This section describes the basics for planning, installing, configuring, and running a MySQL Cluster. Whereas the examples in Section 17.3, "Configuration of MySQL Cluster NDB 7.3" provide more in-depth information on a variety of clustering options and configuration, the result of following the guidelines and procedures outlined here should be a usable MySQL Cluster which meets the minimum requirements for availability and safeguarding of data.

For information about upgrading or downgrading a MySQL Cluster between release versions, see Section 17.2.8, "Upgrading and Downgrading MySQL Cluster NDB 7.3".

This section covers hardware and software requirements; networking issues; installation of MySQL Cluster; basic configuration issues; starting, stopping, and restarting the cluster; loading of a sample database; and performing queries.

MySQL Cluster NDB 7.3 provides a MySQL Cluster Auto-Installer, a web-based graphical installer, as part of the MySQL Cluster distribution. The Auto-Installer can be used to perform basic installation and setup of a MySQL Cluster on one (for testing) or more host computers. See Section 17.2.1, "The MySQL Cluster Auto-Installer", for more information.

Assumptions. The following sections make a number of assumptions regarding the cluster's physical and network configuration. These assumptions are discussed in the next few paragraphs.

Cluster nodes and host computers. The cluster consists of four nodes, each on a separate host computer, and each with a fixed network address on a typical Ethernet network as shown here:

This may be made clearer by the following diagram:

Network addressing. In the interest of simplicity (and reliability), this How-To uses only numeric IP addresses. However, if DNS resolution is available on your network, it is possible to use host names in lieu of IP addresses in configuring Cluster. Alternatively, you can use the hosts file (typically /etc/hosts for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows, or your operating system's equivalent) for providing a means to do host lookup if such is available.

Potential hosts file issues. A common problem when trying to use host names for Cluster nodes arises because of the way in which some operating systems (including some Linux distributions) set up the system's own host name in the /etc/hosts during installation. Consider two machines with the host names ndb1 and ndb2, both in the cluster network domain. Red Hat Linux (including some derivatives such as CentOS and Fedora) places the following entries in these machines' /etc/hosts files:

#  ndb1 /etc/hosts:127.0.0.1   ndb1.cluster ndb1 localhost.localdomain localhost

#  ndb2 /etc/hosts:127.0.0.1   ndb2.cluster ndb2 localhost.localdomain localhost

SUSE Linux (including OpenSUSE) places these entries in the machines' /etc/hosts files:

#  ndb1 /etc/hosts:127.0.0.1       localhost127.0.0.2       ndb1.cluster ndb1

#  ndb2 /etc/hosts:127.0.0.1       localhost127.0.0.2       ndb2.cluster ndb2

In both instances, ndb1 routes ndb1.cluster to a loopback IP address, but gets a public IP address from DNS for ndb2.cluster, while ndb2 routes ndb2.cluster to a loopback address and obtains a public address for ndb1.cluster. The result is that each data node connects to the management server, but cannot tell when any other data nodes have connected, and so the data nodes appear to hang while starting.

Host computer type. Each host computer in our installation scenario is an Intel-based desktop PC running a supported operating system installed to disk in a standard configuration, and running no unnecessary services. The core operating system with standard TCP/IP networking capabilities should be sufficient. Also for the sake of simplicity, we also assume that the file systems on all hosts are set up identically. In the event that they are not, you should adapt these instructions accordingly.

Network hardware. Standard 100 Mbps or 1 gigabit Ethernet cards are installed on each machine, along with the proper drivers for the cards, and that all four hosts are connected through a standard-issue Ethernet networking appliance such as a switch. (All machines should use network cards with the same throughout. That is, all four machines in the cluster should have 100 Mbps cards or all four machines should have 1 Gbps cards.) MySQL Cluster works in a 100 Mbps network; however, gigabit Ethernet provides better performance.

Sample data. We use the world database which is available for download from the MySQL Web site (see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/index-other.html). We assume that each machine has sufficient memory for running the operating system, required MySQL Cluster processes, and (on the data nodes) storing the database.

For general information about installing MySQL, see Chapter 2, Installing and Upgrading MySQL. For information about installation of MySQL Cluster on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, see Section 17.2.2, "Installation of MySQL Cluster on Linux". For information about installation of MySQL Cluster on Windows operating systems, see Section 17.2.3, "Installing MySQL Cluster on Windows".

For general information about MySQL Cluster hardware, software, and networking requirements, see Section 17.1.3, "MySQL Cluster Hardware, Software, and Networking Requirements".