Instead of just getting a value for an attribute, you can perform an operation even without logging in to the server. This is the reason why we would recommend using JMX authentication/SSL, as the JMX port will be wide open. For example, you can invoke the stopGossiping operation from org.apache.Cassandra.db | StorageService | Operations | stopGossiping, which stops gossiping to other nodes.
Which is your most-used operation for Cassandra?
Figure 7.4: Performing the stopGossiping operation through JConsole
