nodetool version¶

Displays the Cassandra version running on the node.

Synopsis¶

nodetool [connection_options] version

Description¶

nodetool version returns the release version of the Cassandra instance running on the connected node. This is essential for:

Verifying deployment consistency across nodes
Confirming successful upgrades
Troubleshooting compatibility issues
Documentation and audit purposes

Output¶

Standard Output¶

ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3

The version follows semantic versioning: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

Component	Meaning
MAJOR	Significant changes, may include breaking changes
MINOR	New features, backward compatible
PATCH	Bug fixes, backward compatible

Examples¶

Basic Usage¶

nodetool version

Output:

ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3

Cluster-Wide Version Check¶

#!/bin/bash
# Check versions across all nodes using SSH

for node in node1 node2 node3 node4 node5; do
    echo -n "$node: "
    ssh "$node" "nodetool version"
done

Output:

node1: ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3
node2: ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3
node3: ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3
node4: ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3
node5: ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3

Version Only (Scripting)¶

nodetool version | awk '{print $2}'

Output:

4.1.3

When to Use¶

Pre-Upgrade Verification¶

Document current versions before upgrading:

#!/bin/bash
# pre_upgrade_versions.sh

echo "=== Pre-Upgrade Versions ==="
for node in $(nodetool status | grep -E "^UN|^DN" | awk '{print $2}'); do
    echo "$node: $(ssh "$node" "nodetool version" | awk '{print $2}')"
done > pre_upgrade_versions.txt

Post-Upgrade Verification¶

Confirm all nodes upgraded successfully:

#!/bin/bash
# post_upgrade_verify.sh

echo "=== Post-Upgrade Verification ==="
expected="4.1.4"
for node in $(nodetool status | grep -E "^UN|^DN" | awk '{print $2}'); do
    actual=$(ssh "$node" "nodetool version" | awk '{print $2}')
    if [ "$actual" = "$expected" ]; then
        echo "$node: $actual ✓"
    else
        echo "$node: $actual ✗ (expected $expected)"
    fi
done

Mixed Version Detection¶

Identify nodes running different versions:

#!/bin/bash
# detect_mixed_versions.sh

# Collect all versions via SSH
nodetool status | grep -E "^UN|^DN" | awk '{print $2}' | while read node; do
    ssh "$node" "nodetool version"
done | sort | uniq -c

Output showing mixed versions:

      3 ReleaseVersion: 4.1.3
      2 ReleaseVersion: 4.1.2

Compatibility Checking¶

Before connecting tools or drivers:

version=$(nodetool version | awk '{print $2}')
major=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f1)

if [ "$major" -ge 4 ]; then
    echo "Cassandra 4.x features available"
else
    echo "Running Cassandra 3.x or earlier"
fi

Version Compatibility¶

Major Version Features¶

Version	Key Features
5.0	Accord, Vector Search, Unified Compaction
4.1	Guardrails, Pluggable memtable
4.0	Virtual tables, Audit logging, Full query logging
3.11	Last 3.x release, LTS
3.0	Materialized views, SASI indexes

Upgrade Path Considerations¶

From	To	Notes
3.11.x	4.0.x	Supported direct upgrade
3.0.x	4.0.x	Upgrade to 3.11.x first
4.0.x	4.1.x	Supported direct upgrade
4.1.x	5.0.x	Supported direct upgrade

Mixed Versions

Running mixed versions should only be temporary during rolling upgrades. All nodes should run the same version in steady state.

Detailed Version Information¶

For more comprehensive version and build details:

# Version only
nodetool version

# Full node information including version
nodetool info | head -10

Additional Version Details from info¶

nodetool info

Shows:

ID                     : 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
Gossip active          : true
Native Transport active: true
Load                   : 256.5 GiB
Generation No          : 1699876543
Uptime (seconds)       : 864000
Heap Memory (MB)       : 4096.00 / 8192.00
...

