• [COMPUTER]: Defines cluster hosts. This is not required to configure a viable MySQL Cluster, but be may used as a convenience when setting up a large cluster. See Section 15.4.4.3, “Defining Cluster Computers”, for more information.

• [NDBD]: Defines a cluster data node (ndbd process). See Section 15.4.4.5, “Defining Data Nodes”, for details.

• [MYSQLD]: Defines the cluster's MySQL server nodes (also called SQL or API nodes). For a discussion of SQL node configuration, see Section 15.4.4.6, “Defining SQL and Other API Nodes”.

• [MGM] or [NDB_MGMD]: Defines a cluster management server (MGM) node. For information concerning the configuration of MGM nodes, see Section 15.4.4.4, “Defining the Management Server”.

• [TCP]: Defines a TCP/IP connection between cluster nodes, with TCP/IP being the default connection protocol. Normally, [TCP] or [TCP DEFAULT] sections are not required to set up a MySQL Cluster, as the cluster handles this automatically; however, it may be necessary in some situations to override the defaults provided by the cluster. See Section 15.4.4.7, “Cluster TCP/IP Connections”, for information about available TCP/IP configuration parameters and how to use them. (You may also find Section 15.4.4.8, “TCP/IP Connections Using Direct Connections” to be of interest in some cases.)

• [SHM]: Defines shared-memory connections between nodes. In MySQL 5.1, it is enabled by default, but should still be considered experimental. For a discussion of SHM interconnects, see Section 15.4.4.9, “Shared-Memory Connections”.

• [SCI]:Defines Scalable Coherent Interface connections between cluster data nodes. Such connections require software which, while freely available, is not part of the MySQL Cluster distribution, as well as specialised hardware. See Section 15.4.4.10, “SCI Transport Connections” for detailed information about SCI interconnects.

• Each executable has its own command-line option which enables specifying the management server at startup. (See the documentation for the respective executable.)

• It is also possible to set the connectstring for all nodes in the cluster at once by placing it in a [mysql_cluster] section in the management server's my.cnf file.

• For backward compatibility, two other options are available, using the same syntax:

  1. Set the NDB_CONNECTSTRING environment variable to contain the connectstring.

  2. Write the connectstring for each executable into a text file named Ndb.cfg and place this file in the executable's startup directory.

  However, these are now deprecated and should not be used for new installations.

• Id

  This is an integer value, used to refer to the host computer elsewhere in the configuration file. This is not the same as the node ID.

• HostName

  This is the computer's hostname or IP address.

• Id

  Each node in the cluster has a unique identity, which is represented by an integer value in the range 1 to 63 inclusive. This ID is used by all internal cluster messages for addressing the node.

• ExecuteOnComputer

  This refers to the Id set for one of the computers defined in a [COMPUTER] section of the config.ini file.

• PortNumber

  This is the port number on which the management server listens for configuration requests and management commands.

• HostName

  Specifying this parameter defines the hostname of the computer on which the management node is to reside. To specify a hostname other than localhost, either this parameter or ExecuteOnComputer is required.

• LogDestination

  This parameter specifies where to send cluster logging information. There are three options in this regard — CONSOLE, SYSLOG, and FILE — with FILE being the default:

  • CONSOLE outputs the log to stdout:

    CONSOLE
    

  • SYSLOG sends the log to a syslog facility, possible values being one of auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user, uucp, local0, local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6, or local7.

    Note: Not every facility is necessarily supported by every operating system.

    SYSLOG:facility=syslog
    

  • FILE pipes the cluster log output to a regular file on the same machine. The following values can be specified:

    • filename: The name of the log file.

    • maxsize: The maximum size (in bytes) to which the file can grow before logging rolls over to a new file. When this occurs, the old log file is renamed by appending .N to the filename, where N is the next number not yet used with this name.

    • maxfiles: The maximum number of log files.

    FILE:filename=cluster.log,maxsize=1000000,maxfiles=6
    

    The default value for the FILE parameter is FILE:filename=ndb_node_id_cluster.log,maxsize=1000000,maxfiles=6, where node_id is the ID of the node.

  It is possible to specify multiple log destinations separated by semicolons as shown here:

  CONSOLE;SYSLOG:facility=local0;FILE:filename=/var/log/mgmd
  

• ArbitrationRank

  This parameter is used to define which nodes can act as arbitrators. Only management nodes and SQL nodes can be arbitrators. ArbitrationRank can take one of the following values:

  • 0: The node will never be used as an arbitrator.

  • 1: The node has high priority; that is, it will be preferred as an arbitrator over low-priority nodes.

  • 2: Indicates a low-priority node which be used as an arbitrator only if a node with a higher priority is not available for that purpose.

  Normally, the management server should be configured as an arbitrator by setting its ArbitrationRank to 1 (the default value) and that of all SQL nodes to 0.

  Beginning with MySQL 5.1.16 (MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition: MySQL 5.1.15-ndb-6.1.3), it is possible to disable arbitration completely by setting ArbitrationRank to 0 on all management and SQL nodes.

• ArbitrationDelay

  An integer value which causes the management server's responses to arbitration requests to be delayed by that number of milliseconds. By default, this value is 0; it is normally not necessary to change it.

• DataDir

  This specifies the directory where output files from the management server will be placed. These files include cluster log files, process output files, and the daemon's process ID (PID) file. (For log files, this location can be overridden by setting the FILE parameter for LogDestination as discussed previously in this section.)

  The default value for this parameter is the directory in which ndb_mgmd is located.

• Either ExecuteOnComputer or HostName, which must be defined in the local [NDBD] section.

• The parameter NoOfReplicas, which must be defined in the [NDBD DEFAULT] section, as it is common to all Cluster data nodes.

• Id

  This is the node ID used as the address of the node for all cluster internal messages. This is an integer in the range 1 to 63 inclusive. Each node in the cluster must have a unique identity.

• ExecuteOnComputer

  This refers to the Id set for one of the computers defined in a [COMPUTER] section.

• HostName

  Specifying this parameter defines the hostname of the computer on which the data node is to reside. To specify a hostname other than localhost, either this parameter or ExecuteOnComputer is required.

• ServerPort (OBSOLETE)

  Each node in the cluster uses a port to connect to other nodes. This port is used also for non-TCP transporters in the connection setup phase. The default port is allocated dynamically in such a way as to ensure that no two nodes on the same computer receive the same port number, so it should not normally be necessary to specify a value for this parameter.

• MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade EditionThe following information applies to users of MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition only. For more information about MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition, see Section 15.2, “MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition”.

