Apache Cassandra - How to remove nodes from a live cluster

If you have decided to remove a node from a live cluster you can follow one of the two options based on which one suits you better.

Nodetool is available in the cassandra home directory

{CASSANDRA_HOME}/bin/nodetool decommission
{CASSANDRA_HOME}/bin/nodetool removetoken

Removing nodes entirely

* Decommission :

You can take a node out of the cluster with nodetool decommission to a live node. This will assign the ranges the old node was responsible for to other nodes, and replicate the appropriate data there. If decommission is used, the data will stream from the decommissioned node. 

No data is removed automatically from the node being decommissioned, so if you want to put the node back into service at a different token on the ring, it should be removed manually.

* Remove Token :

You can execute nodetool removetoken on any available machine to remove a dead one. This will assign the token range the old node was applicable to other nodes. If removetoken is used, the data will stream from the remaining replicas.