diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 08b52b67..25b65f1b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,192 +1,194 @@
 swh-storage
 ===========
 
 Abstraction layer over the archive, allowing to access all stored source code
 artifacts as well as their metadata.
 
 See the
 [documentation](https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-storage/index.html)
 for more details.
 
 ## Quick start
 
 ### Dependencies
 
 Python tests for this module include tests that cannot be run without a local
 Postgresql database, so you need the Postgresql server executable on your
 machine (no need to have a running Postgresql server). They also expect a
 cassandra server.
 
 #### Debian-like host
 
 ```
 $ sudo apt install libpq-dev postgresql-11 cassandra
 ```
 
 #### Non Debian-like host
 
-The tests expects `/usr/sbin/cassandra` to exist.
+The tests expects the path to `cassandra` to either be unspecified, it is then
+looked up at `/usr/sbin/cassandra`, either specified through the environment
+variable `SWH_CASSANDRA_BIN`.
 
 Optionally, you can avoid running the cassandra tests.
 
 ```
 (swh) :~/swh-storage$ tox -- -m 'not cassandra'
 ```
 
 ### Installation
 
 It is strongly recommended to use a virtualenv. In the following, we
 consider you work in a virtualenv named `swh`. See the
 [developer setup guide](https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/developer-setup.html#developer-setup)
 for a more details on how to setup a working environment.
 
 
 You can install the package directly from
 [pypi](https://pypi.org/p/swh.storage):
 
 ```
 (swh) :~$ pip install swh.storage
 [...]
 ```
 
 Or from sources:
 
 ```
 (swh) :~$ git clone https://forge.softwareheritage.org/source/swh-storage.git
 [...]
 (swh) :~$ cd swh-storage
 (swh) :~/swh-storage$ pip install .
 [...]
 ```
 
 Then you can check it's properly installed:
 ```
 (swh) :~$ swh storage --help
 Usage: swh storage [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
 
   Software Heritage Storage tools.
 
 Options:
   -h, --help  Show this message and exit.
 
 Commands:
   rpc-serve  Software Heritage Storage RPC server.
 ```
 
 
 ## Tests
 
 The best way of running Python tests for this module is to use
 [tox](https://tox.readthedocs.io/).
 
 ```
 (swh) :~$ pip install tox
 ```
 
 ### tox
 
 From the sources directory, simply use tox:
 
 ```
 (swh) :~/swh-storage$ tox
 [...]
 ========= 315 passed, 6 skipped, 15 warnings in 40.86 seconds ==========
 _______________________________ summary ________________________________
   flake8: commands succeeded
   py3: commands succeeded
   congratulations :)
 ```
 
 ## Development
 
 The storage server can be locally started. It requires a configuration file and
 a running Postgresql database.
 
 ### Sample configuration
 
 A typical configuration `storage.yml` file is:
 
 ```
 storage:
   cls: local
   args:
     db: "dbname=softwareheritage-dev user=<user> password=<pwd>"
     objstorage:
       cls: pathslicing
       args:
         root: /tmp/swh-storage/
         slicing: 0:2/2:4/4:6
 ```
 
 which means, this uses:
 
 - a local storage instance whose db connection is to
   `softwareheritage-dev` local instance,
 
 - the objstorage uses a local objstorage instance whose:
 
   - `root` path is /tmp/swh-storage,
 
   - slicing scheme is `0:2/2:4/4:6`. This means that the identifier of
     the content (sha1) which will be stored on disk at first level
     with the first 2 hex characters, the second level with the next 2
     hex characters and the third level with the next 2 hex
     characters. And finally the complete hash file holding the raw
     content. For example: 00062f8bd330715c4f819373653d97b3cd34394c
     will be stored at 00/06/2f/00062f8bd330715c4f819373653d97b3cd34394c
 
 Note that the `root` path should exist on disk before starting the server.
 