  TcpBind_INADDR_ANY

  Setting this parameter to TRUE or 1 binds IP_ADDR_ANY so that connections can be made from anywhere (for autogenerated connections). The default is FALSE (0).

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.16-ndb-6.2.0.

  The following information applies to all MySQL Cluster users.

• NoOfReplicas

  This global parameter can be set only in the [NDBD DEFAULT] section, and defines the number of replicas for each table stored in the cluster. This parameter also specifies the size of node groups. A node group is a set of nodes all storing the same information.

  Node groups are formed implicitly. The first node group is formed by the set of data nodes with the lowest node IDs, the next node group by the set of the next lowest node identities, and so on. By way of example, assume that we have 4 data nodes and that NoOfReplicas is set to 2. The four data nodes have node IDs 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then the first node group is formed from nodes 2 and 3, and the second node group by nodes 4 and 5. It is important to configure the cluster in such a manner that nodes in the same node groups are not placed on the same computer because a single hardware failure would cause the entire cluster to crash.

  If no node IDs are provided, the order of the data nodes will be the determining factor for the node group. Whether or not explicit assignments are made, they can be viewed in the output of the management client's SHOW statement.

  There is no default value for NoOfReplicas; the maximum possible value is 4.

  Important: The value for this parameter must divide evenly into the number of data nodes in the cluster. For example, if there are two data nodes, then NoOfReplicas must be equal to either 1 or 2, since 2/3 and 2/4 both yield fractional values; if there are four data nodes, then NoOfReplicas must be equal to 1, 2, or 4.

• DataDir

  This parameter specifies the directory where trace files, log files, pid files and error logs are placed.

• FileSystemPath

  This parameter specifies the directory where all files created for metadata, REDO logs, UNDO logs (for Disk Data tables) and data files are placed. The default is the directory specified by DataDir. Note: This directory must exist before the ndbd process is initiated.

  The recommended directory hierarchy for MySQL Cluster includes /var/lib/mysql-cluster, under which a directory for the node's filesystem is created. The name of this subdirectory contains the node ID. For example, if the node ID is 2, this subdirectory is named ndb_2_fs.

• BackupDataDir

  This parameter specifies the directory in which backups are placed. If omitted, the default backup location is the directory named BACKUP under the location specified by the FileSystemPath parameter. (See above.)

• DataMemory

  This parameter defines the amount of space (in bytes) available for storing database records. The entire amount specified by this value is allocated in memory, so it is extremely important that the machine has sufficient physical memory to accommodate it.

  The memory allocated by DataMemory is used to store both the actual records and indexes. There is a 16-byte overhead on each record; an additional amount for each record is incurred because it is stored in a 32KB page with 128 byte page overhead (see below). There is also a small amount wasted per page due to the fact that each record is stored in only one page.

  For variable-size table attributes in MySQL 5.1, the data is stored on separate datapages, allocated from DataMemory. Variable-length records use a fixed-size part with an extra overhead of 4 bytes to reference the variable-size part. The variable-size part has 2 bytes overhead plus 2 bytes per attribute.

  The maximum record size is currently 8052 bytes.

  The memory space defined by DataMemory is also used to store ordered indexes, which use about 10 bytes per record. Each table row is represented in the ordered index. A common error among users is to assume that all indexes are stored in the memory allocated by IndexMemory, but this is not the case: Only primary key and unique hash indexes use this memory; ordered indexes use the memory allocated by DataMemory. However, creating a primary key or unique hash index also creates an ordered index on the same keys, unless you specify USING HASH in the index creation statement. This can be verified by running ndb_desc -d db_name table_name in the management client.

  The memory space allocated by DataMemory consists of 32KB pages, which are allocated to table fragments. Each table is normally partitioned into the same number of fragments as there are data nodes in the cluster. Thus, for each node, there are the same number of fragments as are set in NoOfReplicas.

  Once a page has been allocated, it is currently not possible to return it to the pool of free pages, except by deleting the table. (This also means that DataMemory pages, once allocated to a given table, cannot be used by other tables.) Performing a node recovery also compresses the partition because all records are inserted into empty partitions from other live nodes.

  The DataMemory memory space also contains UNDO information: For each update, a copy of the unaltered record is allocated in the DataMemory. There is also a reference to each copy in the ordered table indexes. Unique hash indexes are updated only when the unique index columns are updated, in which case a new entry in the index table is inserted and the old entry is deleted upon commit. For this reason, it is also necessary to allocate enough memory to handle the largest transactions performed by applications using the cluster. In any case, performing a few large transactions holds no advantage over using many smaller ones, for the following reasons:

  • Large transactions are not any faster than smaller ones

  • Large transactions increase the number of operations that are lost and must be repeated in event of transaction failure

  • Large transactions use more memory

  The default value for DataMemory is 80MB; the minimum is 1MB. There is no maximum size, but in reality the maximum size has to be adapted so that the process does not start swapping when the limit is reached. This limit is determined by the amount of physical RAM available on the machine and by the amount of memory that the operating system may commit to any one process. 32-bit operating systems are generally limited to 2–4GB per process; 64-bit operating systems can use more. For large databases, it may be preferable to use a 64-bit operating system for this reason.

• IndexMemory

  This parameter controls the amount of storage used for hash indexes in MySQL Cluster. Hash indexes are always used for primary key indexes, unique indexes, and unique constraints. Note that when defining a primary key and a unique index, two indexes will be created, one of which is a hash index used for all tuple accesses as well as lock handling. It is also used to enforce unique constraints.

  The size of the hash index is 25 bytes per record, plus the size of the primary key. For primary keys larger than 32 bytes another 8 bytes is added.

  The default value for IndexMemory is 18MB. The minimum is 1MB.

• StringMemory

  This parameter determines how much memory is allocated for strings such as table names, and is specified in an [NDBD] or [NDBD DEFAULT] section of the config.ini file. A value between 0 and 100 inclusive is interpreted as a percent of the maxmimum default value, which is calculated based on a number of factors including the number of tables, maximum table name size, maximum size of .FRM files, MaxNoOfTriggers, maximum column name size, and maximum default column value. In general it is safe to assume that the maximum default value is approximately 5 MB for a MySQL Cluster having 1000 tables.

  A value greater than 100 is interpreted as a number of bytes.

  The default value is 5 — that is, 5 percent of the default maximum, or roughly 5 KB. (Note that this is a change from previous versions of MySQL Cluster.)

