How to install a MySQL NDB Cluster on Ubuntu

Posted on by

Official documentation here.

Installing and configuring MySQL Cluster on Ubuntu

There are 3 different types of nodes for MySQL Cluster: NDB manager, NDB node and mysql server. Please note the standard mysql server does not support the NDB database engine, so the mysql server must be the one compiled with NDB support.

This page assumes the following configuration:

  • Only one NDB manager node is running, which is enough for a small setup like this. Please note the NDB manager does not have to be present for the cluster to work. It is used essentially once at startup, and thereafter when a node dies for some reason.
  • Only one MySQL server is running, and on the same droplet as the NDB manager. Having a single MySQL server is a single point of failure, but that’s good enough for now. It is possible to add more MySQL servers for redundancy and load balancing. Ideally, the MySQL servers should run on their own droplets.
  • Two NDB data nodes; that’s the minimum required to get an NDB cluster up and running. This will provide fault tolerance (in the sense that if one node dies, the cluster itself will continue running), but will not provide performance improvements.

APT repository

MySQL conveniently provides an apt repository for Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04. Follow these steps on all 3 machines:

  • Go to http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/repo/apt/
  • Download the relevant mysql-apt-config .deb file
  • Install it like so: $ sudo dpkg -i mysql-apt-config*.deb
  • Select ‘MySQL Server & Cluster’
  • Select ‘mysql-cluster-7.5’ (currently the latest GA release)
  • Select ‘OK’ in the scroll down list
  • Run $ sudo apt-get update

Installing and configuring the NDB manager node

Provided you installed mysql-apt-config with the right options, just run:

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-cluster-community-management-server

Then create a directory /var/lib/mysql-cluster, and create a text file in that directory named config.ini. Edit this file so the content looks like this (replace the IP addresses with the real ones):

[ndb_mgmd]
HostName=10.132.156.195
DataDir=/var/lib/mysql-cluster

[ndbd]
HostName=10.132.156.202
NodeId=2
DataDir=/usr/local/mysql/data

[ndbd]
HostName=10.132.156.217
NodeId=3
DataDir=/usr/local/mysql/data

[mysqld]
HostName=10.132.156.195

You should be able to run the NDB manager like so (replace the IP address with the local private IP address):

$ sudo ndb_mgmd -f /var/lib/mysql-cluster/config.ini --bind-address=10.132.156.195

Important security note: The --bind-address option forces the NDB manager to bind to the specified address. In our case, we ensure it binds to the private IP only, which prevents anyone from the outside world to connect to the NDB manager.

In order to get the NDB manager to start automatically, the simplest is to add it to rc.local. Edit the /etc/rc.local file and add the line ndb_mgmd -f /var/lib/mysql-cluster/config.ini --bind-address=10.132.156.195 (before the exit 0 line if there is one). Reboot the machine and run ps -ef, you should see the ndb_mgmd process running.

There is also a command-line utility to access the NDB manager (replace the IP address with the local private IP address):

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-cluster-community-client
$ sudo ndb_mgm 10.132.156.195
ndb_mgm> show
ndb_mgm> exit

NDB data nodes

This should be repeated for each data node.

Provided you installed mysql-apt-config with the right options, just run:

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-cluster-community-data-node

Edit the file /etc/my.cnf (create it if necessary), and make it look like:

[mysql_cluster]
ndb-connectstring=10.132.156.195

Replace the IP address with the private IP address of the droplet on which the NDB manager is installed.

You will also need to create the data directory: $ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/mysql/data

Start the NDB data node daemon like so (replace the IP address with the local private IP address):

$ sudo ndbd --bind-address=10.132.156.202`

Important security note: The --bind-address option forces the NDB manager to bind to the specified address. In our case, we ensure it binds to the private IP only, which prevents anyone from the outside world to connect to the NDB data node.

In order to get the NDB data node to start automatically, the simplest is to add it to rc.local. Edit the /etc/rc.local file and add the line ndbd --bind-address=10.132.156.202 (before the exit 0 line if there is one). Reboot the machine and run ps -ef, you should see the ndbd process running.

NB: If the machine the NDB data node is running on has 2 or more CPUs, use ndbmtd for better performances. This is the multi-threaded version of ndbd. Please note that you still need to enable multi-threading in the config file. Read the documentation for ndbmtd for more information.

MySQL server

This should be repeated for each MySQL server, if applicable.

Provided you installed mysql-apt-config with the right options, just run:

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-cluster-community-server

Edit the file /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf and do the following under the [mysqld] section:

  • Set the bind-address parameter to the private IP address of this local machine
  • Add the keyword ndbcluster
  • Add a section [mysql_cluster] if it does not exist
  • Under the section [mysql_cluster], set the ndb-connectstring parameter to the private IP address of the NDB manager node (in our example, the MySQL server and the NDB manager both runs on the same machine)

The file should look similar to this:

[mysqld]
...
bind-address = 10.132.156.195
ndbcluster

[mysql_cluster]
ndb-connectstring = 10.132.156.195

Important security note: The bind-address option forces the MySQL server to bind to the specified address. In our case, we ensure it binds to the private IP only, which prevents anyone from the outside world to connect to the MySQL server.

Restart the MySQL server so it can pick up the new configuration: sudo systemctl restart mysql

You can check everything looks good by starting ndb_mgm and issuing the command show. You should see that both data nodes and the MySQL server are connected.

DEPRECATED: Download MySQL Cluster from here (select the bundle .tar file).