cassandra-data directory you created earlier: $ sed -i -e "s,log4j.appender.R.File=/var/log/cassandra/system.log, \ log4j.appender.R.File=$HOME/datastax/cassandra-data/system.log," \ $CASSANDRA_HO /var/log/cassandra/system.log; the location of this log file can be changed as well - just update the log4j.appender.R.File path to where you would like the log file to exist, and ensure that the directory exists similar to the log4j-server.properties configuration above except without the initial log4j.logger appender assignment. The level must be one of the standard logging levels in use by Log4j. In keeping with