To support MySQL Cluster, you will need to update my.cnf as shown in the following example. Note that the options shown here should not be confused with those that are used in config.ini files. You may also specify these parameters on the command line when invoking the executables.

# my.cnf
# example additions to my.cnf for MySQL Cluster
# (valid in MySQL 5.1)

# enable ndbcluster storage engine, and provide connectstring for
# management server host (default port is 1186)
[mysqld]
ndbcluster
ndb-connectstring=ndb_mgmd.mysql.com


# provide connectstring for management server host (default port: 1186)
[ndbd]
connect-string=ndb_mgmd.mysql.com

# provide connectstring for management server host (default port: 1186)
[ndb_mgm]
connect-string=ndb_mgmd.mysql.com

# provide location of cluster configuration file
[ndb_mgmd]
config-file=/etc/config.ini

(For more information on connectstrings, see Section 15.4.4.2, “The Cluster Connectstring”.)

# my.cnf
# example additions to my.cnf for MySQL Cluster
# (will work on all versions)

# enable ndbcluster storage engine, and provide connectstring for management
# server host to the default port 1186
[mysqld]
ndbcluster
ndb-connectstring=ndb_mgmd.mysql.com:1186

Important: Once you have started a mysqld process with the ndbcluster and ndb-connectstring parameters in the [MYSQLD] in the my.cnf file as shown previously, you cannot execute any CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statements without having actually started the cluster. Otherwise, these statements will fail with an error. This is by design.

You may also use a separate [mysql_cluster] section in the cluster my.cnf file for settings to be read and used by all executables:

# cluster-specific settings
[mysql_cluster]
ndb-connectstring=ndb_mgmd.mysql.com:1186

For additional NDB variables that can be set in the my.cnf file, see Section 5.2.3, “System Variables”.

The configuration file is named config.ini by default. It is read by ndb_mgmd at startup and can be placed anywhere. Its location and name are specified by using --config-file=path_name on the ndb_mgmd command line. If the configuration file is not specified, ndb_mgmd by default tries to read a file named config.ini located in the current working directory.

Currently, the configuration file is in INI format, which consists of sections preceded by section headings (surrounded by square brackets), followed by the appropriate parameter names and values. One deviation from the standard INI format is that the parameter name and value can be separated by a colon (‘:’) as well as the equals sign (‘=’). Another deviation is that sections are not uniquely identified by section name. Instead, unique sections (such as two different nodes of the same type) are identified by a unique ID specified as a parameter within the section.

Default values are defined for most parameters, and can also be specified in config.ini. To create a default value section, simply add the word DEFAULT to the section name. For example, an [NDBD] section contains parameters that apply to a particular data node, whereas an [NDBD DEFAULT] section contains parameters that apply to all data nodes. Suppose that all data nodes should use the same data memory size. To configure them all, create an [NDBD DEFAULT] section that contains a DataMemory line to specify the data memory size.

At a minimum, the configuration file must define the computers and nodes involved in the cluster and on which computers these nodes are located. An example of a simple configuration file for a cluster consisting of one management server, two data nodes and two MySQL servers is shown here:

# file "config.ini" - 2 data nodes and 2 SQL nodes
# This file is placed in the startup directory of ndb_mgmd (the
# management server)
# The first MySQL Server can be started from any host. The second
# can be started only on the host mysqld_5.mysql.com

[NDBD DEFAULT]
NoOfReplicas= 2
DataDir= /var/lib/mysql-cluster

[NDB_MGMD]
Hostname= ndb_mgmd.mysql.com
DataDir= /var/lib/mysql-cluster

[NDBD]
HostName= ndbd_2.mysql.com

[NDBD]
HostName= ndbd_3.mysql.com

[MYSQLD]
[MYSQLD]
HostName= mysqld_5.mysql.com

Note that each node has its own section in the config.ini. For instance, this cluster has two data nodes, so the preceding configuration file contains two [NDBD] sections defining these nodes.

Sections of the config.ini File

There are six different sections that you can use in the config.ini configuration file, as described in the following list:

You can define DEFAULT values for each section. All Cluster parameter names are case-insensitive, which differs from parameters specified in my.cnf or my.ini files.