Replace your /etc/init.d/cassandra file with the information below to get the service to correctly respond to commands.

Cassandra 2.0 Ubuntu Service Fix

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          cassandra
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $network $named $time
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $network $named $time
# Should-Start:      ntp mdadm
# Should-Stop:       ntp mdadm
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: distributed storage system for structured data
# Description:       Cassandra is a distributed (peer-to-peer) system for
#                    the management and storage of structured data.
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Eric Evans <eevans@racklabs.com>

DESC="Cassandra"
NAME=cassandra
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
CONFDIR=/etc/cassandra
JSVC=/usr/bin/jsvc
WAIT_FOR_START=10
CASSANDRA_HOME=/usr/share/cassandra
FD_LIMIT=100000

# The first existing directory is used for JAVA_HOME if needed.
JVM_SEARCH_DIRS="/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun"

[ -e /usr/share/cassandra/apache-cassandra.jar ] || exit 0
[ -e /etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml ] || exit 0
[ -e /etc/cassandra/cassandra-env.sh ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# If JAVA_HOME has not been set, try to determine it.
if [ -z "$JAVA_HOME" ]; then
    # If java is in PATH, use a JAVA_HOME that corresponds to that. This is
    # both consistent with how the upstream startup script works, and how
    # Debian works (read: the use of alternatives to set a system JVM).
    if [ -n "`which java`" ]; then
        java=`which java`
        # Dereference symlink(s)
        while true; do
            if [ -h "$java" ]; then
                java=`readlink "$java"`
                continue
            fi
            break
        done
        JAVA_HOME="`dirname $java`/../"
    # No JAVA_HOME set and no java found in PATH, search for a JVM.
    else
        for jdir in $JVM_SEARCH_DIRS; do
            if [ -x "$jdir/bin/java" ]; then
                JAVA_HOME="$jdir"
                break
            fi
        done
    fi
fi
JAVA="$JAVA_HOME/bin/java"

# Read Cassandra environment file.
. /etc/cassandra/cassandra-env.sh

if [ -z "$JVM_OPTS" ]; then
    echo "Initialization failed; \$JVM_OPTS not set!" >&2
    exit 3
fi

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#
# Function that returns the applications classpath
#
classpath()
{
    cp="$EXTRA_CLASSPATH"
    for j in /usr/share/$NAME/lib/*.jar; do
        [ "x$cp" = "x" ] && cp=$j || cp=$cp:$j
    done
    for j in /usr/share/$NAME/*.jar; do
        [ "x$cp" = "x" ] && cp=$j || cp=$cp:$j
    done

    # use JNA if installed in standard location
    [ -r /usr/share/java/jna.jar ] && cp="$cp:/usr/share/java/jna.jar"

    # Include the conf directory for purposes of log4j-server.properties, and
    # commons-daemon in support of the daemonization class.
    printf "$cp:$CONFDIR:/usr/share/java/commons-daemon.jar"
}

#
# Function that returns 0 if process is running, or nonzero if not.
#
# The nonzero value is 3 if the process is simply not running, and 1 if the
# process is not running but the pidfile exists (to match the exit codes for
# the "status" command; see LSB core spec 3.1, section 20.2)
#
CMD_PATT="-user.cassandra.+CassandraDaemon"
is_running()
{
    if [ -f $PIDFILE ]; then
        pid=`cat $PIDFILE`
        grep -Eq "$CMD_PATT" "/proc/$pid/cmdline" 2>/dev/null && return 0
        return 1
    fi
    return 3
}

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
    # Return
    #   0 if daemon has been started
    #   1 if daemon was already running
    #   2 if daemon could not be started

    ulimit -l unlimited
    ulimit -n "$FD_LIMIT"

    cassandra_home=`getent passwd cassandra | awk -F ':' '{ print $6; }'`
    heap_dump_f="$cassandra_home/java_`date +%s`.hprof"
    error_log_f="$cassandra_home/hs_err_`date +%s`.log"

    [ -e `dirname "PIDFILE"` ] || \
        install -d -ocassandra -gcassandra -m750 `dirname $PIDFILE`

    start-stop-daemon -S -c cassandra -a /usr/sbin/cassandra -q -p "$PIDFILE" -t >/dev/null || return 1

    start-stop-daemon -S -c cassandra -a /usr/sbin/cassandra -b -p "$PIDFILE" -- \
        -p "$PIDFILE" -H "$heap_dump_f" -E "$error_log_f" >/dev/null || return 2

}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
    # Return
    #   0 if daemon has been stopped
    #   1 if daemon was already stopped
    #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
    #   other if a failure occurred
    start-stop-daemon -K -p "$PIDFILE" -R TERM/30/KILL/5 >/dev/null
    RET=$?
    rm -f "$PIDFILE"
    return $RET
}

case "$1" in
  start)
    [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_start
    case "$?" in
        0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
        2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
    esac
    ;;
  stop)
    [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_stop
    case "$?" in
        0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
        2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
    esac
    ;;
  restart|force-reload)
    log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
    do_stop
    case "$?" in
      0|1)
        do_start
        case "$?" in
            0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
            1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
            *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
        esac
        ;;
      *)
        # Failed to stop
        log_end_msg 1
        ;;
    esac
    ;;
  status)
    is_running
    stat=$?
    case "$stat" in
      0) log_success_msg "$DESC is running" ;;
      1) log_failure_msg "could not access pidfile for $DESC" ;;
      *) log_success_msg "$DESC is not running" ;;
    esac
    exit "$stat"
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status}" >&2
    exit 3
    ;;
esac

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Hi Its not working in linux 7.5 any help??