Setting up Cassandra Database on Windows 7

1. Download Cassandra from http://cassandra.apache.org/
2. Cassandra is build with java, so it needs java to be installed.
3. Setup environment variables;
•  JAVA_HOME : C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_11
• CASSANDRA_HOME : C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0
• CLASSPATH : %JAVA_HOME%\jre\lib; %CASSANDRA_HOME%
4. Check in CMD whether environment variables are set;
• echo %JAVA_HOME%  
5.  Copy the downloaded Cassandra files to C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0
6. Create commitlog, data, saved_caches folders inside C:\cassandra\storage 
7. Open cassandra.yml file in C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0\conf
8. Change the following;
   • data_file_directories:
       - C:\cassandra\storage\data
   • commitlog_directory: C:\cassandra\storage\commitlog
   • saved_caches_directory: C:\cassandra\storage\saved_caches
9.  Open CMD and go to C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0\bin, to start the server;
•  C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0> cassandra -f
10.  Open another CMD and go to C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0\bin, to start the client;
•  C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0> cassandra-cli.bat 
11.  If the client is running properly following output will come;

            C:\cassandra\apache-cassandra-1.2.0\bin>cassandra-cli.bat
            Starting Cassandra Client
            Connected to: "Test Cluster" on 127.0.0.1/9160
            Welcome to Cassandra CLI version 1.2.0

             Type 'help;' or '?' for help.
             Type 'quit;' or 'exit;' to quit.

             [default@unknown]


First command on client !

[default@unknown] show cluster name;  
Test Cluster


If you forget the semicolon (;) it will not communicate with the server

[default@unknown] show cluster name
...