank
+
+``restore_directories=<directory>``
+------
+Defines the directory to scan the recovery files into.
+
+**Default value:** blank
+
+``restore_point_in_time=<timestamp>``
+------
+Restore mutations created up to and including this timestamp in GMT in the format ``yyyy:MM:dd HH:mm:ss``.  Recovery will continue through the segment when the first client-supplied timestamp greater than this time is encountered, but only mutations less than or equal to this timestamp will be applied.
+
+**Example:** 2020:04:31 20:43:12
+
+**Default value:** blank
+
+``precision=<timestamp_precision>``
+------
+Precision of the timestamp used in the inserts. Choice is generally MILLISECONDS or MICROSECONDS
+
+**Default value:** MICROSECONDS
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_env_sh_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_env_sh_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..457f39f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_env_sh_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+.. _cassandra-envsh:
+
+cassandra-env.sh file 
+=====================
+
+The ``cassandra-env.sh`` bash script file can be used to pass additional options to the Java virtual machine (JVM), such as maximum and minimum heap size, rather than setting them in the environment. If the JVM settings are static and do not need to be computed from the node characteristics, the :ref:`cassandra-jvm-options` files should be used instead. For example, commonly computed values are the heap sizes, using the system values.
+
+For example, add ``JVM_OPTS="$JVM_OPTS -Dcassandra.load_ring_state=false"`` to the ``cassandra_env.sh`` file
+and run the command-line ``cassandra`` to start. The option is set from the ``cassandra-env.sh`` file, and is equivalent to starting Cassandra with the command-line option ``cassandra -Dcassandra.load_ring_state=false``.
+
+The ``-D`` option specifies the start-up parameters in both the command line and ``cassandra-env.sh`` file. The following options are available:
+
+``cassandra.auto_bootstrap=false``
+----------------------------------
+Facilitates setting auto_bootstrap to false on initial set-up of the cluster. The next time you start the cluster, you do not need to change the ``cassandra.yaml`` file on each node to revert to true, the default value.
+
+``cassandra.available_processors=<number_of_processors>``
+---------------------------------------------------------
+In a multi-instance deployment, multiple Cassandra instances will independently assume that all CPU processors are available to it. This setting allows you to specify a smaller set of processors.
+
+``cassandra.boot_without_jna=true``
+-----------------------------------
+If JNA fails to initialize, Cassandra fails to boot. Use this command to boot Cassandra without JNA.
+
+``cassandra.config=<directory>``
+--------------------------------
+The directory location of the ``cassandra.yaml file``. The default location depends on the type of installation.
+
+``cassandra.ignore_dynamic_snitch_severity=true|false`` 
+-------------------------------------------------------
+Setting this property to true causes the dynamic snitch to ignore the severity indicator from gossip when scoring nodes.  Explore failure detection and recovery and dynamic snitching for more information.
+
+**Default:** false
+
+``cassandra.initial_token=<token>``
+-----------------------------------
+Use when virtual nodes (vnodes) are not used. Sets the initial partitioner token for a node the first time the node is started. 
+Note: Vnodes are highly recommended as they automatically select tokens.
+
+**Default:** disabled
+
+``cassandra.join_ring=true|false``
+----------------------------------
+Set to false to start Cassandra on a node but not have the node join the cluster. 
+You can use ``nodetool join`` and a JMX call to join the ring afterwards.
+
+**Default:** true
+
+``cassandra.load_ring_state=true|false``
+----------------------------------------
+Set to false to clear all gossip state for the node on restart. 
+
+**Default:** true
+
+``cassandra.metricsReporterConfigFile=<filename>``
+--------------------------------------------------
+Enable pluggable metrics reporter. Explore pluggable metrics reporting for more information.
+
+``cassandra.partitioner=<partitioner>``
+---------------------------------------
+Set the partitioner. 
+
+**Default:** org.apache.cassandra.dht.Murmur3Partitioner
+
+``cassandra.prepared_statements_cache_size_in_bytes=<cache_size>``
+------------------------------------------------------------------
+Set the cache size for prepared statements.
+
+``cassandra.replace_address=<listen_address of dead node>|<broadcast_address of dead node>``
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+To replace a node that has died, restart a new node in its place specifying the ``listen_address`` or ``broadcast_address`` that the new node is assuming. The new node must not have any data in its data directory, the same state as before bootstrapping.
+Note: The ``broadcast_address`` defaults to the ``listen_address`` except when using the ``Ec2MultiRegionSnitch``.
+
+``cassandra.replayList=<table>``
+--------------------------------
+Allow restoring specific tables from an archived commit log.
+
+``cassandra.ring_delay_ms=<number_of_ms>``
+------------------------------------------
+Defines the amount of time a node waits to hear from other nodes before formally joining the ring. 
+
+**Default:** 1000ms
+
+``cassandra.native_transport_port=<port>``
+------------------------------------------
+Set the port on which the CQL native transport listens for clients. 
+
+**Default:** 9042
+
+``cassandra.rpc_port=<port>``
+-----------------------------
+Set the port for the Thrift RPC service, which is used for client connections. 
+
+**Default:** 9160
+
+``cassandra.storage_port=<port>``
+---------------------------------
+Set the port for inter-node communication. 
+
+**Default:** 7000
+
+``cassandra.ssl_storage_port=<port>``
+-------------------------------------
+Set the SSL port for encrypted communication. 
+
+**Default:** 7001
+
+``cassandra.start_native_transport=true|false``
+-----------------------------------------------
+Enable or disable the native transport server. See ``start_native_transport`` in ``cassandra.yaml``. 
+
+**Default:** true
+
+``cassandra.start_rpc=true|false``
+----------------------------------
+Enable or disable the Thrift RPC server. 
+
+**Default:** true
+
+``cassandra.triggers_dir=<directory>``
+--------------------------------------
+Set the default location for the trigger JARs. 
+
+**Default:** conf/triggers
+
+``cassandra.write_survey=true``
+-------------------------------
+For testing new compaction and compression strategies. It allows you to experiment with different strategies and benchmark write performance differences without affecting the production workload.
+
+``consistent.rangemovement=true|false``
+---------------------------------------
+Set to true makes Cassandra perform bootstrap safely without violating consistency. False disables this.
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_jvm_options_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_jvm_options_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5a6326
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_jvm_options_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+.. _cassandra-jvm-options:
+
+jvm-* files 
+===========
+
+Several files for JVM configuration are included in Cassandra. The ``jvm-server.options`` file, and corresponding files ``jvm8-server.options`` and ``jvm11-server.options`` are the main file for settings that affect the operation of the Cassandra JVM on cluster nodes. The file includes startup parameters, general JVM settings such as garbage collection, and heap settings. The ``jvm-clients.options`` and corresponding ``jvm8-clients.options`` and ``jvm11-clients.options`` files can be use [...]
+
+See each file for examples of settings.
+
+.. note:: The ``jvm-*`` files replace the :ref:`cassandra-envsh` file used in Cassandra versions prior to Cassandra 3.0. The ``cassandra-env.sh`` bash script file is still useful if JVM settings must be dynamically calculated based on system settings. The ``jvm-*`` files only store static JVM settings.
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_logback_xml_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_logback_xml_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3de1c77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_logback_xml_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+.. _cassandra-logback-xml:
+
+logback.xml file 
+================================
+
+The ``logback.xml`` configuration file can optionally set logging levels for the logs written to ``system.log`` and ``debug.log``. The logging levels can also be set using ``nodetool setlogginglevels``.
+
+===========================
+Options
+===========================
+
+``appender name="<appender_choice>"...</appender>``
+------
+
+Specify log type and settings. Possible appender names are: ``SYSTEMLOG``, ``DEBUGLOG``, ``ASYNCDEBUGLOG``, and ``STDOUT``. ``SYSTEMLOG`` ensures that WARN and ERROR message are written synchronously to the specified file. ``DEBUGLOG`` and  ``ASYNCDEBUGLOG`` ensure that DEBUG messages are written either synchronously or asynchronously, respectively, to the specified file. ``STDOUT`` writes all messages to the console in a human-readable format.
+
+**Example:** <appender name="SYSTEMLOG" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
+
+``<file> <filename> </file>``
+------
+
+Specify the filename for a log.
+
+**Example:** <file>${cassandra.logdir}/system.log</file>
+
+``<level> <log_level> </level>``
+------
+
+Specify the level for a log. Part of the filter. Levels are: ``ALL``, ``TRACE``, ``DEBUG``, ``INFO``, ``WARN``, ``ERROR``, ``OFF``. ``TRACE`` creates the most verbose log, ``ERROR`` the least.
+
+.. note::
+Note: Increasing logging levels can generate heavy logging output on a moderately trafficked cluster.
+You can use the ``nodetool getlogginglevels`` command to see the current logging configuration.
+
+**Default:** INFO
+
+**Example:** <level>INFO</level>
+
+``<rollingPolicy class="<rolling_policy_choice>" <fileNamePattern><pattern_info></fileNamePattern> ... </rollingPolicy>``
+------
+
+Specify the policy for rolling logs over to an archive.
+
+**Example:** <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedRollingPolicy">
+
+``<fileNamePattern> <pattern_info> </fileNamePattern>``
+------
+
+Specify the pattern information for rolling over the log to archive. Part of the rolling policy.
+
+**Example:** <fileNamePattern>${cassandra.logdir}/system.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.zip</fileNamePattern>
+
+``<maxFileSize> <size> </maxFileSize>``
+------
+
+Specify the maximum file size to trigger rolling a log. Part of the rolling policy.
+
+**Example:** <maxFileSize>50MB</maxFileSize>
+
+``<maxHistory> <number_of_days> </maxHistory>``
+------
+
+Specify the maximum history in days to trigger rolling a log. Part of the rolling policy.
+
+**Example:** <maxHistory>7</maxHistory>
+
+``<encoder> <pattern>...</pattern> </encoder>``
+------
+
+Specify the format of the message. Part of the rolling policy.
