How to scale out

Scaling out typically involves adding nodes to your current cluster, but might also mean adding an entire data center. If you simply need to add nodes to an existing data center, you might have guessed that you must only follow the steps to add a node, as described in the previous section on that topic.

Adding a data center

Adding a new data center to your cluster is similar to initializing a new multinode cluster. As this is not a basic tutorial on Cassandra, we will assume you already know how to do this. Before starting your nodes in the new data center, be sure to keep in mind the following additional details:

• You must use NetworkTopologyStrategy with an appropriate snitch. If you have not already chosen a data center-aware snitch, the recommendation is to use the GossipingPropertyFileSnitch configuration for non-cloud installations, or the appropriate cloud snitch for cloud-based installations. Refer to Chapter 4, Data Centers, for more information on configuring snitches...