  Under most circumstances, the default value should be sufficient, but when you have a great many Cluster tables (1000 or more), it is possible to get Error 773 Out of string memory, please modify StringMemory config parameter: Permanent error: Schema error, in which case you should increase this value. 25 (25 percent) is not excessive, and should prevent this error from recurring in all but the most extreme conditions.

• MaxNoOfConcurrentTransactions

  For each active transaction in the cluster there must be a record in one of the cluster nodes. The task of coordinating transactions is spread among the nodes. The total number of transaction records in the cluster is the number of transactions in any given node times the number of nodes in the cluster.

  Transaction records are allocated to individual MySQL servers. Normally, there is at least one transaction record allocated per connection that using any table in the cluster. For this reason, one should ensure that there are more transaction records in the cluster than there are concurrent connections to all MySQL servers in the cluster.

  This parameter must be set to the same value for all cluster nodes.

  Changing this parameter is never safe and doing so can cause a cluster to crash. When a node crashes, one of the nodes (actually the oldest surviving node) will build up the transaction state of all transactions ongoing in the crashed node at the time of the crash. It is thus important that this node has as many transaction records as the failed node.

  The default value is 4096.

• MaxNoOfConcurrentOperations

  It is a good idea to adjust the value of this parameter according to the size and number of transactions. When performing transactions of only a few operations each and not involving a great many records, there is no need to set this parameter very high. When performing large transactions involving many records need to set this parameter higher.

  Records are kept for each transaction updating cluster data, both in the transaction coordinator and in the nodes where the actual updates are performed. These records contain state information needed to find UNDO records for rollback, lock queues, and other purposes.

  This parameter should be set to the number of records to be updated simultaneously in transactions, divided by the number of cluster data nodes. For example, in a cluster which has four data nodes and which is expected to handle 1,000,000 concurrent updates using transactions, you should set this value to 1000000 / 4 = 250000.

  Read queries which set locks also cause operation records to be created. Some extra space is allocated within individual nodes to accommodate cases where the distribution is not perfect over the nodes.

  When queries make use of the unique hash index, there are actually two operation records used per record in the transaction. The first record represents the read in the index table and the second handles the operation on the base table.

  The default value is 32768.

  This parameter actually handles two values that can be configured separately. The first of these specifies how many operation records are to be placed with the transaction coordinator. The second part specifies how many operation records are to be local to the database.

  A very large transaction performed on an eight-node cluster requires as many operation records in the transaction coordinator as there are reads, updates, and deletes involved in the transaction. However, the operation records of the are spread over all eight nodes. Thus, if it is necessary to configure the system for one very large transaction, it is a good idea to configure the two parts separately. MaxNoOfConcurrentOperations will always be used to calculate the number of operation records in the transaction coordinator portion of the node.

  It is also important to have an idea of the memory requirements for operation records. These consume about 1KB per record.

• MaxNoOfLocalOperations

  By default, this parameter is calculated as 1.1 × MaxNoOfConcurrentOperations. This fits systems with many simultaneous transactions, none of them being very large. If there is a need to handle one very large transaction at a time and there are many nodes, it is a good idea to override the default value by explicitly specifying this parameter.

• MaxNoOfConcurrentIndexOperations

  For queries using a unique hash index, another temporary set of operation records is used during a query's execution phase. This parameter sets the size of that pool of records. Thus, this record is allocated only while executing a part of a query. As soon as this part has been executed, the record is released. The state needed to handle aborts and commits is handled by the normal operation records, where the pool size is set by the parameter MaxNoOfConcurrentOperations.

  The default value of this parameter is 8192. Only in rare cases of extremely high parallelism using unique hash indexes should it be necessary to increase this value. Using a smaller value is possible and can save memory if the DBA is certain that a high degree of parallelism is not required for the cluster.

• MaxNoOfFiredTriggers

  The default value of MaxNoOfFiredTriggers is 4000, which is sufficient for most situations. In some cases it can even be decreased if the DBA feels certain the need for parallelism in the cluster is not high.

  A record is created when an operation is performed that affects a unique hash index. Inserting or deleting a record in a table with unique hash indexes or updating a column that is part of a unique hash index fires an insert or a delete in the index table. The resulting record is used to represent this index table operation while waiting for the original operation that fired it to complete. This operation is short-lived but can still require a large number of records in its pool for situations with many parallel write operations on a base table containing a set of unique hash indexes.

• TransactionBufferMemory

  The memory affected by this parameter is used for tracking operations fired when updating index tables and reading unique indexes. This memory is used to store the key and column information for these operations. It is only very rarely that the value for this parameter needs to be altered from the default.

  The default value for TransactionBufferMemory is 1MB.

  Normal read and write operations use a similar buffer, whose usage is even more short-lived. The compile-time parameter ZATTRBUF_FILESIZE (found in ndb/src/kernel/blocks/Dbtc/Dbtc.hpp) set to 4000 × 128 bytes (500KB). A similar buffer for key information, ZDATABUF_FILESIZE (also in Dbtc.hpp) contains 4000 × 16 = 62.5KB of buffer space. Dbtc is the module that handles transaction coordination.

There are additional [NDBD] parameters in the Dblqh module (in ndb/src/kernel/blocks/Dblqh/Dblqh.hpp) that affect reads and updates. These include ZATTRINBUF_FILESIZE, set by default to 10000 × 128 bytes (1250KB) and ZDATABUF_FILE_SIZE, set by default to 10000*16 bytes (roughly 156KB) of buffer space. To date, there have been neither any reports from users nor any results from our own extensive tests suggesting that either of these compile-time limits should be increased.

• MaxNoOfConcurrentScans

  This parameter is used to control the number of parallel scans that can be performed in the cluster. Each transaction coordinator can handle the number of parallel scans defined for this parameter. Each scan query is performed by scanning all partitions in parallel. Each partition scan uses a scan record in the node where the partition is located, the number of records being the value of this parameter times the number of nodes. The cluster should be able to sustain MaxNoOfConcurrentScans scans concurrently from all nodes in the cluster.

  Scans are actually performed in two cases. The first of these cases occurs when no hash or ordered indexes exists to handle the query, in which case the query is executed by performing a full table scan. The second case is encountered when there is no hash index to support the query but there is an ordered index. Using the ordered index means executing a parallel range scan. The order is kept on the local partitions only, so it is necessary to perform the index scan on all partitions.

  The default value of MaxNoOfConcurrentScans is 256. The maximum value is 500.

• MaxNoOfLocalScans

  Specifies the number of local scan records if many scans are not fully parallelized. If the number of local scan records is not provided, it is calculated as the product of MaxNoOfConcurrentScans and the number of data nodes in the system. The minimum value is 32.