+
+**Example:** <maxHistory>7</maxHistory>
+**Example:** <encoder> <pattern>%-5level [%thread] %date{ISO8601} %F:%L - %msg%n</pattern> </encoder>
+
+Contents of default ``logback.xml``
+-----------------------
+
+.. code-block:: XML
+
+	<configuration scan="true" scanPeriod="60 seconds">
+	  <jmxConfigurator />
+
+	  <!-- No shutdown hook; we run it ourselves in StorageService after shutdown -->
+
+	  <!-- SYSTEMLOG rolling file appender to system.log (INFO level) -->
+
+	  <appender name="SYSTEMLOG" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
+	    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
+      <level>INFO</level>
+	    </filter>
+	    <file>${cassandra.logdir}/system.log</file>
+	    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedRollingPolicy">
+	      <!-- rollover daily -->
+	      <fileNamePattern>${cassandra.logdir}/system.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.zip</fileNamePattern>
+	      <!-- each file should be at most 50MB, keep 7 days worth of history, but at most 5GB -->
+	      <maxFileSize>50MB</maxFileSize>
+	      <maxHistory>7</maxHistory>
+	      <totalSizeCap>5GB</totalSizeCap>
+	    </rollingPolicy>
+	    <encoder>
+	      <pattern>%-5level [%thread] %date{ISO8601} %F:%L - %msg%n</pattern>
+	    </encoder>
+	  </appender>
+
+	  <!-- DEBUGLOG rolling file appender to debug.log (all levels) -->
+
+	  <appender name="DEBUGLOG" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
+	    <file>${cassandra.logdir}/debug.log</file>
+	    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedRollingPolicy">
+	      <!-- rollover daily -->
+	      <fileNamePattern>${cassandra.logdir}/debug.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.zip</fileNamePattern>
+	      <!-- each file should be at most 50MB, keep 7 days worth of history, but at most 5GB -->
+	      <maxFileSize>50MB</maxFileSize>
+	      <maxHistory>7</maxHistory>
+	      <totalSizeCap>5GB</totalSizeCap>
+	    </rollingPolicy>
+	    <encoder>
+	      <pattern>%-5level [%thread] %date{ISO8601} %F:%L - %msg%n</pattern>
+	    </encoder>
+	  </appender>
+
+	  <!-- ASYNCLOG assynchronous appender to debug.log (all levels) -->
+
+	  <appender name="ASYNCDEBUGLOG" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.AsyncAppender">
+	    <queueSize>1024</queueSize>
+	    <discardingThreshold>0</discardingThreshold>
+	    <includeCallerData>true</includeCallerData>
+	    <appender-ref ref="DEBUGLOG" />
+	  </appender>
+
+	  <!-- STDOUT console appender to stdout (INFO level) -->
+
+	  <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
+	    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
+	      <level>INFO</level>
+	    </filter>
+	    <encoder>
+	      <pattern>%-5level [%thread] %date{ISO8601} %F:%L - %msg%n</pattern>
+	    </encoder>
+	  </appender>
+
+	  <!-- Uncomment bellow and corresponding appender-ref to activate logback metrics
+	  <appender name="LogbackMetrics" class="com.codahale.metrics.logback.InstrumentedAppender" />
+	   -->
+
+	  <root level="INFO">
+	    <appender-ref ref="SYSTEMLOG" />
+	    <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
+	    <appender-ref ref="ASYNCDEBUGLOG" /> <!-- Comment this line to disable debug.log -->
+	    <!--
+	    <appender-ref ref="LogbackMetrics" />
+	    -->
+	  </root>
+
+	  <logger name="org.apache.cassandra" level="DEBUG"/>
+	  <logger name="com.thinkaurelius.thrift" level="ERROR"/>
+	</configuration>
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_rackdc_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_rackdc_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9921092
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_rackdc_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+.. _cassandra-rackdc:
+
+cassandra-rackdc.properties file 
+================================
+
+Several :term:`snitch` options use the ``cassandra-rackdc.properties`` configuration file to determine which :term:`datacenters` and racks cluster nodes belong to. Information about the 
+network topology allows requests to be routed efficiently and to distribute replicas evenly. The following snitches can be configured here:
+
+- GossipingPropertyFileSnitch
+- AWS EC2 single-region snitch
+- AWS EC2 multi-region snitch
+
+The GossipingPropertyFileSnitch is recommended for production. This snitch uses the datacenter and rack information configured in a local node's ``cassandra-rackdc.properties``
+file and propagates the information to other nodes using :term:`gossip`. It is the default snitch and the settings in this properties file are enabled.
+
+The AWS EC2 snitches are configured for clusters in AWS. This snitch uses the ``cassandra-rackdc.properties`` options to designate one of two AWS EC2 datacenter and rack naming conventions:
+
+- legacy: Datacenter name is the part of the availability zone name preceding the last "-" when the zone ends in -1 and includes the number if not -1. Rack name is the portion of the availability zone name following  the last "-".
+
+          Examples: us-west-1a => dc: us-west, rack: 1a; us-west-2b => dc: us-west-2, rack: 2b;
+
+- standard: Datacenter name is the standard AWS region name, including the number. Rack name is the region plus the availability zone letter.
+
+          Examples: us-west-1a => dc: us-west-1, rack: us-west-1a; us-west-2b => dc: us-west-2, rack: us-west-2b;
+
+Either snitch can set to use the local or internal IP address when multiple datacenters are not communicating.
+
+===========================
+GossipingPropertyFileSnitch
+===========================
+
+``dc``
+------
+Name of the datacenter. The value is case-sensitive.
+
+**Default value:** DC1
+
+``rack``
+--------
+Rack designation. The value is case-sensitive.
+
+**Default value:** RAC1 
+
+===========================
+AWS EC2 snitch
+===========================
+
+``ec2_naming_scheme``
+---------------------
+Datacenter and rack naming convention. Options are ``legacy`` or ``standard`` (default). **This option is commented out by default.** 
+
+**Default value:** standard
+
+
+.. NOTE::
+          YOU MUST USE THE ``legacy`` VALUE IF YOU ARE UPGRADING A PRE-4.0 CLUSTER.
+
+===========================
+Either snitch
+===========================
+
+``prefer_local``
+----------------
+Option to use the local or internal IP address when communication is not across different datacenters. **This option is commented out by default.**
+
+**Default value:** true
+
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_topo_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_topo_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..264addc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_topo_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+.. _cassandra-topology:
+
+cassandra-topologies.properties file 
+================================
+
+The ``PropertyFileSnitch`` :term:`snitch` option uses the ``cassandra-topologies.properties`` configuration file to determine which :term:`datacenters` and racks cluster nodes belong to. If other snitches are used, the 
+:ref:cassandra_rackdc must be used. The snitch determines network topology (proximity by rack and datacenter) so that requests are routed efficiently and allows the database to distribute replicas evenly.
+
+Include every node in the cluster in the properties file, defining your datacenter names as in the keyspace definition. The datacenter and rack names are case-sensitive.
+
+The ``cassandra-topologies.properties`` file must be copied identically to every node in the cluster.
+
+
+===========================
+Example
+===========================
+This example uses three datacenters:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   # datacenter One
+
+   175.56.12.105=DC1:RAC1
+   175.50.13.200=DC1:RAC1
+   175.54.35.197=DC1:RAC1
+
+   120.53.24.101=DC1:RAC2
+   120.55.16.200=DC1:RAC2
+   120.57.102.103=DC1:RAC2
+
+   # datacenter Two
+
+   110.56.12.120=DC2:RAC1
+   110.50.13.201=DC2:RAC1
+   110.54.35.184=DC2:RAC1
+
+   50.33.23.120=DC2:RAC2
+   50.45.14.220=DC2:RAC2
+   50.17.10.203=DC2:RAC2
+
+   # datacenter Three
+
+   172.106.12.120=DC3:RAC1
+   172.106.12.121=DC3:RAC1
+   172.106.12.122=DC3:RAC1
+
+   # default for unknown nodes 
+   default =DC3:RAC1
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/cass_yaml_file.rst b/doc/source/configuration/cass_yaml_file.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24e3be0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/cass_yaml_file.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2074 @@
+.. _cassandra-yaml:
+
+cassandra.yaml file configuration 
+=================================
+
+``cluster_name``
+----------------
+The name of the cluster. This is mainly used to prevent machines in
+one logical cluster from joining another.
+
+*Default Value:* 'Test Cluster'
+
+``num_tokens``
+--------------
+
+This defines the number of tokens randomly assigned to this node on the ring
+The more tokens, relative to other nodes, the larger the proportion of data
+that this node will store. We recommend all nodes to have the same number
+of tokens assuming they have equal hardware capability.
+
+If you leave this unspecified, Cassandra will use the default of 1 token for legacy compatibility,
+and will use the initial_token as described below.
+
+Specifying initial_token will override this setting on the node's initial start,
+on subsequent starts, this setting will apply even if initial token is set.
+
+We recommend setting ``allocate_tokens_for_local_replication_factor`` in conjunction with this setting to ensure even allocation.
+
+*Default Value:* 256
+
+``allocate_tokens_for_keyspace``
+--------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Triggers automatic allocation of num_tokens tokens for this node. The allocation
+algorithm attempts to choose tokens in a way that optimizes replicated load over
+the nodes in the datacenter for the replica factor.
+
+The load assigned to each node will be close to proportional to its number of
+vnodes.
+
+Only supported with the Murmur3Partitioner.
+
+Replica factor is determined via the replication strategy used by the specified
+keyspace.
+
+We recommend using the ``allocate_tokens_for_local_replication_factor`` setting instead for operational simplicity.
+
+*Default Value:* KEYSPACE
+
+``allocate_tokens_for_local_replication_factor``
+------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Tokens will be allocated based on this replication factor, regardless of keyspace or datacenter.
+
+*Default Value:* 3
+
+``initial_token``
+-----------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+initial_token allows you to specify tokens manually.  While you can use it with
+vnodes (num_tokens > 1, above) -- in which case you should provide a 
+comma-separated list -- it's primarily used when adding nodes to legacy clusters 
+that do not have vnodes enabled.
+
+``hinted_handoff_enabled``
+--------------------------
+
+May either be "true" or "false" to enable globally
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``hinted_handoff_disabled_datacenters``
+---------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+When hinted_handoff_enabled is true, a black list of data centers that will not
+perform hinted handoff
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+    #    - DC1
+    #    - DC2
+
+``max_hint_window_in_ms``
+-------------------------
+This defines the maximum amount of time a dead host will have hints
+generated.  After it has been dead this long, new hints for it will not be
+created until it has been seen alive and gone down again.
+
+*Default Value:* 10800000 # 3 hours
+
+``hinted_handoff_throttle_in_kb``
+---------------------------------
+
+Maximum throttle in KBs per second, per delivery thread.  This will be
+reduced proportionally to the number of nodes in the cluster.  (If there
+are two nodes in the cluster, each delivery thread will use the maximum
+rate; if there are three, each will throttle to half of the maximum,
+since we expect two nodes to be delivering hints simultaneously.)
+
+*Default Value:* 1024
+
+``max_hints_delivery_threads``
+------------------------------
+
+Number of threads with which to deliver hints;
+Consider increasing this number when you have multi-dc deployments, since
+cross-dc handoff tends to be slower
+
+*Default Value:* 2
+
+``hints_directory``
+-------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Directory where Cassandra should store hints.
+If not set, the default directory is $CASSANDRA_HOME/data/hints.
+
+*Default Value:*  /var/lib/cassandra/hints
+
+``hints_flush_period_in_ms``
+----------------------------
+
+How often hints should be flushed from the internal buffers to disk.
+Will *not* trigger fsync.
+
+*Default Value:* 10000
+
+``max_hints_file_size_in_mb``
+-----------------------------
+
+Maximum size for a single hints file, in megabytes.
+
+*Default Value:* 128
+
+``hints_compression``
+---------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Compression to apply to the hint files. If omitted, hints files
+will be written uncompressed. LZ4, Snappy, and Deflate compressors
+are supported.