 
 ### Starting the storage server
 
 If the python package has been properly installed (e.g. in a virtual env), you
 should be able to use the command:
 
 ```
 (swh) :~/swh-storage$ swh storage rpc-serve storage.yml
 ```
 
 This runs a local swh-storage api at 5002 port.
 
 ```
 (swh) :~/swh-storage$ curl http://127.0.0.1:5002
 <html>
 <head><title>Software Heritage storage server</title></head>
 <body>
 <p>You have reached the
 <a href="https://www.softwareheritage.org/">Software Heritage</a>
 storage server.<br />
 See its
 <a href="https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-storage/">documentation
 and API</a> for more information</p>
 ```
 
 ### And then what?
 
 In your upper layer
 ([loader-git](https://forge.softwareheritage.org/source/swh-loader-git/),
 [loader-svn](https://forge.softwareheritage.org/source/swh-loader-svn/),
 etc...), you can define a remote storage with this snippet of yaml
 configuration.
 
 ```
 storage:
   cls: remote
   args:
     url: http://localhost:5002/
 ```
 
 You could directly define a local storage with the following snippet:
 
 ```
 storage:
   cls: local
   args:
     db: service=swh-dev
     objstorage:
       cls: pathslicing
       args:
         root: /home/storage/swh-storage/
         slicing: 0:2/2:4/4:6
 ```
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
index 181af743..f6d1c9ef 100644
--- a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
@@ -1,391 +1,395 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2018-2019  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 from collections import namedtuple
 import datetime
 import os
 import signal
 import socket
 import subprocess
 import time
 
 import pytest
 
 from swh.storage import get_storage
 from swh.storage.cassandra import create_keyspace
 from swh.storage.cassandra.schema import TABLES, HASH_ALGORITHMS
 
 from swh.storage.tests.test_storage import TestStorage as _TestStorage
 from swh.storage.tests.test_storage import (
     TestStorageGeneratedData as _TestStorageGeneratedData,
 )
 
 from .storage_data import data
 
 
 CONFIG_TEMPLATE = """
 data_file_directories:
     - {data_dir}/data
 commitlog_directory: {data_dir}/commitlog
 hints_directory: {data_dir}/hints
 saved_caches_directory: {data_dir}/saved_caches
 
 commitlog_sync: periodic
 commitlog_sync_period_in_ms: 1000000
 partitioner: org.apache.cassandra.dht.Murmur3Partitioner
 endpoint_snitch: SimpleSnitch
 seed_provider:
     - class_name: org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleSeedProvider
       parameters:
           - seeds: "127.0.0.1"
 
 storage_port: {storage_port}
 native_transport_port: {native_transport_port}
 start_native_transport: true
 listen_address: 127.0.0.1
 
 enable_user_defined_functions: true
 
 # speed-up by disabling period saving to disk
 key_cache_save_period: 0
 row_cache_save_period: 0
 trickle_fsync: false
 commitlog_sync_period_in_ms: 100000
 """
 
 
 def free_port():
     sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
     sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
     port = sock.getsockname()[1]
     sock.close()
     return port
 
 
 def wait_for_peer(addr, port):
     wait_until = time.time() + 20
     while time.time() < wait_until:
         try:
             sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
             sock.connect((addr, port))
         except ConnectionRefusedError:
             time.sleep(0.1)
         else:
             sock.close()
             return True
     return False
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def cassandra_cluster(tmpdir_factory):
     cassandra_conf = tmpdir_factory.mktemp("cassandra_conf")
     cassandra_data = tmpdir_factory.mktemp("cassandra_data")
     cassandra_log = tmpdir_factory.mktemp("cassandra_log")
     native_transport_port = free_port()
     storage_port = free_port()
     jmx_port = free_port()
 
     with open(str(cassandra_conf.join("cassandra.yaml")), "w") as fd:
         fd.write(
             CONFIG_TEMPLATE.format(
                 data_dir=str(cassandra_data),
                 storage_port=storage_port,
                 native_transport_port=native_transport_port,
             )
         )
 