• BatchSizePerLocalScan

  This parameter is used to calculate the number of lock records which must be there to handle many concurrent scan operations.

  The default value is 64; this value has a strong connection to the ScanBatchSize defined in the SQL nodes.

• LongMessageBuffer

  This is an internal buffer used for passing messages within individual nodes and between nodes. Although it is highly unlikely that this would need to be changed, it is configurable. By default, it is set to 1MB.

• NoOfFragmentLogFiles

  This parameter sets the number of REDO log files for the node, and thus the amount of space allocated to REDO logging. Because the REDO log files are organized in a ring, it is extremely important that the first and last log files in the set (sometimes referred to as the “head” and “tail” log files, respectively) do not meet. When these approach one another too closely, the node begins aborting all transactions encompassing updates due to a lack of room for new log records.

  A REDO log record is not removed until three local checkpoints have been completed since that log record was inserted. Checkpointing frequency is determined by its own set of configuration parameters discussed elsewhere in this chapter.

  How these parameters interact and proposals for how to configure them are discussed in Section 15.4.6, “Configuring Parameters for Local Checkpoints”.

  The default parameter value is 8, which means 8 sets of 4 16MB files for a total of 512MB. In other words, REDO log space must be allocated in blocks of 64MB. In scenarios requiring a great many updates, the value for NoOfFragmentLogFiles may need to be set as high as 300 or even higher to provide sufficient space for REDO logs.

  If the checkpointing is slow and there are so many writes to the database that the log files are full and the log tail cannot be cut without jeopardizing recovery, all updating transactions are aborted with internal error code 410 (Out of log file space temporarily). This condition prevails until a checkpoint has completed and the log tail can be moved forward.

  Important: This parameter cannot be changed “on the fly”; you must restart the node using --initial. If you wish to change this value for a running cluster, you can do so via a rolling node restart.

• MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade EditionThe following information applies to users of MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition only. For more information about MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition, see Section 15.2, “MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition”.

  FragmentLogFileSize

  Setting this parameter allows you to control directly the size of redo log files. The default is 16M. This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.15-ndb-6.1.11.

  The following information applies to all MySQL Cluster users.

• MaxNoOfOpenFiles

  This parameter sets a ceiling on how many internal threads to allocate for open files. Any situation requiring a change in this parameter should be reported as a bug.

  The default value is 40.

• InitialNoOfOpenFiles

  This parameter sets the initial number of internal threads to allocate for open files.

  The default value is 27.

• MaxNoOfSavedMessages

  This parameter sets the maximum number of trace files that are kept before overwriting old ones. Trace files are generated when, for whatever reason, the node crashes.

  The default is 25 trace files.

• MaxNoOfAttributes

  Defines the number of attributes that can be defined in the cluster.

  The default value is 1000, with the minimum possible value being 32. The maximum is 4294967039. Each attribute consumes around 200 bytes of storage per node due to the fact that all metadata is fully replicated on the servers.

  When setting MaxNoOfAttributes, it is important to prepare in advance for any ALTER TABLE statements that you might want to perform in the future. This is due to the fact, during the execution of ALTER TABLE on a Cluster table, 3 times the number of attributes as in the original table are used. For example, if a table requires 100 attributes, and you want to be able to alter it later, you need to set the value of MaxNoOfAttributes to 300. Assuming that you can create all desired tables without any problems, a good rule of thumb is to add two times the number of attributes in the largest table to MaxNoOfAttributes to be sure. You should also verify that this number is sufficient by trying an actual ALTER TABLE after configuring the parameter. If this is not successful, increase MaxNoOfAttributes by another multiple of the original value and test it again.

• MaxNoOfTables

  A table object is allocated for each table, unique hash index, and ordered index. This parameter sets the maximum number of table objects for the cluster as a whole.

  For each attribute that has a BLOB data type an extra table is used to store most of the BLOB data. These tables also must be taken into account when defining the total number of tables.

  The default value of this parameter is 128. The minimum is 8 and the maximum is 1600. Each table object consumes approximately 20KB per node.

• MaxNoOfOrderedIndexes

  For each ordered index in the cluster, an object is allocated describing what is being indexed and its storage segments. By default, each index so defined also defines an ordered index. Each unique index and primary key has both an ordered index and a hash index.

  The default value of this parameter is 128. Each object consumes approximately 10KB of data per node.

• MaxNoOfUniqueHashIndexes

  For each unique index that is not a primary key, a special table is allocated that maps the unique key to the primary key of the indexed table. By default, an ordered index is also defined for each unique index. To prevent this, you must specify the USING HASH option when defining the unique index.

  The default value is 64. Each index consumes approximately 15KB per node.

• MaxNoOfTriggers

  Internal update, insert, and delete triggers are allocated for each unique hash index. (This means that three triggers are created for each unique hash index.) However, an ordered index requires only a single trigger object. Backups also use three trigger objects for each normal table in the cluster.

  Replication between clusters also makes use of internal triggers.

  This parameter sets the maximum number of trigger objects in the cluster.

  The default value is 768.

• MaxNoOfIndexes

  This parameter is deprecated in MySQL 5.1; you should use MaxNoOfOrderedIndexes and MaxNoOfUniqueHashIndexes instead.

  This parameter is used only by unique hash indexes. There needs to be one record in this pool for each unique hash index defined in the cluster.

  The default value of this parameter is 128.

• LockPagesInMainMemory

  For a number of operating systems, including Solaris and Linux, it is possible to lock a process into memory and so avoid any swapping to disk. This can be used to help guarantee the cluster's real-time characteristics.

  Beginning with MySQL 5.1.15 (MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition: MySQL 5.1.15-ndb-6.1.1), this parameter takes one of the integer values 0, 1, or 2, which act as follows:

  • 0: Disables locking. This is the default value.

  • 1: Performs the lock after allocating memory for the process.

  • 2: Performs the lock before memory for the process is allocated.

  Previously, this parameter was a Boolean. 0 or false was the default setting, and disabled locking. 1 or true enabled locking of the process after its memory was allocated. Important: Beginning with MySQL 5.1.15 (MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition: MySQL 5.1.15-ndb-6.1.1), it is no longer possible to use true or false for the value of this parameter; when upgrading from a previous version, you must change the value to 0, 1, or 2.

• StopOnError

  This parameter specifies whether an ndbd process should exit or perform an automatic restart when an error condition is encountered.

  This feature is enabled by default.

• Diskless

  It is possible to specify MySQL Cluster tables as diskless, meaning that tables are not checkpointed to disk and that no logging occurs. Such tables exist only in main memory. A consequence of using diskless tables is that neither the tables nor the records in those tables survive a crash. However, when operating in diskless mode, it is possible to run ndbd on a diskless computer.

