Here is the script, simply copy the content into /etc/init.d/cassandra and make it executable

#!/bin/bash
#
# Author: Brooke Bryan
#
#
# Description:	Cassandra Server.
# Processname: cassandra
# Config: /usr/local/share/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

# Source networking configuration.
. /etc/sysconfig/network

prog="Cassandra"
pidfile="/var/run/cassandra.pid"
progbin="/usr/local/share/cassandra/bin"
lock="/var/lock/subsys/cassandra"
logfile="/var/log/cassandra/service.log"

WriteLog()
{
    echo "`date`: $@" >> $logfile
}

LogInfo()
{
    echo "$@"
    WriteLog "INFO: $@"
}

LogWarning()
{
    echo "$@"
    WriteLog "WARNING: $@"
}

start()
{
    if [ -f $pidfile ] && checkpid `cat $pidfile`; then
        action "$prog is already running." /bin/false
        exit 0
    fi

    WriteLog "Starting $prog"

    daemon "$progbin/cassandra" -p $pidfile >> $logfile 2>&1
    usleep 500000
    RETVAL=$?
    if [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ]; then
        touch "$lock"
        action "Starting $prog" /bin/true
    else
        action "Starting $prog" /bin/false
    fi

    WriteLog "Started $prog"

    return $RETVAL
}

stop()
{
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost disablethrift
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost disablegossip
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost drain
    WriteLog "Stopping $prog"
    CASSIEPID=`cat "$pidfile"  2>/dev/null `
    if [ -n "$CASSIEPID" ]; then
        /bin/kill "$CASSIEPID" >/dev/null 2>&1
        ret=$?
        if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then
            STOPTIMEOUT=60
            while [ $STOPTIMEOUT -gt 0 ]; do
                /bin/kill -0 "$CASSIEPID" >/dev/null 2>&1 || break
                sleep 1
                let STOPTIMEOUT=${STOPTIMEOUT}-1
            done
            if [ $STOPTIMEOUT -eq 0 ]; then
                echo "Timeout error occurred trying to stop $prog Daemon"
                ret=1
                action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/false
                LogInfo "Timeout error occurred trying to stop $prog Daemon pid($CASSIEPID)"
            else
                rm -f "$lock"
                action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/true
                WriteLog "INFO: $prog Daemon Stopped pid($CASSIEPID)"
            fi
        else
            action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/false
            WriteLog "WARNING: $prog Daemon Stop Failed pid($CASSIEPID)"
        fi
    else
        ret=1
        action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/false
    fi
    return $ret
}

restart()
{
    LogInfo "Restart Initiated"
    stop
    start
}

ring()
{
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost ring
}

info()
{
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost info
}

netstats()
{
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost netstats
}

repair()
{
    LogInfo "Starting Repair"
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost repair
    LogInfo "Completed Repair"
}

cleanup()
{
    LogInfo "Starting Cleanup"
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost cleanup
    LogInfo "Completed Cleanup"
}

version()
{
    $progbin/nodetool -h localhost version
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
  start)
    start
    ;;
  stop)
    stop
    ;;
  status)
    status cassandra
    ;;
  restart)
    restart
    ;;
  ring)
    ring
    ;;
  info)
    info
    ;;
  netstats)
    netstats
    ;;
  repair)
    repair
    ;;
  cleanup)
    cleanup
    ;;
  version)
    version
    ;;
  *)
    echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|ring|info|netstats|repair|cleanup|version}"
    exit 1
esac

exit $?

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First you need to get all the required modules from yum, to prepare the server.

yum -y install gcc-c++ make cmake python-devel bzip2-devel zlib-devel
yum -y install log4cpp-devel git git-core cronolog google-perftools-devel
yum -y install readline-devel ncurses-devel libtool autoconf expat
yum -y install libevent-devel flex byacc expat-devel

# Perl Modules for Thrift Install
yum -y install perl-Bit-Vector perl-Class-Accessor

# Java Install
yum -y remove jpackage-utils
wget http://dev.centos.org/centos/5/testing/x86_64/RPMS/jpackage-utils-1.7.5-1jpp.1.el5.centos.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh jpackage-utils-1.7.5-1jpp.1.el5.centos.noarch.rpm
yum -y install xml-commons-apis xml-commons-apis-javadoc ant
yum -y install java
yum -y install log4j jakarta-commons-logging jakarta-commons-lang
yum -y install java-1.4.2-gcj-compat java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-devel

Next you will want to download the latest version of cassandra available at http://cassandra.apache.org/download/