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+    #   - class_name: LZ4Compressor
+    #     parameters:
+    #         -
+
+``batchlog_replay_throttle_in_kb``
+----------------------------------
+Maximum throttle in KBs per second, total. This will be
+reduced proportionally to the number of nodes in the cluster.
+
+*Default Value:* 1024
+
+``authenticator``
+-----------------
+
+Authentication backend, implementing IAuthenticator; used to identify users
+Out of the box, Cassandra provides org.apache.cassandra.auth.{AllowAllAuthenticator,
+PasswordAuthenticator}.
+
+- AllowAllAuthenticator performs no checks - set it to disable authentication.
+- PasswordAuthenticator relies on username/password pairs to authenticate
+  users. It keeps usernames and hashed passwords in system_auth.roles table.
+  Please increase system_auth keyspace replication factor if you use this authenticator.
+  If using PasswordAuthenticator, CassandraRoleManager must also be used (see below)
+
+*Default Value:* AllowAllAuthenticator
+
+``authorizer``
+--------------
+
+Authorization backend, implementing IAuthorizer; used to limit access/provide permissions
+Out of the box, Cassandra provides org.apache.cassandra.auth.{AllowAllAuthorizer,
+CassandraAuthorizer}.
+
+- AllowAllAuthorizer allows any action to any user - set it to disable authorization.
+- CassandraAuthorizer stores permissions in system_auth.role_permissions table. Please
+  increase system_auth keyspace replication factor if you use this authorizer.
+
+*Default Value:* AllowAllAuthorizer
+
+``role_manager``
+----------------
+
+Part of the Authentication & Authorization backend, implementing IRoleManager; used
+to maintain grants and memberships between roles.
+Out of the box, Cassandra provides org.apache.cassandra.auth.CassandraRoleManager,
+which stores role information in the system_auth keyspace. Most functions of the
+IRoleManager require an authenticated login, so unless the configured IAuthenticator
+actually implements authentication, most of this functionality will be unavailable.
+
+- CassandraRoleManager stores role data in the system_auth keyspace. Please
+  increase system_auth keyspace replication factor if you use this role manager.
+
+*Default Value:* CassandraRoleManager
+
+``network_authorizer``
+----------------------
+
+Network authorization backend, implementing INetworkAuthorizer; used to restrict user
+access to certain DCs
+Out of the box, Cassandra provides org.apache.cassandra.auth.{AllowAllNetworkAuthorizer,
+CassandraNetworkAuthorizer}.
+
+- AllowAllNetworkAuthorizer allows access to any DC to any user - set it to disable authorization.
+- CassandraNetworkAuthorizer stores permissions in system_auth.network_permissions table. Please
+  increase system_auth keyspace replication factor if you use this authorizer.
+
+*Default Value:* AllowAllNetworkAuthorizer
+
+``roles_validity_in_ms``
+------------------------
+
+Validity period for roles cache (fetching granted roles can be an expensive
+operation depending on the role manager, CassandraRoleManager is one example)
+Granted roles are cached for authenticated sessions in AuthenticatedUser and
+after the period specified here, become eligible for (async) reload.
+Defaults to 2000, set to 0 to disable caching entirely.
+Will be disabled automatically for AllowAllAuthenticator.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``roles_update_interval_in_ms``
+-------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Refresh interval for roles cache (if enabled).
+After this interval, cache entries become eligible for refresh. Upon next
+access, an async reload is scheduled and the old value returned until it
+completes. If roles_validity_in_ms is non-zero, then this must be
+also.
+Defaults to the same value as roles_validity_in_ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``permissions_validity_in_ms``
+------------------------------
+
+Validity period for permissions cache (fetching permissions can be an
+expensive operation depending on the authorizer, CassandraAuthorizer is
+one example). Defaults to 2000, set to 0 to disable.
+Will be disabled automatically for AllowAllAuthorizer.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``permissions_update_interval_in_ms``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Refresh interval for permissions cache (if enabled).
+After this interval, cache entries become eligible for refresh. Upon next
+access, an async reload is scheduled and the old value returned until it
+completes. If permissions_validity_in_ms is non-zero, then this must be
+also.
+Defaults to the same value as permissions_validity_in_ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``credentials_validity_in_ms``
+------------------------------
+
+Validity period for credentials cache. This cache is tightly coupled to
+the provided PasswordAuthenticator implementation of IAuthenticator. If
+another IAuthenticator implementation is configured, this cache will not
+be automatically used and so the following settings will have no effect.
+Please note, credentials are cached in their encrypted form, so while
+activating this cache may reduce the number of queries made to the
+underlying table, it may not  bring a significant reduction in the
+latency of individual authentication attempts.
+Defaults to 2000, set to 0 to disable credentials caching.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``credentials_update_interval_in_ms``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Refresh interval for credentials cache (if enabled).
+After this interval, cache entries become eligible for refresh. Upon next
+access, an async reload is scheduled and the old value returned until it
+completes. If credentials_validity_in_ms is non-zero, then this must be
+also.
+Defaults to the same value as credentials_validity_in_ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``partitioner``
+---------------
+
+The partitioner is responsible for distributing groups of rows (by
+partition key) across nodes in the cluster. The partitioner can NOT be
+changed without reloading all data.  If you are adding nodes or upgrading,
+you should set this to the same partitioner that you are currently using.
+
+The default partitioner is the Murmur3Partitioner. Older partitioners
+such as the RandomPartitioner, ByteOrderedPartitioner, and
+OrderPreservingPartitioner have been included for backward compatibility only.
+For new clusters, you should NOT change this value.
+
+
+*Default Value:* org.apache.cassandra.dht.Murmur3Partitioner
+
+``data_file_directories``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Directories where Cassandra should store data on disk. If multiple
+directories are specified, Cassandra will spread data evenly across 
+them by partitioning the token ranges.
+If not set, the default directory is $CASSANDRA_HOME/data/data.
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+    #     - /var/lib/cassandra/data
+
+``commitlog_directory``
+-----------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+commit log.  when running on magnetic HDD, this should be a
+separate spindle than the data directories.
+If not set, the default directory is $CASSANDRA_HOME/data/commitlog.
+
+*Default Value:*  /var/lib/cassandra/commitlog
+
+``cdc_enabled``
+---------------
+
+Enable / disable CDC functionality on a per-node basis. This modifies the logic used
+for write path allocation rejection (standard: never reject. cdc: reject Mutation
+containing a CDC-enabled table if at space limit in cdc_raw_directory).
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``cdc_raw_directory``
+---------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+CommitLogSegments are moved to this directory on flush if cdc_enabled: true and the
+segment contains mutations for a CDC-enabled table. This should be placed on a
+separate spindle than the data directories. If not set, the default directory is
+$CASSANDRA_HOME/data/cdc_raw.
+
+*Default Value:*  /var/lib/cassandra/cdc_raw
+
+``disk_failure_policy``
+-----------------------
+
+Policy for data disk failures:
+
+die
+  shut down gossip and client transports and kill the JVM for any fs errors or
+  single-sstable errors, so the node can be replaced.
+
+stop_paranoid
+  shut down gossip and client transports even for single-sstable errors,
+  kill the JVM for errors during startup.
+
+stop
+  shut down gossip and client transports, leaving the node effectively dead, but
+  can still be inspected via JMX, kill the JVM for errors during startup.
+
+best_effort
+   stop using the failed disk and respond to requests based on
+   remaining available sstables.  This means you WILL see obsolete
+   data at CL.ONE!
+
+ignore
+   ignore fatal errors and let requests fail, as in pre-1.2 Cassandra
+
+*Default Value:* stop
+
+``commit_failure_policy``
+-------------------------
+
+Policy for commit disk failures:
+
+die
+  shut down the node and kill the JVM, so the node can be replaced.
+
+stop
+  shut down the node, leaving the node effectively dead, but
+  can still be inspected via JMX.
+
+stop_commit
+  shutdown the commit log, letting writes collect but
+  continuing to service reads, as in pre-2.0.5 Cassandra
+
+ignore
+  ignore fatal errors and let the batches fail
+
+*Default Value:* stop
+
+``prepared_statements_cache_size_mb``
+-------------------------------------
+
+Maximum size of the native protocol prepared statement cache
+
+Valid values are either "auto" (omitting the value) or a value greater 0.
+
+Note that specifying a too large value will result in long running GCs and possbily
+out-of-memory errors. Keep the value at a small fraction of the heap.
+
+If you constantly see "prepared statements discarded in the last minute because
+cache limit reached" messages, the first step is to investigate the root cause
+of these messages and check whether prepared statements are used correctly -
+i.e. use bind markers for variable parts.
+
+Do only change the default value, if you really have more prepared statements than
+fit in the cache. In most cases it is not neccessary to change this value.
+Constantly re-preparing statements is a performance penalty.
+
+Default value ("auto") is 1/256th of the heap or 10MB, whichever is greater
+
+``key_cache_size_in_mb``
+------------------------
+
+Maximum size of the key cache in memory.
+
+Each key cache hit saves 1 seek and each row cache hit saves 2 seeks at the
+minimum, sometimes more. The key cache is fairly tiny for the amount of
+time it saves, so it's worthwhile to use it at large numbers.
+The row cache saves even more time, but must contain the entire row,
+so it is extremely space-intensive. It's best to only use the
+row cache if you have hot rows or static rows.
+
+NOTE: if you reduce the size, you may not get you hottest keys loaded on startup.
+
+Default value is empty to make it "auto" (min(5% of Heap (in MB), 100MB)). Set to 0 to disable key cache.
+
+``key_cache_save_period``
+-------------------------
+
+Duration in seconds after which Cassandra should
+save the key cache. Caches are saved to saved_caches_directory as
+specified in this configuration file.
+
+Saved caches greatly improve cold-start speeds, and is relatively cheap in
+terms of I/O for the key cache. Row cache saving is much more expensive and
+has limited use.
+
+Default is 14400 or 4 hours.
+
+*Default Value:* 14400
+
+``key_cache_keys_to_save``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Number of keys from the key cache to save
+Disabled by default, meaning all keys are going to be saved
+
+*Default Value:* 100
+
+``row_cache_class_name``
+------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Row cache implementation class name. Available implementations:
+
+org.apache.cassandra.cache.OHCProvider
+  Fully off-heap row cache implementation (default).
+
+org.apache.cassandra.cache.SerializingCacheProvider
+  This is the row cache implementation availabile
+  in previous releases of Cassandra.
+
+*Default Value:* org.apache.cassandra.cache.OHCProvider
+
+``row_cache_size_in_mb``
+------------------------
+
+Maximum size of the row cache in memory.
+Please note that OHC cache implementation requires some additional off-heap memory to manage
+the map structures and some in-flight memory during operations before/after cache entries can be
+accounted against the cache capacity. This overhead is usually small compared to the whole capacity.
+Do not specify more memory that the system can afford in the worst usual situation and leave some
+headroom for OS block level cache. Do never allow your system to swap.