  Important: This feature causes the entire cluster to operate in diskless mode.

  When this feature is enabled, Cluster online backup is disabled. In addition, a partial start of the cluster is not possible.

  Diskless is disabled by default.

• RestartOnErrorInsert

  This feature is accessible only when building the debug version where it is possible to insert errors in the execution of individual blocks of code as part of testing.

  This feature is disabled by default.

• TimeBetweenWatchDogCheck

  To prevent the main thread from getting stuck in an endless loop at some point, a “watchdog” thread checks the main thread. This parameter specifies the number of milliseconds between checks. If the process remains in the same state after three checks, the watchdog thread terminates it.

  This parameter can easily be changed for purposes of experimentation or to adapt to local conditions. It can be specified on a per-node basis although there seems to be little reason for doing so.

  The default timeout is 6000 milliseconds (6 seconds).

• TimeBetweenWatchDogCheckInitial

  This is similar to the TimeBetweenWatchDogCheck parameter, except that TimeBetweenWatchDogCheckInitial controls the amount of time that passes between execution checks inside a database node in the early start phases during which memory is allocated.

  The default timeout is 6000 milliseconds (6 seconds).

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.20.

• StartPartialTimeout

  This parameter specifies how long the Cluster waits for all data nodes to come up before the cluster initialization routine is invoked. This timeout is used to avoid a partial Cluster startup whenever possible.

  The default value is 30000 milliseconds (30 seconds). 0 disables the timeout, in which case the cluster may start only if all nodes are available.

• StartPartitionedTimeout

  If the cluster is ready to start after waiting for StartPartialTimeout milliseconds but is still possibly in a partitioned state, the cluster waits until this timeout has also passed.

  The default timeout is 60000 milliseconds (60 seconds).

• StartFailureTimeout

  If a data node has not completed its startup sequence within the time specified by this parameter, the node startup fails. Setting this parameter to 0 (the default value) means that no data node timeout is applied.

  For nonzero values, this parameter is measured in milliseconds. For data nodes containing extremely large amounts of data, this parameter should be increased. For example, in the case of a data node containing several gigabytes of data, a period as long as 10–15 minutes (that is, 600000 to 1000000 milliseconds) might be required to perform a node restart.

• HeartbeatIntervalDbDb

  One of the primary methods of discovering failed nodes is by the use of heartbeats. This parameter states how often heartbeat signals are sent and how often to expect to receive them. After missing three heartbeat intervals in a row, the node is declared dead. Thus, the maximum time for discovering a failure through the heartbeat mechanism is four times the heartbeat interval.

  The default heartbeat interval is 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds). This parameter must not be changed drastically and should not vary widely between nodes. If one node uses 5000 milliseconds and the node watching it uses 1000 milliseconds, obviously the node will be declared dead very quickly. This parameter can be changed during an online software upgrade, but only in small increments.

• HeartbeatIntervalDbApi

  Each data node sends heartbeat signals to each MySQL server (SQL node) to ensure that it remains in contact. If a MySQL server fails to send a heartbeat in time it is declared “dead,” in which case all ongoing transactions are completed and all resources released. The SQL node cannot reconnect until all activities initiated by the previous MySQL instance have been completed. The three-heartbeat criteria for this determination are the same as described for HeartbeatIntervalDbDb.

  The default interval is 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds). This interval can vary between individual data nodes because each data node watches the MySQL servers connected to it, independently of all other data nodes.

• TimeBetweenLocalCheckpoints

  This parameter is an exception in that it does not specify a time to wait before starting a new local checkpoint; rather, it is used to ensure that local checkpoints are not performed in a cluster where relatively few updates are taking place. In most clusters with high update rates, it is likely that a new local checkpoint is started immediately after the previous one has been completed.

  The size of all write operations executed since the start of the previous local checkpoints is added. This parameter is also exceptional in that it is specified as the base-2 logarithm of the number of 4-byte words, so that the default value 20 means 4MB (4 × 2²⁰) of write operations, 21 would mean 8MB, and so on up to a maximum value of 31, which equates to 8GB of write operations.

  All the write operations in the cluster are added together. Setting TimeBetweenLocalCheckpoints to 6 or less means that local checkpoints will be executed continuously without pause, independent of the cluster's workload.

• TimeBetweenGlobalCheckpoints

  When a transaction is committed, it is committed in main memory in all nodes on which the data is mirrored. However, transaction log records are not flushed to disk as part of the commit. The reasoning behind this behavior is that having the transaction safely committed on at least two autonomous host machines should meet reasonable standards for durability.

  It is also important to ensure that even the worst of cases — a complete crash of the cluster — is handled properly. To guarantee that this happens, all transactions taking place within a given interval are put into a global checkpoint, which can be thought of as a set of committed transactions that has been flushed to disk. In other words, as part of the commit process, a transaction is placed in a global checkpoint group. Later, this group's log records are flushed to disk, and then the entire group of transactions is safely committed to disk on all computers in the cluster.

  This parameter defines the interval between global checkpoints. The default is 2000 milliseconds.

• TimeBetweenInactiveTransactionAbortCheck

  Timeout handling is performed by checking a timer on each transaction once for every interval specified by this parameter. Thus, if this parameter is set to 1000 milliseconds, every transaction will be checked for timing out once per second.

  The default value is 1000 milliseconds (1 second).

• TransactionInactiveTimeout

  This parameter states the maximum time that is permitted to lapse between operations in the same transaction before the transaction is aborted.

  The default for this parameter is zero (no timeout). For a real-time database that needs to ensure that no transaction keeps locks for too long, this parameter should be set to a much smaller value. The unit is milliseconds.

• TransactionDeadlockDetectionTimeout

  When a node executes a query involving a transaction, the node waits for the other nodes in the cluster to respond before continuing. A failure to respond can occur for any of the following reasons:

  • The node is “dead”

  • The operation has entered a lock queue

  • The node requested to perform the action could be heavily overloaded.

  This timeout parameter states how long the transaction coordinator waits for query execution by another node before aborting the transaction, and is important for both node failure handling and deadlock detection. Setting it too high can cause a undesirable behavior in situations involving deadlocks and node failure.

  The default timeout value is 1200 milliseconds (1.2 seconds).

• DiskSyncSize

  This is the maximum number of bytes to store before flushing data to a local checkpoint file.

  The default value is 4M (4 megabytes).

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.12.

