Force cassandra node to join ring after bootstrap failures

commands.sh

#!/bin/bash
# In case a join keeps failing to join the ring but you really want to force it (use with caution), you can do the following

# 1: Shut down node
service cassandra stop

# 2: Backup data
mkdir -p /backup/cassandra/data/system/local
cp -r /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/local/* /backup/cassandra/data/system/local

# 3: Export the local schema as ss table
# Replace <NUMBER_HERE> with an integer value containing the IN_PROGRESS value of the status
# If you have multiple tables the value is likely in the first one with the lowest number
cd /var/lib/cassandra/data/system/local/
sstable2json system-local-jb-<NUMBER_HERE>-Data.db > system-local-jb-<NUMBER_HERE>-Data.json

# 4: Now open the file with your favorite editor and modify the IN_PROGRESS to COMPLETED

# 5: Convert the JSON table into an SS table
rm system-local-jb-<NUMBER_HERE>-Data.db 
json2sstable -s -K system -c system-local-jb-<NUMBER_HERE>-Data.json > system-local-jb-<NUMBER_HERE>-Data.db

# 6: Fix permissions
chown cassandra:cassandra *

# 7: Start cassandra
service cassandra start

# In case this still doesn't work, repeat all steps about, but also remove the contents of /var/lib/cassandra/commitlog