+
+Default value is 0, to disable row caching.
+
+*Default Value:* 0
+
+``row_cache_save_period``
+-------------------------
+
+Duration in seconds after which Cassandra should save the row cache.
+Caches are saved to saved_caches_directory as specified in this configuration file.
+
+Saved caches greatly improve cold-start speeds, and is relatively cheap in
+terms of I/O for the key cache. Row cache saving is much more expensive and
+has limited use.
+
+Default is 0 to disable saving the row cache.
+
+*Default Value:* 0
+
+``row_cache_keys_to_save``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Number of keys from the row cache to save.
+Specify 0 (which is the default), meaning all keys are going to be saved
+
+*Default Value:* 100
+
+``counter_cache_size_in_mb``
+----------------------------
+
+Maximum size of the counter cache in memory.
+
+Counter cache helps to reduce counter locks' contention for hot counter cells.
+In case of RF = 1 a counter cache hit will cause Cassandra to skip the read before
+write entirely. With RF > 1 a counter cache hit will still help to reduce the duration
+of the lock hold, helping with hot counter cell updates, but will not allow skipping
+the read entirely. Only the local (clock, count) tuple of a counter cell is kept
+in memory, not the whole counter, so it's relatively cheap.
+
+NOTE: if you reduce the size, you may not get you hottest keys loaded on startup.
+
+Default value is empty to make it "auto" (min(2.5% of Heap (in MB), 50MB)). Set to 0 to disable counter cache.
+NOTE: if you perform counter deletes and rely on low gcgs, you should disable the counter cache.
+
+``counter_cache_save_period``
+-----------------------------
+
+Duration in seconds after which Cassandra should
+save the counter cache (keys only). Caches are saved to saved_caches_directory as
+specified in this configuration file.
+
+Default is 7200 or 2 hours.
+
+*Default Value:* 7200
+
+``counter_cache_keys_to_save``
+------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Number of keys from the counter cache to save
+Disabled by default, meaning all keys are going to be saved
+
+*Default Value:* 100
+
+``saved_caches_directory``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+saved caches
+If not set, the default directory is $CASSANDRA_HOME/data/saved_caches.
+
+*Default Value:*  /var/lib/cassandra/saved_caches
+
+``commitlog_sync_batch_window_in_ms``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+commitlog_sync may be either "periodic", "group", or "batch." 
+
+When in batch mode, Cassandra won't ack writes until the commit log
+has been flushed to disk.  Each incoming write will trigger the flush task.
+commitlog_sync_batch_window_in_ms is a deprecated value. Previously it had
+almost no value, and is being removed.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 2
+
+``commitlog_sync_group_window_in_ms``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+group mode is similar to batch mode, where Cassandra will not ack writes
+until the commit log has been flushed to disk. The difference is group
+mode will wait up to commitlog_sync_group_window_in_ms between flushes.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 1000
+
+``commitlog_sync``
+------------------
+
+the default option is "periodic" where writes may be acked immediately
+and the CommitLog is simply synced every commitlog_sync_period_in_ms
+milliseconds.
+
+*Default Value:* periodic
+
+``commitlog_sync_period_in_ms``
+-------------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 10000
+
+``periodic_commitlog_sync_lag_block_in_ms``
+-------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+When in periodic commitlog mode, the number of milliseconds to block writes
+while waiting for a slow disk flush to complete.
+
+``commitlog_segment_size_in_mb``
+--------------------------------
+
+The size of the individual commitlog file segments.  A commitlog
+segment may be archived, deleted, or recycled once all the data
+in it (potentially from each columnfamily in the system) has been
+flushed to sstables.
+
+The default size is 32, which is almost always fine, but if you are
+archiving commitlog segments (see commitlog_archiving.properties),
+then you probably want a finer granularity of archiving; 8 or 16 MB
+is reasonable.
+Max mutation size is also configurable via max_mutation_size_in_kb setting in
+cassandra.yaml. The default is half the size commitlog_segment_size_in_mb * 1024.
+This should be positive and less than 2048.
+
+NOTE: If max_mutation_size_in_kb is set explicitly then commitlog_segment_size_in_mb must
+be set to at least twice the size of max_mutation_size_in_kb / 1024
+
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``commitlog_compression``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Compression to apply to the commit log. If omitted, the commit log
+will be written uncompressed.  LZ4, Snappy, and Deflate compressors
+are supported.
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+    #   - class_name: LZ4Compressor
+    #     parameters:
+    #         -
+
+``table``
+---------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+Compression to apply to SSTables as they flush for compressed tables.
+Note that tables without compression enabled do not respect this flag.
+
+As high ratio compressors like LZ4HC, Zstd, and Deflate can potentially
+block flushes for too long, the default is to flush with a known fast
+compressor in those cases. Options are:
+
+none : Flush without compressing blocks but while still doing checksums.
+fast : Flush with a fast compressor. If the table is already using a
+       fast compressor that compressor is used.
+
+*Default Value:* Always flush with the same compressor that the table uses. This
+
+``flush_compression``
+---------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+       was the pre 4.0 behavior.
+
+
+*Default Value:* fast
+
+``seed_provider``
+-----------------
+
+any class that implements the SeedProvider interface and has a
+constructor that takes a Map<String, String> of parameters will do.
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+        # Addresses of hosts that are deemed contact points. 
+        # Cassandra nodes use this list of hosts to find each other and learn
+        # the topology of the ring.  You must change this if you are running
+        # multiple nodes!
+        - class_name: org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleSeedProvider
+          parameters:
+              # seeds is actually a comma-delimited list of addresses.
+              # Ex: "<ip1>,<ip2>,<ip3>"
+              - seeds: "127.0.0.1:7000"
+
+``concurrent_reads``
+--------------------
+For workloads with more data than can fit in memory, Cassandra's
+bottleneck will be reads that need to fetch data from
+disk. "concurrent_reads" should be set to (16 * number_of_drives) in
+order to allow the operations to enqueue low enough in the stack
+that the OS and drives can reorder them. Same applies to
+"concurrent_counter_writes", since counter writes read the current
+values before incrementing and writing them back.
+
+On the other hand, since writes are almost never IO bound, the ideal
+number of "concurrent_writes" is dependent on the number of cores in
+your system; (8 * number_of_cores) is a good rule of thumb.
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``concurrent_writes``
+---------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``concurrent_counter_writes``
+-----------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``concurrent_materialized_view_writes``
+---------------------------------------
+
+For materialized view writes, as there is a read involved, so this should
+be limited by the less of concurrent reads or concurrent writes.
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``file_cache_size_in_mb``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Maximum memory to use for sstable chunk cache and buffer pooling.
+32MB of this are reserved for pooling buffers, the rest is used as an
+cache that holds uncompressed sstable chunks.
+Defaults to the smaller of 1/4 of heap or 512MB. This pool is allocated off-heap,
+so is in addition to the memory allocated for heap. The cache also has on-heap
+overhead which is roughly 128 bytes per chunk (i.e. 0.2% of the reserved size
+if the default 64k chunk size is used).
+Memory is only allocated when needed.
+
+*Default Value:* 512
+
+``buffer_pool_use_heap_if_exhausted``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Flag indicating whether to allocate on or off heap when the sstable buffer
+pool is exhausted, that is when it has exceeded the maximum memory
+file_cache_size_in_mb, beyond which it will not cache buffers but allocate on request.
+
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``disk_optimization_strategy``
+------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+The strategy for optimizing disk read
+Possible values are:
+ssd (for solid state disks, the default)
+spinning (for spinning disks)
+
+*Default Value:* ssd
+
+``memtable_heap_space_in_mb``
+-----------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Total permitted memory to use for memtables. Cassandra will stop
+accepting writes when the limit is exceeded until a flush completes,
+and will trigger a flush based on memtable_cleanup_threshold
+If omitted, Cassandra will set both to 1/4 the size of the heap.
+
+*Default Value:* 2048
+
+``memtable_offheap_space_in_mb``
+--------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 2048
+
+``memtable_cleanup_threshold``
+------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+memtable_cleanup_threshold is deprecated. The default calculation
+is the only reasonable choice. See the comments on  memtable_flush_writers
+for more information.
+
+Ratio of occupied non-flushing memtable size to total permitted size
+that will trigger a flush of the largest memtable. Larger mct will
+mean larger flushes and hence less compaction, but also less concurrent
+flush activity which can make it difficult to keep your disks fed
+under heavy write load.
+
+memtable_cleanup_threshold defaults to 1 / (memtable_flush_writers + 1)
+
+*Default Value:* 0.11
+
+``memtable_allocation_type``
+----------------------------
+
+Specify the way Cassandra allocates and manages memtable memory.
+Options are:
+
+heap_buffers
+  on heap nio buffers
+
+offheap_buffers
+  off heap (direct) nio buffers
+
+offheap_objects
+   off heap objects
+
+*Default Value:* heap_buffers
+
+``repair_session_space_in_mb``
+------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Limit memory usage for Merkle tree calculations during repairs. The default
+is 1/16th of the available heap. The main tradeoff is that smaller trees
+have less resolution, which can lead to over-streaming data. If you see heap
+pressure during repairs, consider lowering this, but you cannot go below
+one megabyte. If you see lots of over-streaming, consider raising
+this or using subrange repair.
+
+For more details see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-14096.
+
+
+``commitlog_total_space_in_mb``
+-------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Total space to use for commit logs on disk.
+
+If space gets above this value, Cassandra will flush every dirty CF
+in the oldest segment and remove it.  So a small total commitlog space
+will tend to cause more flush activity on less-active columnfamilies.
+
+The default value is the smaller of 8192, and 1/4 of the total space
+of the commitlog volume.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 8192
+
+``memtable_flush_writers``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+This sets the number of memtable flush writer threads per disk
+as well as the total number of memtables that can be flushed concurrently.
+These are generally a combination of compute and IO bound.
+
+Memtable flushing is more CPU efficient than memtable ingest and a single thread
+can keep up with the ingest rate of a whole server on a single fast disk
+until it temporarily becomes IO bound under contention typically with compaction.
+At that point you need multiple flush threads. At some point in the future
+it may become CPU bound all the time.
+
+You can tell if flushing is falling behind using the MemtablePool.BlockedOnAllocation
+metric which should be 0, but will be non-zero if threads are blocked waiting on flushing
+to free memory.
+
+memtable_flush_writers defaults to two for a single data directory.
+This means that two  memtables can be flushed concurrently to the single data directory.
+If you have multiple data directories the default is one memtable flushing at a time
+but the flush will use a thread per data directory so you will get two or more writers.
+
+Two is generally enough to flush on a fast disk [array] mounted as a single data directory.
+Adding more flush writers will result in smaller more frequent flushes that introduce more
+compaction overhead.
+
+There is a direct tradeoff between number of memtables that can be flushed concurrently
+and flush size and frequency. More is not better you just need enough flush writers
+to never stall waiting for flushing to free memory.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 2
+
+``cdc_total_space_in_mb``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Total space to use for change-data-capture logs on disk.