• DiskCheckpointSpeed

  The amount of data,in bytes per second, that is sent to disk during a local checkpoint.

  The default value is 10M (10 megabytes per second).

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.12.

• DiskCheckpointSpeedInRestart

  The amount of data,in bytes per second, that is sent to disk during a local checkpoint as part of a restart operation.

  The default value is 100M (100 megabytes per second).

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.12.

• NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartTUP

  When executing a local checkpoint, the algorithm flushes all data pages to disk. Merely doing so as quickly as possible without any moderation is likely to impose excessive loads on processors, networks, and disks. To control the write speed, this parameter specifies how many pages per 100 milliseconds are to be written. In this context, a “page” is defined as 8KB. This parameter is specified in units of 80KB per second, so setting NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartTUP to a value of 20 entails writing 1.6MB in data pages to disk each second during a local checkpoint. This value includes the writing of UNDO log records for data pages. That is, this parameter handles the limitation of writes from data memory. (See the entry for IndexMemory for information about index pages.)

  In short, this parameter specifies how quickly to execute local checkpoints. It operates in conjunction with NoOfFragmentLogFiles, DataMemory, and IndexMemory.

  For more information about the interaction between these parameters and possible strategies for choosing appropriate values for them, see Section 15.4.6, “Configuring Parameters for Local Checkpoints”.

  The default value is 40 (3.2MB of data pages per second).

  Note: This parameter is deprecated as of MySQL 5.1.6. For MySQL 5.1.12 and later versions, use DiskCheckpointSpeed and DiskSyncSize.

• NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartACC

  This parameter uses the same units as NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartTUP and acts in a similar fashion, but limits the speed of writing index pages from index memory.

  The default value of this parameter is 20 (1.6MB of index memory pages per second).

  Note: This parameter is deprecated as of MySQL 5.1.6. For MySQL 5.1.12 and later versions, use DiskCheckpointSpeed and DiskSyncSize.

• NoOfDiskPagesToDiskDuringRestartTUP

  This parameter is used in a fashion similar to NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartTUP and NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartACC, only it does so with regard to local checkpoints executed in the node when a node is restarting. A local checkpoint is always performed as part of all node restarts. During a node restart it is possible to write to disk at a higher speed than at other times, because fewer activities are being performed in the node.

  This parameter covers pages written from data memory.

  The default value is 40 (3.2MB per second).

  Note: This parameter is deprecated as of MySQL 5.1.6. For MySQL 5.1.12 and later versions, use DiskCheckpointSpeedInRestart and DiskSyncSize.

• NoOfDiskPagesToDiskDuringRestartACC

  Controls the number of index memory pages that can be written to disk during the local checkpoint phase of a node restart.

  As with NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartTUP and NoOfDiskPagesToDiskAfterRestartACC, values for this parameter are expressed in terms of 8KB pages written per 100 milliseconds (80KB/second).

  The default value is 20 (1.6MB per second).

  Note: This parameter is deprecated as of MySQL 5.1.6. For MySQL 5.1.12 and later versions, use DiskCheckpointSpeedInRestart and DiskSyncSize.

• ArbitrationTimeout

  This parameter specifies how long data nodes wait for a response from the arbitrator to an arbitration message. If this is exceeded, the network is assumed to have split.

  The default value is 1000 milliseconds (1 second).

• LogLevelStartup

  The reporting level for events generated during startup of the process.

  The default level is 1.

• LogLevelShutdown

  The reporting level for events generated as part of graceful shutdown of a node.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelStatistic

  The reporting level for statistical events such as number of primary key reads, number of updates, number of inserts, information relating to buffer usage, and so on.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelCheckpoint

  The reporting level for events generated by local and global checkpoints.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelNodeRestart

  The reporting level for events generated during node restart.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelConnection

  The reporting level for events generated by connections between cluster nodes.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelError

  The reporting level for events generated by errors and warnings by the cluster as a whole. These errors do not cause any node failure but are still considered worth reporting.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelCongestion

  The reporting level for events generated by congestion. These errors do not cause node failure but are still considered worth reporting.

  The default level is 0.

• LogLevelInfo

  The reporting level for events generated for information about the general state of the cluster.

  The default level is 0.

• MemReportFrequency

  This parameter controls how often data node memory usage reports are recorded in the cluster log; it is an integer value representing the number of seconds between reports.

  Each data node's data memory and index memory usage is logged as both a percentage and a number of 32 KB pages of the DataMemory and IndexMemory, respectively, set in the config.ini file. For example, if DataMemory is equal to 100 MB, and a given data node is using 50 MB for data memory storage, the corresponding line in the cluster log might look like this:

  2006-12-24 01:18:16 [MgmSrvr] INFO -- Node 2: Data usage is 50%(1280 32K pages of total 2560)
  

  MemReportFrequency is not a required parameter. If used, it can be set for all cluster data nodes in the [NDBD DEFAULT] section of config.ini, and can also be set or overridden for individual data nodes in the corresponding [NDBD] sections of the configuration file. The minimum value — which is also the default value — is 0, in which case memory reports are logged only when memory usage reaches certain percentages (80%, 90%, and 100%), as mentioned in the discussion of statistics events in Section 15.7.3.2, “Log Events”.

  This parameter was added in MySQL Cluster 5.1.16. (MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition: MySQL Cluster 5.1.14-ndb-6.1.0).

• BackupDataBufferSize

  In creating a backup, there are two buffers used for sending data to the disk. The backup data buffer is used to fill in data recorded by scanning a node's tables. Once this buffer has been filled to the level specified as BackupWriteSize (see below), the pages are sent to disk. While flushing data to disk, the backup process can continue filling this buffer until it runs out of space. When this happens, the backup process pauses the scan and waits until some disk writes have completed freed up memory so that scanning may continue.

  The default value is 2MB.

• BackupLogBufferSize

  The backup log buffer fulfills a role similar to that played by the backup data buffer, except that it is used for generating a log of all table writes made during execution of the backup. The same principles apply for writing these pages as with the backup data buffer, except that when there is no more space in the backup log buffer, the backup fails. For that reason, the size of the backup log buffer must be large enough to handle the load caused by write activities while the backup is being made. See Section 15.8.4, “Configuration for Cluster Backup”.

  The default value for this parameter should be sufficient for most applications. In fact, it is more likely for a backup failure to be caused by insufficient disk write speed than it is for the backup log buffer to become full. If the disk subsystem is not configured for the write load caused by applications, the cluster is unlikely to be able to perform the desired operations.

  It is preferable to configure cluster nodes in such a manner that the processor becomes the bottleneck rather than the disks or the network connections.

