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nodetool setmaxhintwindow

Sets the maximum hint window in milliseconds.


Synopsis

nodetool [connection_options] setmaxhintwindow <hint_window_in_ms>

Description

nodetool setmaxhintwindow configures the maximum duration for which hints will be stored for an unavailable node. Hints for nodes down longer than this window are not stored.


Arguments

Argument Description
hint_window_in_ms Maximum hint window in milliseconds

Examples

Set to 6 Hours

nodetool setmaxhintwindow 21600000

Set to 1 Hour

nodetool setmaxhintwindow 3600000

Verify Change

nodetool setmaxhintwindow 21600000
nodetool getmaxhintwindow

Common Values

Duration Milliseconds
1 hour 3600000
3 hours (default) 10800000
6 hours 21600000
12 hours 43200000
24 hours 86400000

When to Use

Longer Expected Outages

# Increase for maintenance windows
nodetool setmaxhintwindow 43200000  # 12 hours

Reduce Disk Usage

# Shorter window = less hint storage
nodetool setmaxhintwindow 3600000  # 1 hour

Best Practices

Hint Window Guidelines

  1. Balance - Longer window = more disk, better coverage
  2. Consider SLAs - Set based on recovery expectations
  3. Cluster-wide - Apply same setting on all nodes
  4. Persist in config - Update cassandra.yaml for permanence

Command Relationship
getmaxhintwindow View current setting
listpendinghints View pending hints