+
+If space gets above this value, Cassandra will throw WriteTimeoutException
+on Mutations including tables with CDC enabled. A CDCCompactor is responsible
+for parsing the raw CDC logs and deleting them when parsing is completed.
+
+The default value is the min of 4096 mb and 1/8th of the total space
+of the drive where cdc_raw_directory resides.
+
+*Default Value:* 4096
+
+``cdc_free_space_check_interval_ms``
+------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+When we hit our cdc_raw limit and the CDCCompactor is either running behind
+or experiencing backpressure, we check at the following interval to see if any
+new space for cdc-tracked tables has been made available. Default to 250ms
+
+*Default Value:* 250
+
+``index_summary_capacity_in_mb``
+--------------------------------
+
+A fixed memory pool size in MB for for SSTable index summaries. If left
+empty, this will default to 5% of the heap size. If the memory usage of
+all index summaries exceeds this limit, SSTables with low read rates will
+shrink their index summaries in order to meet this limit.  However, this
+is a best-effort process. In extreme conditions Cassandra may need to use
+more than this amount of memory.
+
+``index_summary_resize_interval_in_minutes``
+--------------------------------------------
+
+How frequently index summaries should be resampled.  This is done
+periodically to redistribute memory from the fixed-size pool to sstables
+proportional their recent read rates.  Setting to -1 will disable this
+process, leaving existing index summaries at their current sampling level.
+
+*Default Value:* 60
+
+``trickle_fsync``
+-----------------
+
+Whether to, when doing sequential writing, fsync() at intervals in
+order to force the operating system to flush the dirty
+buffers. Enable this to avoid sudden dirty buffer flushing from
+impacting read latencies. Almost always a good idea on SSDs; not
+necessarily on platters.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``trickle_fsync_interval_in_kb``
+--------------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 10240
+
+``storage_port``
+----------------
+
+TCP port, for commands and data
+For security reasons, you should not expose this port to the internet.  Firewall it if needed.
+
+*Default Value:* 7000
+
+``ssl_storage_port``
+--------------------
+
+SSL port, for legacy encrypted communication. This property is unused unless enabled in
+server_encryption_options (see below). As of cassandra 4.0, this property is deprecated
+as a single port can be used for either/both secure and insecure connections.
+For security reasons, you should not expose this port to the internet. Firewall it if needed.
+
+*Default Value:* 7001
+
+``listen_address``
+------------------
+
+Address or interface to bind to and tell other Cassandra nodes to connect to.
+You _must_ change this if you want multiple nodes to be able to communicate!
+
+Set listen_address OR listen_interface, not both.
+
+Leaving it blank leaves it up to InetAddress.getLocalHost(). This
+will always do the Right Thing _if_ the node is properly configured
+(hostname, name resolution, etc), and the Right Thing is to use the
+address associated with the hostname (it might not be).
+
+Setting listen_address to 0.0.0.0 is always wrong.
+
+
+*Default Value:* localhost
+
+``listen_interface``
+--------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Set listen_address OR listen_interface, not both. Interfaces must correspond
+to a single address, IP aliasing is not supported.
+
+*Default Value:* eth0
+
+``listen_interface_prefer_ipv6``
+--------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+If you choose to specify the interface by name and the interface has an ipv4 and an ipv6 address
+you can specify which should be chosen using listen_interface_prefer_ipv6. If false the first ipv4
+address will be used. If true the first ipv6 address will be used. Defaults to false preferring
+ipv4. If there is only one address it will be selected regardless of ipv4/ipv6.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``broadcast_address``
+---------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Address to broadcast to other Cassandra nodes
+Leaving this blank will set it to the same value as listen_address
+
+*Default Value:* 1.2.3.4
+
+``listen_on_broadcast_address``
+-------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+When using multiple physical network interfaces, set this
+to true to listen on broadcast_address in addition to
+the listen_address, allowing nodes to communicate in both
+interfaces.
+Ignore this property if the network configuration automatically
+routes  between the public and private networks such as EC2.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``internode_authenticator``
+---------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Internode authentication backend, implementing IInternodeAuthenticator;
+used to allow/disallow connections from peer nodes.
+
+*Default Value:* org.apache.cassandra.auth.AllowAllInternodeAuthenticator
+
+``start_native_transport``
+--------------------------
+
+Whether to start the native transport server.
+The address on which the native transport is bound is defined by rpc_address.
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``native_transport_port``
+-------------------------
+port for the CQL native transport to listen for clients on
+For security reasons, you should not expose this port to the internet.  Firewall it if needed.
+
+*Default Value:* 9042
+
+``native_transport_port_ssl``
+-----------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+Enabling native transport encryption in client_encryption_options allows you to either use
+encryption for the standard port or to use a dedicated, additional port along with the unencrypted
+standard native_transport_port.
+Enabling client encryption and keeping native_transport_port_ssl disabled will use encryption
+for native_transport_port. Setting native_transport_port_ssl to a different value
+from native_transport_port will use encryption for native_transport_port_ssl while
+keeping native_transport_port unencrypted.
+
+*Default Value:* 9142
+
+``native_transport_max_threads``
+--------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+The maximum threads for handling requests (note that idle threads are stopped
+after 30 seconds so there is not corresponding minimum setting).
+
+*Default Value:* 128
+
+``native_transport_max_frame_size_in_mb``
+-----------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+The maximum size of allowed frame. Frame (requests) larger than this will
+be rejected as invalid. The default is 256MB. If you're changing this parameter,
+you may want to adjust max_value_size_in_mb accordingly. This should be positive and less than 2048.
+
+*Default Value:* 256
+
+``native_transport_frame_block_size_in_kb``
+-------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+If checksumming is enabled as a protocol option, denotes the size of the chunks into which frame
+are bodies will be broken and checksummed.
+
+*Default Value:* 32
+
+``native_transport_max_concurrent_connections``
+-----------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+The maximum number of concurrent client connections.
+The default is -1, which means unlimited.
+
+*Default Value:* -1
+
+``native_transport_max_concurrent_connections_per_ip``
+------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+The maximum number of concurrent client connections per source ip.
+The default is -1, which means unlimited.
+
+*Default Value:* -1
+
+``native_transport_allow_older_protocols``
+------------------------------------------
+
+Controls whether Cassandra honors older, yet currently supported, protocol versions.
+The default is true, which means all supported protocols will be honored.
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``native_transport_idle_timeout_in_ms``
+---------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Controls when idle client connections are closed. Idle connections are ones that had neither reads
+nor writes for a time period.
+
+Clients may implement heartbeats by sending OPTIONS native protocol message after a timeout, which
+will reset idle timeout timer on the server side. To close idle client connections, corresponding
+values for heartbeat intervals have to be set on the client side.
+
+Idle connection timeouts are disabled by default.
+
+*Default Value:* 60000
+
+``rpc_address``
+---------------
+
+The address or interface to bind the native transport server to.
+
+Set rpc_address OR rpc_interface, not both.
+
+Leaving rpc_address blank has the same effect as on listen_address
+(i.e. it will be based on the configured hostname of the node).
+
+Note that unlike listen_address, you can specify 0.0.0.0, but you must also
+set broadcast_rpc_address to a value other than 0.0.0.0.
+
+For security reasons, you should not expose this port to the internet.  Firewall it if needed.
+
+*Default Value:* localhost
+
+``rpc_interface``
+-----------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Set rpc_address OR rpc_interface, not both. Interfaces must correspond
+to a single address, IP aliasing is not supported.
+
+*Default Value:* eth1
+
+``rpc_interface_prefer_ipv6``
+-----------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+If you choose to specify the interface by name and the interface has an ipv4 and an ipv6 address
+you can specify which should be chosen using rpc_interface_prefer_ipv6. If false the first ipv4
+address will be used. If true the first ipv6 address will be used. Defaults to false preferring
+ipv4. If there is only one address it will be selected regardless of ipv4/ipv6.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``broadcast_rpc_address``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+RPC address to broadcast to drivers and other Cassandra nodes. This cannot
+be set to 0.0.0.0. If left blank, this will be set to the value of
+rpc_address. If rpc_address is set to 0.0.0.0, broadcast_rpc_address must
+be set.
+
+*Default Value:* 1.2.3.4
+
+``rpc_keepalive``
+-----------------
+
+enable or disable keepalive on rpc/native connections
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``internode_send_buff_size_in_bytes``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Uncomment to set socket buffer size for internode communication
+Note that when setting this, the buffer size is limited by net.core.wmem_max
+and when not setting it it is defined by net.ipv4.tcp_wmem
+See also:
+/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
+/proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
+/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_wmem
+/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_wmem
+and 'man tcp'
+
+``internode_recv_buff_size_in_bytes``
+-------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Uncomment to set socket buffer size for internode communication
+Note that when setting this, the buffer size is limited by net.core.wmem_max
+and when not setting it it is defined by net.ipv4.tcp_wmem
+
+``incremental_backups``
+-----------------------
+
+Set to true to have Cassandra create a hard link to each sstable
+flushed or streamed locally in a backups/ subdirectory of the
+keyspace data.  Removing these links is the operator's
+responsibility.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``snapshot_before_compaction``
+------------------------------
+
+Whether or not to take a snapshot before each compaction.  Be
+careful using this option, since Cassandra won't clean up the
+snapshots for you.  Mostly useful if you're paranoid when there
+is a data format change.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``auto_snapshot``
+-----------------
+
+Whether or not a snapshot is taken of the data before keyspace truncation
+or dropping of column families. The STRONGLY advised default of true 
+should be used to provide data safety. If you set this flag to false, you will
+lose data on truncation or drop.
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``column_index_size_in_kb``
+---------------------------
+
+Granularity of the collation index of rows within a partition.
+Increase if your rows are large, or if you have a very large
+number of rows per partition.  The competing goals are these:
+
+- a smaller granularity means more index entries are generated
+  and looking up rows withing the partition by collation column
+  is faster
+- but, Cassandra will keep the collation index in memory for hot
+  rows (as part of the key cache), so a larger granularity means
+  you can cache more hot rows
+
+*Default Value:* 64
+
+``column_index_cache_size_in_kb``
+---------------------------------
+
+Per sstable indexed key cache entries (the collation index in memory
+mentioned above) exceeding this size will not be held on heap.
+This means that only partition information is held on heap and the
+index entries are read from disk.
+
+Note that this size refers to the size of the
+serialized index information and not the size of the partition.
+
+*Default Value:* 2
+
+``concurrent_compactors``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Number of simultaneous compactions to allow, NOT including
+validation "compactions" for anti-entropy repair.  Simultaneous
+compactions can help preserve read performance in a mixed read/write
+workload, by mitigating the tendency of small sstables to accumulate
+during a single long running compactions. The default is usually
+fine and if you experience problems with compaction running too
+slowly or too fast, you should look at
+compaction_throughput_mb_per_sec first.
+
+concurrent_compactors defaults to the smaller of (number of disks,
+number of cores), with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 8.