  The default value is 2MB.

• BackupMemory

  This parameter is simply the sum of BackupDataBufferSize and BackupLogBufferSize.

  The default value is 2MB + 2MB = 4MB.

  Important: If BackupDataBufferSize and BackupLogBufferSize taken together exceed 4MB, then this parameter must be set explicitly in the config.ini file to their sum.

• MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade EditionThe following information applies to users of MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition only. For more information about MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition, see Section 15.2, “MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition”.

  This parameter controls how often backup status reports are issued in the management client during a backup, as well as how often such reports are written to the cluster log (provided cluster event logging is configured to allow it — see Section 15.4.4.5, “Defining Data Nodes”). BackupReportFrequency represents the time in seconds between backup status reports.

  The default value is 0.

  This parameter was added in MySQL 5.1.19-ndb-6.2.3.

  The following information applies to all MySQL Cluster users.

• BackupWriteSize

  This parameter specifies the default size of messages written to disk by the backup log and backup data buffers.

  The default value is 32KB.

• BackupMaxWriteSize

  This parameter specifies the maximum size of messages written to disk by the backup log and backup data buffers.

  The default value is 256KB.

• BackupDataBufferSize >= BackupWriteSize + 188KB

• BackupLogBufferSize >= BackupWriteSize + 16KB

• BackupMaxWriteSize >= BackupWriteSize

• Id

  The Id value is used to identify the node in all cluster internal messages. It must be an integer in the range 1 to 63 inclusive, and must be unique among all node IDs within the cluster.

• ExecuteOnComputer

  This refers to the Id set for one of the computers (hosts) defined in a [COMPUTER] section of the configuration file.

• HostName

  Specifying this parameter defines the hostname of the computer on which the SQL node (API node) is to reside. To specify a hostname other than localhost, either this parameter or ExecuteOnComputer is required.

• ArbitrationRank

  This parameter defines which nodes can act as arbitrators. Both MGM nodes and SQL nodes can be arbitrators. A value of 0 means that the given node is never used as an arbitrator, a value of 1 gives the node high priority as an arbitrator, and a value of 2 gives it low priority. A normal configuration uses the management server as arbitrator, setting its ArbitrationRank to 1 (the default) and those for all SQL nodes to 0.

  Beginning with MySQL 5.1.16 (MySQL Cluster 5.1 Carrier Grade Edition: MySQL 5.1.15-ndb-6.1.3), it is possible to disable arbitration completely by setting ArbitrationRank to 0 on all management and SQL nodes.

• ArbitrationDelay

  Setting this parameter to any other value than 0 (the default) means that responses by the arbitrator to arbitration requests will be delayed by the stated number of milliseconds. It is usually not necessary to change this value.

• BatchByteSize

  For queries that are translated into full table scans or range scans on indexes, it is important for best performance to fetch records in properly sized batches. It is possible to set the proper size both in terms of number of records (BatchSize) and in terms of bytes (BatchByteSize). The actual batch size is limited by both parameters.

  The speed at which queries are performed can vary by more than 40% depending upon how this parameter is set. In future releases, MySQL Server will make educated guesses on how to set parameters relating to batch size, based on the query type.

  This parameter is measured in bytes and by default is equal to 32KB.

• BatchSize

  This parameter is measured in number of records and is by default set to 64. The maximum size is 992.

• MaxScanBatchSize

  The batch size is the size of each batch sent from each data node. Most scans are performed in parallel to protect the MySQL Server from receiving too much data from many nodes in parallel; this parameter sets a limit to the total batch size over all nodes.

  The default value of this parameter is set to 256KB. Its maximum size is 16MB.

• NodeId1, NodeId2

  To identify a connection between two nodes it is necessary to provide their node IDs in the [TCP] section of the configuration file. These are the same unique Id values for each of these nodes as described in Section 15.4.4.6, “Defining SQL and Other API Nodes”.

• SendBufferMemory

  TCP transporters use a buffer to store all messages before performing the send call to the operating system. When this buffer reaches 64KB its contents are sent; these are also sent when a round of messages have been executed. To handle temporary overload situations it is also possible to define a bigger send buffer. The default size of the send buffer is 256 KB. The minimum size is 64 KB; the theoretical maximum is 4 GB.

• SendSignalId

  To be able to retrace a distributed message datagram, it is necessary to identify each message. When this parameter is set to Y, message IDs are transported over the network. This feature is disabled by default in production builds, and enabled in -debug builds.

• Checksum

  This parameter is a boolean parameter (enabled by setting it to Y or 1, disabled by setting it to N or 0). It is disabled by default. When it is enabled, checksums for all messages are calculated before they placed in the send buffer. This feature ensures that messages are not corrupted while waiting in the send buffer, or by the transport mechanism.

• PortNumber (OBSOLETE)

  This formerly specified the port number to be used for listening for connections from other nodes. This parameter should no longer be used.

• ReceiveBufferMemory

  Specifies the size of the buffer used when receiving data from the TCP/IP socket. There is seldom any need to change this parameter from its default value of 64 KB, except possibly to save memory. The minimum possible value is 16K; the theoretical maximum is 4G.

• NodeId1, NodeId2

  To identify a connection between two nodes it is necessary to provide node identifiers for each of them, as NodeId1 and NodeId2.

• ShmKey

  When setting up shared memory segments, a node ID, expressed as an integer, is used to identify uniquely the shared memory segment to use for the communication. There is no default value.

• ShmSize

  Each SHM connection has a shared memory segment where messages between nodes are placed by the sender and read by the reader. The size of this segment is defined by ShmSize. The default value is 1MB.

• SendSignalId

  To retrace the path of a distributed message, it is necessary to provide each message with a unique identifier. Setting this parameter to Y causes these message IDs to be transported over the network as well. This feature is disabled by default in production builds, and enabled in -debug builds.

• Checksum

  This parameter is a boolean (Y/N) parameter which is disabled by default. When it is enabled, checksums for all messages are calculated before being placed in the send buffer.

  This feature prevents messages from being corrupted while waiting in the send buffer. It also serves as a check against data being corrupted during transport.

• NodeId1, NodeId2

  To identify a connection between two nodes it is necessary to provide node identifiers for each of them, as NodeId1 and NodeId2.

• Host1SciId0

  This identifies the SCI node ID on the first Cluster node (identified by NodeId1).

• Host1SciId1

  It is possible to set up SCI Transporters for failover between two SCI cards which then should use separate networks between the nodes. This identifies the node ID and the second SCI card to be used on the first node.