-    if os.environ.get("LOG_CASSANDRA"):
+    if os.environ.get("SWH_CASSANDRA_LOG"):
         stdout = stderr = None
     else:
         stdout = stderr = subprocess.DEVNULL
+
+    cassandra_bin = os.environ.get("SWH_CASSANDRA_BIN", "/usr/sbin/cassandra")
     proc = subprocess.Popen(
         [
-            "/usr/sbin/cassandra",
+            cassandra_bin,
             "-Dcassandra.config=file://%s/cassandra.yaml" % cassandra_conf,
             "-Dcassandra.logdir=%s" % cassandra_log,
             "-Dcassandra.jmx.local.port=%d" % jmx_port,
             "-Dcassandra-foreground=yes",
         ],
         start_new_session=True,
         env={
             "MAX_HEAP_SIZE": "300M",
             "HEAP_NEWSIZE": "50M",
             "JVM_OPTS": "-Xlog:gc=error:file=%s/gc.log" % cassandra_log,
         },
         stdout=stdout,
         stderr=stderr,
     )
 
     running = wait_for_peer("127.0.0.1", native_transport_port)
 
     if running:
         yield (["127.0.0.1"], native_transport_port)
 
-    if not running or os.environ.get("LOG_CASSANDRA"):
-        with open(str(cassandra_log.join("debug.log"))) as fd:
-            print(fd.read())
+    if not running or os.environ.get("SWH_CASSANDRA_LOG"):
+        debug_log_path = str(cassandra_log.join("debug.log"))
+        if os.path.exists(debug_log_path):
+            with open(debug_log_path) as fd:
+                print(fd.read())
 
     if not running:
         raise Exception("cassandra process stopped unexpectedly.")
 
     pgrp = os.getpgid(proc.pid)
     os.killpg(pgrp, signal.SIGKILL)
 
 
 class RequestHandler:
     def on_request(self, rf):
         if hasattr(rf.message, "query"):
             print()
             print(rf.message.query)
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def keyspace(cassandra_cluster):
     (hosts, port) = cassandra_cluster
     keyspace = os.urandom(10).hex()
 
     create_keyspace(hosts, keyspace, port)
 
     return keyspace
 
 
 # tests are executed using imported classes (TestStorage and
 # TestStorageGeneratedData) using overloaded swh_storage fixture
 # below
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def swh_storage_backend_config(cassandra_cluster, keyspace):
     (hosts, port) = cassandra_cluster
 
     storage_config = dict(
         cls="cassandra",
         hosts=hosts,
         port=port,
         keyspace=keyspace,
         journal_writer={"cls": "memory",},
         objstorage={"cls": "memory", "args": {},},
     )
 
     yield storage_config
 
     storage = get_storage(**storage_config)
 
     for table in TABLES:
         storage._cql_runner._session.execute('TRUNCATE TABLE "%s"' % table)
 
     storage._cql_runner._cluster.shutdown()
 
 
 @pytest.mark.cassandra
 class TestCassandraStorage(_TestStorage):
     def test_content_add_murmur3_collision(self, swh_storage, mocker):
         """The Murmur3 token is used as link from index tables to the main
         table; and non-matching contents with colliding murmur3-hash
         are filtered-out when reading the main table.
         This test checks the content methods do filter out these collision.
         """
         called = 0
 
         # always return a token
         def mock_cgtfsh(algo, hash_):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             assert algo in ("sha1", "sha1_git")
             return [123456]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner,
             "content_get_tokens_from_single_hash",
             mock_cgtfsh,
         )
 
         # For all tokens, always return data.cont
         Row = namedtuple("Row", HASH_ALGORITHMS)
 
         def mock_cgft(token):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             return [Row(**{algo: data.cont[algo] for algo in HASH_ALGORITHMS})]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner, "content_get_from_token", mock_cgft
         )
 
         actual_result = swh_storage.content_add([data.cont2])
 
         assert called == 4
         assert actual_result == {
             "content:add": 1,
             "content:add:bytes": data.cont2["length"],
         }
 
     def test_content_get_metadata_murmur3_collision(self, swh_storage, mocker):
         """The Murmur3 token is used as link from index tables to the main
         table; and non-matching contents with colliding murmur3-hash
         are filtered-out when reading the main table.
         This test checks the content methods do filter out these collision.
         """
         called = 0
 
         # always return a token
         def mock_cgtfsh(algo, hash_):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             assert algo in ("sha1", "sha1_git")
             return [123456]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner,
             "content_get_tokens_from_single_hash",
             mock_cgtfsh,
         )
 