+
+If your data directories are backed by SSD, you should increase this
+to the number of cores.
+
+*Default Value:* 1
+
+``concurrent_validations``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Number of simultaneous repair validations to allow. Default is unbounded
+Values less than one are interpreted as unbounded (the default)
+
+*Default Value:* 0
+
+``concurrent_materialized_view_builders``
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Number of simultaneous materialized view builder tasks to allow.
+
+*Default Value:* 1
+
+``compaction_throughput_mb_per_sec``
+------------------------------------
+
+Throttles compaction to the given total throughput across the entire
+system. The faster you insert data, the faster you need to compact in
+order to keep the sstable count down, but in general, setting this to
+16 to 32 times the rate you are inserting data is more than sufficient.
+Setting this to 0 disables throttling. Note that this account for all types
+of compaction, including validation compaction.
+
+*Default Value:* 16
+
+``sstable_preemptive_open_interval_in_mb``
+------------------------------------------
+
+When compacting, the replacement sstable(s) can be opened before they
+are completely written, and used in place of the prior sstables for
+any range that has been written. This helps to smoothly transfer reads 
+between the sstables, reducing page cache churn and keeping hot rows hot
+
+*Default Value:* 50
+
+``stream_entire_sstables``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+When enabled, permits Cassandra to zero-copy stream entire eligible
+SSTables between nodes, including every component.
+This speeds up the network transfer significantly subject to
+throttling specified by stream_throughput_outbound_megabits_per_sec.
+Enabling this will reduce the GC pressure on sending and receiving node.
+When unset, the default is enabled. While this feature tries to keep the
+disks balanced, it cannot guarantee it. This feature will be automatically
+disabled if internode encryption is enabled. Currently this can be used with
+Leveled Compaction. Once CASSANDRA-14586 is fixed other compaction strategies
+will benefit as well when used in combination with CASSANDRA-6696.
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``stream_throughput_outbound_megabits_per_sec``
+-----------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Throttles all outbound streaming file transfers on this node to the
+given total throughput in Mbps. This is necessary because Cassandra does
+mostly sequential IO when streaming data during bootstrap or repair, which
+can lead to saturating the network connection and degrading rpc performance.
+When unset, the default is 200 Mbps or 25 MB/s.
+
+*Default Value:* 200
+
+``inter_dc_stream_throughput_outbound_megabits_per_sec``
+--------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Throttles all streaming file transfer between the datacenters,
+this setting allows users to throttle inter dc stream throughput in addition
+to throttling all network stream traffic as configured with
+stream_throughput_outbound_megabits_per_sec
+When unset, the default is 200 Mbps or 25 MB/s
+
+*Default Value:* 200
+
+``read_request_timeout_in_ms``
+------------------------------
+
+How long the coordinator should wait for read operations to complete.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 5000
+
+``range_request_timeout_in_ms``
+-------------------------------
+How long the coordinator should wait for seq or index scans to complete.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 10000
+
+``write_request_timeout_in_ms``
+-------------------------------
+How long the coordinator should wait for writes to complete.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 2000
+
+``counter_write_request_timeout_in_ms``
+---------------------------------------
+How long the coordinator should wait for counter writes to complete.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 5000
+
+``cas_contention_timeout_in_ms``
+--------------------------------
+How long a coordinator should continue to retry a CAS operation
+that contends with other proposals for the same row.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 1000
+
+``truncate_request_timeout_in_ms``
+----------------------------------
+How long the coordinator should wait for truncates to complete
+(This can be much longer, because unless auto_snapshot is disabled
+we need to flush first so we can snapshot before removing the data.)
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 60000
+
+``request_timeout_in_ms``
+-------------------------
+The default timeout for other, miscellaneous operations.
+Lowest acceptable value is 10 ms.
+
+*Default Value:* 10000
+
+``internode_application_send_queue_capacity_in_bytes``
+------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Defensive settings for protecting Cassandra from true network partitions.
+See (CASSANDRA-14358) for details.
+
+The amount of time to wait for internode tcp connections to establish.
+internode_tcp_connect_timeout_in_ms = 2000
+
+The amount of time unacknowledged data is allowed on a connection before we throw out the connection
+Note this is only supported on Linux + epoll, and it appears to behave oddly above a setting of 30000
+(it takes much longer than 30s) as of Linux 4.12. If you want something that high set this to 0
+which picks up the OS default and configure the net.ipv4.tcp_retries2 sysctl to be ~8.
+internode_tcp_user_timeout_in_ms = 30000
+
+The maximum continuous period a connection may be unwritable in application space
+internode_application_timeout_in_ms = 30000
+
+Global, per-endpoint and per-connection limits imposed on messages queued for delivery to other nodes
+and waiting to be processed on arrival from other nodes in the cluster.  These limits are applied to the on-wire
+size of the message being sent or received.
+
+The basic per-link limit is consumed in isolation before any endpoint or global limit is imposed.
+Each node-pair has three links: urgent, small and large.  So any given node may have a maximum of
+N*3*(internode_application_send_queue_capacity_in_bytes+internode_application_receive_queue_capacity_in_bytes)
+messages queued without any coordination between them although in practice, with token-aware routing, only RF*tokens
+nodes should need to communicate with significant bandwidth.
+
+The per-endpoint limit is imposed on all messages exceeding the per-link limit, simultaneously with the global limit,
+on all links to or from a single node in the cluster.
+The global limit is imposed on all messages exceeding the per-link limit, simultaneously with the per-endpoint limit,
+on all links to or from any node in the cluster.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 4194304                       #4MiB
+
+``internode_application_send_queue_reserve_endpoint_capacity_in_bytes``
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 134217728    #128MiB
+
+``internode_application_send_queue_reserve_global_capacity_in_bytes``
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 536870912      #512MiB
+
+``internode_application_receive_queue_capacity_in_bytes``
+---------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 4194304                    #4MiB
+
+``internode_application_receive_queue_reserve_endpoint_capacity_in_bytes``
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 134217728 #128MiB
+
+``internode_application_receive_queue_reserve_global_capacity_in_bytes``
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+*Default Value:* 536870912   #512MiB
+
+``slow_query_log_timeout_in_ms``
+--------------------------------
+
+
+How long before a node logs slow queries. Select queries that take longer than
+this timeout to execute, will generate an aggregated log message, so that slow queries
+can be identified. Set this value to zero to disable slow query logging.
+
+*Default Value:* 500
+
+``cross_node_timeout``
+----------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Enable operation timeout information exchange between nodes to accurately
+measure request timeouts.  If disabled, replicas will assume that requests
+were forwarded to them instantly by the coordinator, which means that
+under overload conditions we will waste that much extra time processing 
+already-timed-out requests.
+
+Warning: It is generally assumed that users have setup NTP on their clusters, and that clocks are modestly in sync, 
+since this is a requirement for general correctness of last write wins.
+
+*Default Value:* true
+
+``streaming_keep_alive_period_in_secs``
+---------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Set keep-alive period for streaming
+This node will send a keep-alive message periodically with this period.
+If the node does not receive a keep-alive message from the peer for
+2 keep-alive cycles the stream session times out and fail
+Default value is 300s (5 minutes), which means stalled stream
+times out in 10 minutes by default
+
+*Default Value:* 300
+
+``streaming_connections_per_host``
+----------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Limit number of connections per host for streaming
+Increase this when you notice that joins are CPU-bound rather that network
+bound (for example a few nodes with big files).
+
+*Default Value:* 1
+
+``phi_convict_threshold``
+-------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+
+phi value that must be reached for a host to be marked down.
+most users should never need to adjust this.
+
+*Default Value:* 8
+
+``endpoint_snitch``
+-------------------
+
+endpoint_snitch -- Set this to a class that implements
+IEndpointSnitch.  The snitch has two functions:
+
+- it teaches Cassandra enough about your network topology to route
+  requests efficiently
+- it allows Cassandra to spread replicas around your cluster to avoid
+  correlated failures. It does this by grouping machines into
+  "datacenters" and "racks."  Cassandra will do its best not to have
+  more than one replica on the same "rack" (which may not actually
+  be a physical location)
+
+CASSANDRA WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO SWITCH TO AN INCOMPATIBLE SNITCH
+ONCE DATA IS INSERTED INTO THE CLUSTER.  This would cause data loss.
+This means that if you start with the default SimpleSnitch, which
+locates every node on "rack1" in "datacenter1", your only options
+if you need to add another datacenter are GossipingPropertyFileSnitch
+(and the older PFS).  From there, if you want to migrate to an
+incompatible snitch like Ec2Snitch you can do it by adding new nodes
+under Ec2Snitch (which will locate them in a new "datacenter") and
+decommissioning the old ones.
+
+Out of the box, Cassandra provides:
+
+SimpleSnitch:
+   Treats Strategy order as proximity. This can improve cache
+   locality when disabling read repair.  Only appropriate for
+   single-datacenter deployments.
+
+GossipingPropertyFileSnitch
+   This should be your go-to snitch for production use.  The rack
+   and datacenter for the local node are defined in
+   cassandra-rackdc.properties and propagated to other nodes via
+   gossip.  If cassandra-topology.properties exists, it is used as a
+   fallback, allowing migration from the PropertyFileSnitch.
+
+PropertyFileSnitch:
+   Proximity is determined by rack and data center, which are
+   explicitly configured in cassandra-topology.properties.
+
+Ec2Snitch:
+   Appropriate for EC2 deployments in a single Region. Loads Region
+   and Availability Zone information from the EC2 API. The Region is
+   treated as the datacenter, and the Availability Zone as the rack.
+   Only private IPs are used, so this will not work across multiple
+   Regions.
+
+Ec2MultiRegionSnitch:
+   Uses public IPs as broadcast_address to allow cross-region
+   connectivity.  (Thus, you should set seed addresses to the public
+   IP as well.) You will need to open the storage_port or
+   ssl_storage_port on the public IP firewall.  (For intra-Region
+   traffic, Cassandra will switch to the private IP after
+   establishing a connection.)
+
+RackInferringSnitch:
+   Proximity is determined by rack and data center, which are
+   assumed to correspond to the 3rd and 2nd octet of each node's IP
+   address, respectively.  Unless this happens to match your
+   deployment conventions, this is best used as an example of
+   writing a custom Snitch class and is provided in that spirit.
+
+You can use a custom Snitch by setting this to the full class name
+of the snitch, which will be assumed to be on your classpath.
+
+*Default Value:* SimpleSnitch
+
+``dynamic_snitch_update_interval_in_ms``
+----------------------------------------
+
+controls how often to perform the more expensive part of host score
+calculation
+
+*Default Value:* 100 
+
+``dynamic_snitch_reset_interval_in_ms``
+---------------------------------------
+controls how often to reset all host scores, allowing a bad host to
+possibly recover
+
+*Default Value:* 600000
+
+``dynamic_snitch_badness_threshold``
+------------------------------------
+if set greater than zero, this will allow
+'pinning' of replicas to hosts in order to increase cache capacity.