• Host2SciId0

  This identifies the SCI node ID on the second Cluster node (identified by NodeId2).

• Host2SciId1

  When using two SCI cards to provide failover, this parameter identifies the second SCI card to be used on the second node.

• SharedBufferSize

  Each SCI transporter has a shared memory segment used for communication between the two nodes. Setting the size of this segment to the default value of 1MB should be sufficient for most applications. Using a smaller value can lead to problems when performing many parallel inserts; if the shared buffer is too small, this can also result in a crash of the ndbd process.

• SendLimit

  A small buffer in front of the SCI media stores messages before transmitting them over the SCI network. By default, this is set to 8KB. Our benchmarks show that performance is best at 64KB but 16KB reaches within a few percent of this, and there was little if any advantage to increasing it beyond 8KB.

• SendSignalId

  To trace a distributed message it is necessary to identify each message uniquely. When this parameter is set to Y, message IDs are transported over the network. This feature is disabled by default in production builds, and enabled in -debug builds.

• Checksum

  This parameter is a boolean value, and is disabled by default. When Checksum is enabled, checksums are calculated for all messages before they are placed in the send buffer. This feature prevents messages from being corrupted while waiting in the send buffer. It also serves as a check against data being corrupted during transport.

• N: Node Restart

• IN: Initial Node Restart

• S: System Restart

• IS: Initial System Restart

• N: Node Restart

• IN: Initial Node Restart

• S: System Restart

• IS: Initial System Restart

• N: Node Restart

• IN: Initial Node Restart

• S: System Restart

• IS: Initial System Restart

• --ndb-connectstring=connect_string

  When using the NDB Cluster storage engine, this option specifies the management server that distributes cluster configuration data.

• --ndbcluster

  The NDB Cluster storage engine is necessary for using MySQL Cluster. If a mysqld binary includes support for the NDB Cluster storage engine, the engine is disabled by default. Use the --ndbcluster option to enable it. Use --skip-ndbcluster to explicitly disable the engine.

• --bind-address

  Causes ndbd to bind to a specific network interface. This option has no default value.

  This option was added in MySQL 5.1.12.

• --daemon, -d

  Instructs ndbd to execute as a daemon process. This is the default behavior. --nodaemon can be used to prevent the process from running as a daemon.

• --initial

  Instructs ndbd to perform an initial start. An initial start erases any files created for recovery purposes by earlier instances of ndbd. It also re-creates recovery log files. Note that on some operating systems this process can take a substantial amount of time.

  An --initial start is to be used only the very first time that the ndbd process is started because it removes all files from the Cluster filesystem and re-creates all REDO log files. The exceptions to this rule are:

  • When performing a software upgrade which has changed the contents of any files.

  • When restarting the node with a new version of ndbd.

  • As a measure of last resort when for some reason the node restart or system restart repeatedly fails. In this case, be aware that this node can no longer be used to restore data due to the destruction of the data files.

  This option does not affect either of the following:

  • Backup files that have already been created by the affected node

  • Cluster Disk Data files (see Section 15.11, “MySQL Cluster Disk Data Tables”).

  It is possible to achieve the same effect by deleting by other means (such as using rm -r -f) all files and directories in the data node's DataDir — with the possible exception of the BACKUP directory in DataDir, should you wish to retain any backups that have been created on that data node — and then starting ndbd without having to use the --initial option. This may be useful when scripting Cluster administrative tasks.

• --initial-start

  This option is used when performing a partial initial start of the cluster. Each node should be started with this option, as well as --no-wait-nodes.

  For example, suppose you have a 4-node cluster whose data nodes have the IDs 2, 3, 4, and 5, and you wish to perform a partial initial start using only nodes 2, 4, and 5 — that is, omitting node 3:

  ndbd --ndbd-nodeid=2 --no-wait-nodes=3 --initial-start
  ndbd --ndbd-nodeid=4 --no-wait-nodes=3 --initial-start
  ndbd --ndbd-nodeid=5 --no-wait-nodes=3 --initial-start
  

  This option was added in MySQL 5.1.9.

  Important

  Prior to MySQL 5.1.19, it was not possible to perform DDL operations involving Disk Data tables on a partially started cluster. (See Bug#24631.)

• --nowait-nodes=node_id_1[, node_id_2[, ...]]

  This option takes a list of data nodes which for which the cluster will not wait for before starting.

  This can be used to start the cluster in a partitioned state. For example, to start the cluster with only half of the data nodes (nodes 2, 3, 4, and 5) running in a 4-node cluster, you can start each ndbd process with --nowait-nodes=3,5. In this case, the cluster starts as soon as nodes 2 and 4 connect, and does not wait StartPartitionedTimeout milliseconds for nodes 3 and 5 to connect as it would otherwise.

  If you wanted to start up the same cluster as in the previous example without one ndbd — say, for example, that the host machine for node 3 has suffered a hardware failure — then start nodes 2, 4, and 5 with --no-wait-nodes=3. Then the cluster will start as soon as nodes 2, 4, and 5 connect and will not wait for node 3 to start.

  This option was added in MySQL 5.1.9.

• --nodaemon

  Instructs ndbd not to start as a daemon process. This is useful when ndbd is being debugged and you want output to be redirected to the screen.

• --nostart, -n

  Instructs ndbd not to start automatically. When this option is used, ndbd connects to the management server, obtains configuration data from it, and initializes communication objects. However, it does not actually start the execution engine until specifically requested to do so by the management server. This can be accomplished by issuing the proper START command in the management client (see Section 15.7.2, “Commands in the MySQL Cluster Management Client”).

• --config-file=filename, -f filename

  Instructs the management server as to which file it should use for its configuration file. This option must be specified. The filename defaults to config.ini.

  Note: This option also can be given as -c file_name, but this shortcut is obsolete and should not be used in new installations.

• --daemon, -d

  Instructs ndb_mgmd to start as a daemon process. This is the default behavior.

• --nodaemon

  Instructs ndb_mgmd not to start as a daemon process.

• --try-reconnect=number

  If the connection to the management server is broken, the node tries to reconnect to it every 5 seconds until it succeeds. By using this option, it is possible to limit the number of attempts to number before giving up and reporting an error instead.

• CLUSTERLOG ON

  Turns the cluster log on.

• CLUSTERLOG OFF

  Turns the cluster log off.

• CLUSTERLOG INFO

  Provides information about cluster log settings.

• node_id CLUSTERLOG category=threshold

  Logs category events with priority less than or equal to threshold in the cluster log.

• CLUSTERLOG FILTER severity_level

  Toggles cluster logging of events of the specified severity_level.