title: Optimal JVM settings for Cassandra
body: <p>I have a 4 node cluster with 16 core CPU and 100 GB RAM on each box (2 nodes on each rack). </p>
  
  <p>As of now, all are running with default JVM settings of Cassandra (v2.1.4). With this setting, each node uses 13GB RAM and 30% CPU. It is a write heavy cluster with occasional deletes or updates. </p>
  
  <p>Do I need to tune the JVM settings of Cassandra to utilize more memory? What all things should I be looking at to make appropriate settings?</p>