A MySQL server that is part of a MySQL Cluster differs in one chief respect from a normal (nonclustered) MySQL server, in that it employs the NDB storage engine. This engine is also referred to as NDBCLUSTER, and the two forms of the name are synonymous, although the shorter “NDB” is now preferred.

To avoid unnecessary allocation of resources, the server is configured by default with the NDB storage engine disabled. To enable NDB, you must modify the server's my.cnf configuration file, or start the server with the --ndbcluster option.

For more information about --ndbcluster and other MySQL server options specific to MySQL Cluster, see Section 17.3.4.2, “MySQL Server Options for MySQL Cluster”.

The MySQL server is a part of the cluster, so it also must know how to access a management node to obtain the cluster configuration data. The default behavior is to look for the management node on localhost. However, should you need to specify that its location is elsewhere, this can be done in my.cnf or on the MySQL server command line. Before the NDB storage engine can be used, at least one management node must be operational, as well as any desired data nodes.

In MySQL Cluster NDB 7.3.1 and later, you can use the provided configuration wizard to set up and deploy a MySQL Cluster on one or more hosts using a browser-based GUI. For more information, see Section 17.3.6, “The MySQL Cluster Configuration Wizard”.