I have chosen to install cassandra in the following location: /usr/local/share/cassandra

wget http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/rsync.apache.org//cassandra/0.8.4/apache-cassandra-0.8.4-bin.tar.gz
tar -xvf apache-cassandra-0.8.4-bin.tar.gz
mkdir /usr/local/share/cassandra/
cp ~/apache-cassandra-0.8.4/* /usr/local/share/cassandra -R -f;
cd /usr/local/share/cassandra

Installing JNA is done as follows:

wget “https://github.com/twall/jna/raw/3.3.0/jnalib/dist/jna.jar” –no-check-certificate -O /usr/local/share/cassandra/lib/jna.jar
chmod 755 /usr/local/share/cassandra/lib/jna.jar

MX4J is installed with:

wget “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mx4j/MX4J%20Binary/3.0.2/mx4j-3.0.2.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fmx4j%2Ffiles%2FMX4J%2520Binary%2F3.0.2%2F&ts=1314263784&use_mirror=freefr”
tar zxvf mx4j-3.0.2.tar.gz mx4j-3.0.2/lib/mx4j-tools.jar
cp mx4j-3.0.2/lib/mx4j-tools.jar /usr/local/share/cassandra/lib/
chmod 755 /usr/local/share/cassandra/lib/mx4j-tools.jar

Switching to Sun Java
You will need to download the latest JDK from SUN, and can switch from OpenJDK with the following

rpm /root/jdk-7-linux-x64.rpm -ivh
/usr/sbin/alternatives –install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jdk1.7.0/bin/java 2 && /usr/sbin/alternatives –config java

Just enter the number of the new JDK in the selection above, and hit enter (on a fresh install, its usually #3)

Finishing up.
After you have everything above done, you should just be able to edit the config file /usr/local/share/cassandra/conf/cassandra.yaml, and then run cassandra /usr/local/share/cassandra/bin/cassandra

If you are running a cluster setup with cassandra, you can use a token calculator such as http://blog.milford.io/cassandra-token-calculator/ which will evenly spread the data across your nodes.

Also be sure to set your commit log and data directory on different disks.

The best option I have found is having the commitlog and OS on an SSD drive, and the data stored on a Raid 0 disk array with SAS drives. You want to make sure you have at least double the space available on disk as what you will be consuming with your nodes.

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Much to my suprise, there was a logical way to solve the cube based on a few algorithms. Easy when you know how So, the youtube video I found was by pogobat and made the cube easy to understand. You can see the video here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQIoPyfQzM. The algorithms for the cube are as follows:

1. Fi U Li Ui
2. Ri Di R D
3. U R Ui Ri Ui Fi U F
4. Ui Li U L U F Ui Fi
5. F R U Ri Ui Fi
6. R U Ri U R U U Ri
7. U R Ui Li U Ri Ui L
8. Ri Di R D

Ok, the letters above dont mean very much unless you can watched the video. You always need to hold the cube in the same position for any of this to work

F = The face closest to you (Front)
U = The face on the top (Up)
L = The face in your left hand (Left)
R = The face in your right hand (Right)
D = The face on the bottom of the cube (Down)

There is also i. This stands for ‘inverted’ or ‘counter clockwise’

If you see Ri, you should turn the right face counter clockwise. Should you see R you should turn the right face clockwise. Be sure to only move that one face and not rotate the cube, else it will all end in disaster

Once I got to grips with the algorithms, everything slotted into place and I could complete the cube serveral times in one night. Its a very impressive skill to learn.

Get yourself onto youtube.com and watch the video linked above and learn the cube for yourself

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Everyone in the office is able to keep an eye on all of our servers and someone can quickly jump onto fix any problems that come up.  One of our servers was seen to be down earlier so I took a photo, the server was back up and running within 2 minutes of going down thanks to the quick response system we have setup at Just Host so all is good .

Why not get your website or servers into JustUptime.com and make life easy for yourself.  Automate the way you monitor your uptime and get the reports you need to keep your eye on the ball.

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Just Uptime was the first product to have the JDIFF, and I thought an iPhone site to check the status of all your checks within the system would be pretty cool.  Any Just Uptime user is able to login to the new service which can be found at http://status.justuptime.com, this page can be viewed from any mobile device as well as your web browser, however, it was designed for the iPhone.

The service puts all checks found to be down at the top of the list making it easier for you to spot any problems as and when they come up and the page auto refreshes every 60 seconds.

I took some screenshots of the system so you can see it in action just below.

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The picture above is a photo of the whiteboard in my office with a list of all our current JDI projects.  The 2 lines with something missing are simply new projects which i decided to hide until we announce them

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