+The badness threshold will control how much worse the pinned host has to be
+before the dynamic snitch will prefer other replicas over it.  This is
+expressed as a double which represents a percentage.  Thus, a value of
+0.2 means Cassandra would continue to prefer the static snitch values
+until the pinned host was 20% worse than the fastest.
+
+*Default Value:* 0.1
+
+``server_encryption_options``
+-----------------------------
+
+Enable or disable inter-node encryption
+JVM and netty defaults for supported SSL socket protocols and cipher suites can
+be replaced using custom encryption options. This is not recommended
+unless you have policies in place that dictate certain settings, or
+need to disable vulnerable ciphers or protocols in case the JVM cannot
+be updated.
+FIPS compliant settings can be configured at JVM level and should not
+involve changing encryption settings here:
+https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/jsse/FIPS.html
+
+*NOTE* No custom encryption options are enabled at the moment
+The available internode options are : all, none, dc, rack
+If set to dc cassandra will encrypt the traffic between the DCs
+If set to rack cassandra will encrypt the traffic between the racks
+
+The passwords used in these options must match the passwords used when generating
+the keystore and truststore.  For instructions on generating these files, see:
+http://download.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/jsse/JSSERefGuide.html#CreateKeystore
+
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+        # set to true for allowing secure incoming connections
+        enabled: false
+        # If enabled and optional are both set to true, encrypted and unencrypted connections are handled on the storage_port
+        optional: false
+        # if enabled, will open up an encrypted listening socket on ssl_storage_port. Should be used
+        # during upgrade to 4.0; otherwise, set to false.
+        enable_legacy_ssl_storage_port: false
+        # on outbound connections, determine which type of peers to securely connect to. 'enabled' must be set to true.
+        internode_encryption: none
+        keystore: conf/.keystore
+        keystore_password: cassandra
+        truststore: conf/.truststore
+        truststore_password: cassandra
+        # More advanced defaults below:
+        # protocol: TLS
+        # store_type: JKS
+        # cipher_suites: [TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA]
+        # require_client_auth: false
+        # require_endpoint_verification: false
+
+``client_encryption_options``
+-----------------------------
+enable or disable client-to-server encryption.
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+        enabled: false
+        # If enabled and optional is set to true encrypted and unencrypted connections are handled.
+        optional: false
+        keystore: conf/.keystore
+        keystore_password: cassandra
+        # require_client_auth: false
+        # Set trustore and truststore_password if require_client_auth is true
+        # truststore: conf/.truststore
+        # truststore_password: cassandra
+        # More advanced defaults below:
+        # protocol: TLS
+        # store_type: JKS
+        # cipher_suites: [TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA]
+
+``internode_compression``
+-------------------------
+internode_compression controls whether traffic between nodes is
+compressed.
+Can be:
+
+all
+  all traffic is compressed
+
+dc
+  traffic between different datacenters is compressed
+
+none
+  nothing is compressed.
+
+*Default Value:* dc
+
+``inter_dc_tcp_nodelay``
+------------------------
+
+Enable or disable tcp_nodelay for inter-dc communication.
+Disabling it will result in larger (but fewer) network packets being sent,
+reducing overhead from the TCP protocol itself, at the cost of increasing
+latency if you block for cross-datacenter responses.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``tracetype_query_ttl``
+-----------------------
+
+TTL for different trace types used during logging of the repair process.
+
+*Default Value:* 86400
+
+``tracetype_repair_ttl``
+------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 604800
+
+``enable_user_defined_functions``
+---------------------------------
+
+If unset, all GC Pauses greater than gc_log_threshold_in_ms will log at
+INFO level
+UDFs (user defined functions) are disabled by default.
+As of Cassandra 3.0 there is a sandbox in place that should prevent execution of evil code.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``enable_scripted_user_defined_functions``
+------------------------------------------
+
+Enables scripted UDFs (JavaScript UDFs).
+Java UDFs are always enabled, if enable_user_defined_functions is true.
+Enable this option to be able to use UDFs with "language javascript" or any custom JSR-223 provider.
+This option has no effect, if enable_user_defined_functions is false.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``windows_timer_interval``
+--------------------------
+
+The default Windows kernel timer and scheduling resolution is 15.6ms for power conservation.
+Lowering this value on Windows can provide much tighter latency and better throughput, however
+some virtualized environments may see a negative performance impact from changing this setting
+below their system default. The sysinternals 'clockres' tool can confirm your system's default
+setting.
+
+*Default Value:* 1
+
+``transparent_data_encryption_options``
+---------------------------------------
+
+
+Enables encrypting data at-rest (on disk). Different key providers can be plugged in, but the default reads from
+a JCE-style keystore. A single keystore can hold multiple keys, but the one referenced by
+the "key_alias" is the only key that will be used for encrypt opertaions; previously used keys
+can still (and should!) be in the keystore and will be used on decrypt operations
+(to handle the case of key rotation).
+
+It is strongly recommended to download and install Java Cryptography Extension (JCE)
+Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files for your version of the JDK.
+(current link: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce8-download-2133166.html)
+
+Currently, only the following file types are supported for transparent data encryption, although
+more are coming in future cassandra releases: commitlog, hints
+
+*Default Value (complex option)*::
+
+        enabled: false
+        chunk_length_kb: 64
+        cipher: AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding
+        key_alias: testing:1
+        # CBC IV length for AES needs to be 16 bytes (which is also the default size)
+        # iv_length: 16
+        key_provider:
+          - class_name: org.apache.cassandra.security.JKSKeyProvider
+            parameters:
+              - keystore: conf/.keystore
+                keystore_password: cassandra
+                store_type: JCEKS
+                key_password: cassandra
+
+``tombstone_warn_threshold``
+----------------------------
+
+####################
+SAFETY THRESHOLDS #
+####################
+
+When executing a scan, within or across a partition, we need to keep the
+tombstones seen in memory so we can return them to the coordinator, which
+will use them to make sure other replicas also know about the deleted rows.
+With workloads that generate a lot of tombstones, this can cause performance
+problems and even exaust the server heap.
+(http://www.datastax.com/dev/blog/cassandra-anti-patterns-queues-and-queue-like-datasets)
+Adjust the thresholds here if you understand the dangers and want to
+scan more tombstones anyway.  These thresholds may also be adjusted at runtime
+using the StorageService mbean.
+
+*Default Value:* 1000
+
+``tombstone_failure_threshold``
+-------------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* 100000
+
+``batch_size_warn_threshold_in_kb``
+-----------------------------------
+
+Log WARN on any multiple-partition batch size exceeding this value. 5kb per batch by default.
+Caution should be taken on increasing the size of this threshold as it can lead to node instability.
+
+*Default Value:* 5
+
+``batch_size_fail_threshold_in_kb``
+-----------------------------------
+
+Fail any multiple-partition batch exceeding this value. 50kb (10x warn threshold) by default.
+
+*Default Value:* 50
+
+``unlogged_batch_across_partitions_warn_threshold``
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+Log WARN on any batches not of type LOGGED than span across more partitions than this limit
+
+*Default Value:* 10
+
+``compaction_large_partition_warning_threshold_mb``
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+Log a warning when compacting partitions larger than this value
+
+*Default Value:* 100
+
+``gc_log_threshold_in_ms``
+--------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+GC Pauses greater than 200 ms will be logged at INFO level
+This threshold can be adjusted to minimize logging if necessary
+
+*Default Value:* 200
+
+``gc_warn_threshold_in_ms``
+---------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+GC Pauses greater than gc_warn_threshold_in_ms will be logged at WARN level
+Adjust the threshold based on your application throughput requirement. Setting to 0
+will deactivate the feature.
+
+*Default Value:* 1000
+
+``max_value_size_in_mb``
+------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Maximum size of any value in SSTables. Safety measure to detect SSTable corruption
+early. Any value size larger than this threshold will result into marking an SSTable
+as corrupted. This should be positive and less than 2048.
+
+*Default Value:* 256
+
+``back_pressure_enabled``
+-------------------------
+
+Back-pressure settings #
+If enabled, the coordinator will apply the back-pressure strategy specified below to each mutation
+sent to replicas, with the aim of reducing pressure on overloaded replicas.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``back_pressure_strategy``
+--------------------------
+The back-pressure strategy applied.
+The default implementation, RateBasedBackPressure, takes three arguments:
+high ratio, factor, and flow type, and uses the ratio between incoming mutation responses and outgoing mutation requests.
+If below high ratio, outgoing mutations are rate limited according to the incoming rate decreased by the given factor;
+if above high ratio, the rate limiting is increased by the given factor;
+such factor is usually best configured between 1 and 10, use larger values for a faster recovery
+at the expense of potentially more dropped mutations;
+the rate limiting is applied according to the flow type: if FAST, it's rate limited at the speed of the fastest replica,
+if SLOW at the speed of the slowest one.
+New strategies can be added. Implementors need to implement org.apache.cassandra.net.BackpressureStrategy and
+provide a public constructor accepting a Map<String, Object>.
+
+``otc_coalescing_strategy``
+---------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Coalescing Strategies #
+Coalescing multiples messages turns out to significantly boost message processing throughput (think doubling or more).
+On bare metal, the floor for packet processing throughput is high enough that many applications won't notice, but in
+virtualized environments, the point at which an application can be bound by network packet processing can be
+surprisingly low compared to the throughput of task processing that is possible inside a VM. It's not that bare metal
+doesn't benefit from coalescing messages, it's that the number of packets a bare metal network interface can process
+is sufficient for many applications such that no load starvation is experienced even without coalescing.
+There are other benefits to coalescing network messages that are harder to isolate with a simple metric like messages
+per second. By coalescing multiple tasks together, a network thread can process multiple messages for the cost of one
+trip to read from a socket, and all the task submission work can be done at the same time reducing context switching
+and increasing cache friendliness of network message processing.
+See CASSANDRA-8692 for details.
+
+Strategy to use for coalescing messages in OutboundTcpConnection.
+Can be fixed, movingaverage, timehorizon, disabled (default).
+You can also specify a subclass of CoalescingStrategies.CoalescingStrategy by name.
+
+*Default Value:* DISABLED
+
+``otc_coalescing_window_us``
+----------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+How many microseconds to wait for coalescing. For fixed strategy this is the amount of time after the first
+message is received before it will be sent with any accompanying messages. For moving average this is the
+maximum amount of time that will be waited as well as the interval at which messages must arrive on average
+for coalescing to be enabled.
+
+*Default Value:* 200
+
+``otc_coalescing_enough_coalesced_messages``
+--------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Do not try to coalesce messages if we already got that many messages. This should be more than 2 and less than 128.
+
+*Default Value:* 8
+
+``otc_backlog_expiration_interval_ms``
+--------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+How many milliseconds to wait between two expiration runs on the backlog (queue) of the OutboundTcpConnection.
+Expiration is done if messages are piling up in the backlog. Droppable messages are expired to free the memory
+taken by expired messages. The interval should be between 0 and 1000, and in most installations the default value
+will be appropriate. A smaller value could potentially expire messages slightly sooner at the expense of more CPU
+time and queue contention while iterating the backlog of messages.