         # For all tokens, always return data.cont and data.cont2
         cols = list(set(data.cont) - {"data"})
         Row = namedtuple("Row", cols + ["ctime"])
 
         def mock_cgft(token):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             return [
                 Row(ctime=42, **{col: cont[col] for col in cols})
                 for cont in [data.cont, data.cont2]
             ]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner, "content_get_from_token", mock_cgft
         )
 
         expected_cont = data.cont.copy()
         del expected_cont["data"]
 
         actual_result = swh_storage.content_get_metadata([data.cont["sha1"]])
 
         assert called == 2
 
         # but data.cont2 should be filtered out
         assert actual_result == {data.cont["sha1"]: [expected_cont]}
 
     def test_content_find_murmur3_collision(self, swh_storage, mocker):
         """The Murmur3 token is used as link from index tables to the main
         table; and non-matching contents with colliding murmur3-hash
         are filtered-out when reading the main table.
         This test checks the content methods do filter out these collision.
         """
         called = 0
 
         # always return a token
         def mock_cgtfsh(algo, hash_):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             assert algo in ("sha1", "sha1_git")
             return [123456]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner,
             "content_get_tokens_from_single_hash",
             mock_cgtfsh,
         )
 
         # For all tokens, always return data.cont and data.cont2
         cols = list(set(data.cont) - {"data"})
         Row = namedtuple("Row", cols + ["ctime"])
 
         def mock_cgft(token):
             nonlocal called
             called += 1
             return [
                 Row(ctime=datetime.datetime.now(), **{col: cont[col] for col in cols})
                 for cont in [data.cont, data.cont2]
             ]
 
         mocker.patch.object(
             swh_storage.storage._cql_runner, "content_get_from_token", mock_cgft
         )
 
         expected_cont = data.cont.copy()
         del expected_cont["data"]
 
         actual_result = swh_storage.content_find({"sha1": data.cont["sha1"]})
 
         assert called == 2
 
         # but data.cont2 should be filtered out
         del actual_result[0]["ctime"]
         assert actual_result == [expected_cont]
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("content_update is not yet implemented for Cassandra")
     def test_content_update(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip(
         'The "person" table of the pgsql is a legacy thing, and not '
         "supported by the cassandra backend."
     )
     def test_person_fullname_unicity(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip(
         'The "person" table of the pgsql is a legacy thing, and not '
         "supported by the cassandra backend."
     )
     def test_person_get(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_count(self):
         pass
 
 
 @pytest.mark.cassandra
 class TestCassandraStorageGeneratedData(_TestStorageGeneratedData):
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_count(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_get_range(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_get_range_from_zero(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range_limit(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range_no_limit(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range_empty(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range_limit_none(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_generate_content_get_range_full(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_count_with_visit_no_visits(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_count_with_visit_with_visits_and_snapshot(self):
         pass
 
     @pytest.mark.skip("Not supported by Cassandra")
     def test_origin_count_with_visit_with_visits_no_snapshot(self):
         pass
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index e82bc0ab..cf5cbabd 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,41 +1,42 @@
 [tox]
 envlist=black,flake8,mypy,py3
 
 [testenv]
 extras =
   testing
 deps =
   pytest-cov
   dev: ipdb
 passenv =
-  LOG_CASSANDRA
+  SWH_CASSANDRA_BIN
+  SWH_CASSANDRA_LOG
 commands =
   pytest \
     !slow: --hypothesis-profile=fast \
     slow:  --hypothesis-profile=slow \
          --cov={envsitepackagesdir}/swh/storage \
          {envsitepackagesdir}/swh/storage \
          --doctest-modules \
          --cov-branch {posargs}
 
 [testenv:black]
 skip_install = true
 deps =
   black
 commands =
   {envpython} -m black --check swh
 
 [testenv:flake8]
 skip_install = true
 deps =
   flake8
 commands =
   {envpython} -m flake8
 
 [testenv:mypy]
 extras =
   testing
 deps =
   mypy
 commands =
   mypy swh