nodetool status

Displays the status of all nodes in the cluster, including their state, load, token ownership, and datacenter/rack placement.

---

Synopsis

nodetool [connection_options] status [keyspace]

See connection options for connection options.

Description

nodetool status provides a quick overview of cluster health by showing each node's:

• State (Up/Down, Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving)
• Load (data size on disk)
• Token ownership percentage
• Host ID (unique identifier)
• IP address
• Rack placement

This is typically the first command run when checking cluster health.

---

Arguments

Argument	Description
keyspace	Optional. Show ownership percentages for specific keyspace

Options

Option	Description
-r, --resolve-ip	Show hostnames instead of IP addresses
-s, --sort	Sort output by a column (address, state, load, owns, host_id)
-o, --order	Order direction: asc or desc (default: asc)

---

Output Format

Datacenter: dc1
===============
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address        Load       Tokens  Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  16    33.3%             a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890  rack1
UN  192.168.1.102  248.87 GiB  16    33.4%             b2c3d4e5-f6a7-8901-bcde-f12345678901  rack2
UN  192.168.1.103  251.44 GiB  16    33.3%             c3d4e5f6-a7b8-9012-cdef-123456789012  rack3

Status Codes

Code	Meaning	Description
U	Up	Node is responding to gossip
D	Down	Node is not responding

State Codes

Code	Meaning	Description
N	Normal	Node is operating normally
L	Leaving	Node is being decommissioned
J	Joining	Node is bootstrapping
M	Moving	Node is moving to new token

Status Combinations

Status	Meaning	Action
UN	Up and Normal	Healthy state
DN	Down and Normal	Node is down, investigate
UL	Up and Leaving	Decommission in progress
UJ	Up and Joining	Bootstrap in progress
UM	Up and Moving	Token move in progress

---

Examples

Basic Usage

nodetool status

Displays status for all keyspaces.

Keyspace-Specific Ownership

nodetool status my_keyspace

Shows token ownership percentages calculated for the specified keyspace's replication factor.

Ownership Calculation

Without a keyspace, ownership is calculated assuming RF=1. With a keyspace, ownership reflects effective ownership based on that keyspace's replication strategy.

Scripting with Status

Check if all nodes are up:

nodetool status | grep -c "^UN"

Check for any down nodes:

nodetool status | grep "^DN"

---

Output Fields

Field	Description
Address	IP address of the node
Load	Total data size on the node (all keyspaces)
Tokens	Number of tokens (vnodes) assigned
Owns	Percentage of data this node is responsible for
Host ID	UUID uniquely identifying this node
Rack	Rack name from snitch configuration

---

Interpreting Results

Healthy Cluster

Datacenter: dc1
===============
UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack1
UN  192.168.1.102  248.87 GiB  16    33.4%  ...  rack2
UN  192.168.1.103  251.44 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack3

• All nodes UN (Up/Normal)
• Load relatively balanced (within ~5% variation)
• Ownership evenly distributed

Unbalanced Load

UN  192.168.1.101  512.00 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack1
UN  192.168.1.102  128.00 GiB  16    33.4%  ...  rack2
UN  192.168.1.103  256.00 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack3

Load Imbalance

Significant load variation (>20%) with similar ownership percentages may indicate:

• Large partitions on some nodes
• Uneven data distribution from hot partition keys
• Different compaction states across nodes

Node Down

UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack1
DN  192.168.1.102  248.87 GiB  16    33.4%  ...  rack2
UN  192.168.1.103  251.44 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack3

Node Down

A DN status requires immediate investigation:

1. Check if Cassandra process is running on the node
2. Check system logs (/var/log/cassandra/system.log)
3. Verify network connectivity
4. Check disk space and I/O errors

Bootstrap in Progress

UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  16    25.0%  ...  rack1
UN  192.168.1.102  248.87 GiB  16    25.0%  ...  rack2
UN  192.168.1.103  251.44 GiB  16    25.0%  ...  rack3
UJ  192.168.1.104  64.00 GiB   16    25.0%  ...  rack1

The UJ node is joining the cluster and streaming data.

---

Common Issues

"Owns" Shows Question Marks

UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  256    ?      ...  rack1

Unknown Ownership

Question marks appear when:

• No keyspace is specified and effective ownership cannot be calculated
• Schema disagreement exists between nodes

Specify a keyspace: nodetool status my_keyspace

Load Shows Zero

UN  192.168.1.101  0 bytes     256    33.3%  ...  rack1

Possible causes:

• Node just started and hasn't loaded data
• All data was dropped
• Metrics not yet available

Inconsistent Token Counts

UN  192.168.1.101  256.12 GiB  16    33.3%  ...  rack1
UN  192.168.1.102  248.87 GiB   8    16.7%  ...  rack2

Token Count Mismatch

Different token counts indicate nodes were configured with different num_tokens values. This causes uneven data distribution.

---

When to Use

Scenario	Use Case
Health check	First command for any cluster investigation
Before maintenance	Verify all nodes are UN before operations
After adding nodes	Confirm new node reaches UN state
Capacity planning	Review load distribution
Incident response	Quick cluster state assessment

---

When NOT to Use

Limitations

nodetool status shows point-in-time state. For:

• Continuous monitoring: Use metrics (Prometheus, AxonOps)
• Detailed diagnostics: Use nodetool info, tpstats, tablestats
• Historical analysis: Use logging and metrics collection

---

Related Commands

Command	Relationship
info	Detailed information for a single node
ring	Token ring details
gossipinfo	Gossip state details
describecluster	Cluster metadata
tpstats	Thread pool statistics