Version Verification Script¶

#!/bin/bash
# check_cluster_versions.sh - Verify all nodes run expected version

EXPECTED_VERSION="${1:-}"

if [ -z "$EXPECTED_VERSION" ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <expected_version>"
    echo "Example: $0 4.1.3"
    exit 1
fi

echo "Checking cluster for version: $EXPECTED_VERSION"
echo "============================================="

# Get all nodes from local nodetool status
nodes=$(nodetool status | grep -E "^UN|^DN|^UJ|^UL" | awk '{print $2}')
mismatch=0
unreachable=0

for node in $nodes; do
    actual=$(ssh "$node" "nodetool version" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $2}')

    if [ -z "$actual" ]; then
        echo "$node: UNREACHABLE"
        ((unreachable++))
    elif [ "$actual" = "$EXPECTED_VERSION" ]; then
        echo "$node: $actual ✓"
    else
        echo "$node: $actual ✗ (expected $EXPECTED_VERSION)"
        ((mismatch++))
    fi
done

echo "============================================="
echo "Summary:"
echo "  Expected version: $EXPECTED_VERSION"
echo "  Version mismatches: $mismatch"
echo "  Unreachable nodes: $unreachable"

if [ $mismatch -gt 0 ] || [ $unreachable -gt 0 ]; then
    exit 1
fi
echo "All nodes running expected version"

Monitoring Integration¶

Prometheus/Metrics¶

# Export version as metric
version=$(nodetool version | awk '{print $2}')
echo "cassandra_version{version=\"$version\"} 1"

Health Check Script¶

#!/bin/bash
# Include version in health check output (run locally on each node)

health_check() {
    local version=$(nodetool version 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $2}')
    local status=$(nodetool status 2>/dev/null | grep "$(hostname -i)" | awk '{print $1}')

    echo "{\"node\": \"$(hostname)\", \"version\": \"$version\", \"status\": \"$status\"}"
}

health_check

Troubleshooting¶

Cannot Connect to Node¶

nodetool version
# Error: Failed to connect to '127.0.0.1:7199'

Causes: - Cassandra not running - JMX not enabled - Firewall blocking JMX port

Resolution:

# Check if Cassandra is running
pgrep -f CassandraDaemon

# Check JMX port
netstat -tlnp | grep 7199

# Check logs
tail /var/log/cassandra/system.log

Version Mismatch After Upgrade¶

If nodes show different versions after upgrade:

# Verify package version
dpkg -l | grep cassandra  # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep cassandra  # RHEL/CentOS

# Verify running version
nodetool version

# If mismatch, may need restart
systemctl restart cassandra

Version in Logs¶

Cassandra logs the version on startup:

grep -i "cassandra version" /var/log/cassandra/system.log | tail -1

Version in System Tables¶

-- CQL query for version
SELECT release_version FROM system.local;

Build Information¶

For detailed build info:

# Check build info in logs
grep -i "build" /var/log/cassandra/system.log | head -5

# Or from cassandra binary
cassandra -v

Best Practices¶

Version Management Guidelines

Document versions - Maintain records of deployed versions
Verify after upgrades - Always check all nodes post-upgrade
Minimize mixed time - Complete rolling upgrades promptly
Monitor for drift - Include version in monitoring
Test compatibility - Verify driver/tool compatibility with version
Follow upgrade paths - Don't skip major versions

Command	Relationship
info	Detailed node information
describecluster	Cluster-wide information
status	Cluster status overview
upgradesstables	Upgrade SSTable format

nodetool version¶

Synopsis¶

Description¶

Output¶

Standard Output¶

Examples¶

Basic Usage¶

Cluster-Wide Version Check¶

Version Only (Scripting)¶

When to Use¶

Pre-Upgrade Verification¶

Post-Upgrade Verification¶

Mixed Version Detection¶

Compatibility Checking¶

Version Compatibility¶

Major Version Features¶

Upgrade Path Considerations¶

Detailed Version Information¶

Additional Version Details from info¶

Version Verification Script¶

Monitoring Integration¶

Prometheus/Metrics¶

Health Check Script¶

Troubleshooting¶

Cannot Connect to Node¶

Version Mismatch After Upgrade¶

Related Information¶

Version in Logs¶

Version in System Tables¶

Build Information¶

Best Practices¶

Related Commands¶