+An interval of 0 disables any wait time, which is the behavior of former Cassandra versions.
+
+
+*Default Value:* 200
+
+``ideal_consistency_level``
+---------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Track a metric per keyspace indicating whether replication achieved the ideal consistency
+level for writes without timing out. This is different from the consistency level requested by
+each write which may be lower in order to facilitate availability.
+
+*Default Value:* EACH_QUORUM
+
+``automatic_sstable_upgrade``
+-----------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Automatically upgrade sstables after upgrade - if there is no ordinary compaction to do, the
+oldest non-upgraded sstable will get upgraded to the latest version
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``max_concurrent_automatic_sstable_upgrades``
+---------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+Limit the number of concurrent sstable upgrades
+
+*Default Value:* 1
+
+``audit_logging_options``
+-------------------------
+
+Audit logging - Logs every incoming CQL command request, authentication to a node. See the docs
+on audit_logging for full details about the various configuration options.
+
+``full_query_logging_options``
+------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+
+default options for full query logging - these can be overridden from command line when executing
+nodetool enablefullquerylog
+
+``corrupted_tombstone_strategy``
+--------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+validate tombstones on reads and compaction
+can be either "disabled", "warn" or "exception"
+
+*Default Value:* disabled
+
+``diagnostic_events_enabled``
+-----------------------------
+
+Diagnostic Events #
+If enabled, diagnostic events can be helpful for troubleshooting operational issues. Emitted events contain details
+on internal state and temporal relationships across events, accessible by clients via JMX.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``native_transport_flush_in_batches_legacy``
+--------------------------------------------
+*This option is commented out by default.*
+
+Use native transport TCP message coalescing. If on upgrade to 4.0 you found your throughput decreasing, and in
+particular you run an old kernel or have very fewer client connections, this option might be worth evaluating.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``repaired_data_tracking_for_range_reads_enabled``
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Enable tracking of repaired state of data during reads and comparison between replicas
+Mismatches between the repaired sets of replicas can be characterized as either confirmed
+or unconfirmed. In this context, unconfirmed indicates that the presence of pending repair
+sessions, unrepaired partition tombstones, or some other condition means that the disparity
+cannot be considered conclusive. Confirmed mismatches should be a trigger for investigation
+as they may be indicative of corruption or data loss.
+There are separate flags for range vs partition reads as single partition reads are only tracked
+when CL > 1 and a digest mismatch occurs. Currently, range queries don't use digests so if
+enabled for range reads, all range reads will include repaired data tracking. As this adds
+some overhead, operators may wish to disable it whilst still enabling it for partition reads
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``repaired_data_tracking_for_partition_reads_enabled``
+------------------------------------------------------
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``report_unconfirmed_repaired_data_mismatches``
+-----------------------------------------------
+If false, only confirmed mismatches will be reported. If true, a separate metric for unconfirmed
+mismatches will also be recorded. This is to avoid potential signal:noise issues are unconfirmed
+mismatches are less actionable than confirmed ones.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``enable_materialized_views``
+-----------------------------
+
+########################
+EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES #
+########################
+
+Enables materialized view creation on this node.
+Materialized views are considered experimental and are not recommended for production use.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``enable_sasi_indexes``
+-----------------------
+
+Enables SASI index creation on this node.
+SASI indexes are considered experimental and are not recommended for production use.
+
+*Default Value:* false
+
+``enable_transient_replication``
+--------------------------------
+
+Enables creation of transiently replicated keyspaces on this node.
+Transient replication is experimental and is not recommended for production use.
+
+*Default Value:* false
diff --git a/doc/source/configuration/index.rst b/doc/source/configuration/index.rst
index f774fda..ea34af3 100644
--- a/doc/source/configuration/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/configuration/index.rst
@@ -22,4 +22,10 @@ This section describes how to configure Apache Cassandra.
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
 
-   cassandra_config_file
+   cass_yaml_file
+   cass_rackdc_file
+   cass_env_sh_file
+   cass_topo_file
+   cass_cl_archive_file
+   cass_logback_xml_file
+   cass_jvm_options_file
diff --git a/doc/source/getting_started/configuring.rst b/doc/source/getting_started/configuring.rst
index e71eeed..adb86fa 100644
--- a/doc/source/getting_started/configuring.rst
+++ b/doc/source/getting_started/configuring.rst
@@ -17,38 +17,48 @@
 Configuring Cassandra
 ---------------------
 
-For running Cassandra on a single node, the default configuration file present at ``./conf/cassandra.yaml`` is enough, 
-you shouldn't need to change any configuration. However, when you deploy a cluster of nodes, or use clients that 
-are not on the same host, then there are some parameters that must be changed.
+The :term:`Cassandra` configuration files location varies, depending on the type of installation:
 
-The Cassandra configuration files can be found in the ``conf`` directory of tarballs. For packages, the configuration
-files will be located in ``/etc/cassandra``.
+- tarball: ``conf`` directory within the tarball install location
+- package: ``/etc/cassandra`` directory
+
+Cassandra's default configuration file, ``cassandra.yaml``, is sufficient to explore a simple single-node :term:`cluster`.
+However, anything beyond running a single-node cluster locally requires additional configuration to various Cassandra configuration files.
+Some examples that require non-default configuration are deploying a multi-node cluster or using clients that are not running on a cluster node.
+
+- ``cassandra.yaml``: the main configuration file for Cassandra
+- ``cassandra-env.sh``:  environment variables can be set
+- ``cassandra-rackdc.properties`` OR ``cassandra-topology.properties``: set rack and datacenter information for a cluster
+- ``logback.xml``: logging configuration including logging levels
+- ``jvm-*``: a number of JVM configuration files for both the server and clients
+- ``commitlog_archiving.properties``: set archiving parameters for the :term:`commitlog`
+
+Two sample configuration files can also be found in ``./conf``:
+
+- ``metrics-reporter-config-sample.yaml``: configuring what the metrics-report will collect
+- ``cqlshrc.sample``: how the CQL shell, cqlsh, can be configured
 
 Main runtime properties
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-Most of configuration in Cassandra is done via yaml properties that can be set in ``cassandra.yaml``. At a minimum you
+Configuring Cassandra is done by setting yaml properties in the ``cassandra.yaml`` file. At a minimum you
 should consider setting the following properties:
 
-- ``cluster_name``: the name of your cluster.
-- ``seeds``: a comma separated list of the IP addresses of your cluster seeds.
-- ``storage_port``: you don't necessarily need to change this but make sure that there are no firewalls blocking this
-  port.
-- ``listen_address``: the IP address of your node, this is what allows other nodes to communicate with this node so it
-  is important that you change it. Alternatively, you can set ``listen_interface`` to tell Cassandra which interface to
-  use, and consecutively which address to use. Set only one, not both.
-- ``native_transport_port``: as for storage\_port, make sure this port is not blocked by firewalls as clients will
-  communicate with Cassandra on this port.
+- ``cluster_name``: Set the name of your cluster.
+- ``seeds``: A comma separated list of the IP addresses of your cluster :term:`seed nodes`.
+- ``storage_port``: Check that you don't have the default port of 7000 blocked by a firewall.
+- ``listen_address``: The :term:`listen address` is the IP address of a node that allows it to communicate with other nodes in the cluster. Set to `localhost` by default. Alternatively, you can set ``listen_interface`` to tell Cassandra which interface to use, and consecutively which address to use. Set one property, not both.
+- ``native_transport_port``: Check that you don't have the default port of 9042 blocked by a firewall, so that clients like cqlsh can communicate with Cassandra on this port.
 
 Changing the location of directories
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 The following yaml properties control the location of directories:
 
-- ``data_file_directories``: one or more directories where data files are located.
-- ``commitlog_directory``: the directory where commitlog files are located.
-- ``saved_caches_directory``: the directory where saved caches are located.
-- ``hints_directory``: the directory where hints are located.
+- ``data_file_directories``: One or more directories where data files, like :term:`SSTables` are located.
+- ``commitlog_directory``: The directory where commitlog files are located.
+- ``saved_caches_directory``: The directory where saved caches are located.
+- ``hints_directory``: The directory where :term:`hints` are located.
 
 For performance reasons, if you have multiple disks, consider putting commitlog and data files on different disks.
 
@@ -56,12 +66,15 @@ Environment variables
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 JVM-level settings such as heap size can be set in ``cassandra-env.sh``.  You can add any additional JVM command line
-argument to the ``JVM_OPTS`` environment variable; when Cassandra starts these arguments will be passed to the JVM.
+argument to the ``JVM_OPTS`` environment variable; when Cassandra starts, these arguments will be passed to the JVM.
 
 Logging
 ^^^^^^^
 
-The logger in use is logback. You can change logging properties by editing ``logback.xml``. By default it will log at
-INFO level into a file called ``system.log`` and at debug level into a file called ``debug.log``. When running in the
-foreground, it will also log at INFO level to the console.
+The default logger is `logback`. By default it will log:
+
+- **INFO** level in ``system.log`` 
+- **DEBUG** level in ``debug.log``
+
+When running in the foreground, it will also log at INFO level to the console. You can change logging properties by editing ``logback.xml`` or by running the `nodetool setlogginglevel` command.
 
diff --git a/doc/source/glossary.rst b/doc/source/glossary.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f1d92f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/glossary.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+.. glossary::
+
+Glossary
+========
+	Cassandra
+	   Apache Cassandra is a distributed, high-available, eventually consistent NoSQL open-source database.
+	
+	cluster
+	   Two or more database instances that exchange messages using the gossip protocol.
+
+	commitlog
+	   A file to which the database appends changed data for recovery in the event of a hardware failure.
+
+	datacenter
+	   A group of related nodes that are configured together within a cluster for replication and workload segregation purposes. 
+  	   Not necessarily a separate location or physical data center. Datacenter names are case-sensitive and cannot be changed.
+
+	gossip
+	   A peer-to-peer communication protocol for exchanging location and state information between nodes.
+	
+	hint
+	   One of the three ways, in addition to read-repair and full/incremental anti-entropy repair, that Cassandra implements the eventual consistency guarantee that all updates are eventually received by all replicas.
+
+	listen address
+	   Address or interface to bind to and tell other Cassandra nodes to connect to
+
+	seed node
+	   A seed node is used to bootstrap the gossip process for new nodes joining a cluster. To learn the topology of the ring, a joining node contacts one of the nodes in the -seeds list in cassandra. yaml. The first time you bring up a node in a new cluster, only one node is the seed node.
+
+	snitch
+	   The mapping from the IP addresses of nodes to physical and virtual locations, such as racks and data centers. There are several types of snitches. 
+	   The type of snitch affects the request routing mechanism.
+
+	SSTable
+	   An SSTable provides a persistent,ordered immutable map from keys to values, where both keys and values are arbitrary byte strings.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: commits-unsubscribe@cassandra.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: commits-help@cassandra.apache.org