1.4.3 Review of NDB Cluster Concepts

1.4.3.1 Selecting a Transaction Coordinator

1.4.3.2 NDB Record Structure

Abstract

This section covers the NDB Kernel, and discusses NDB Cluster transaction handling and transaction coordinators. It also describes NDB record structures and concurrency issues.

The NDB Kernel is the collection of data nodes belonging to an NDB Cluster. The application programmer can for most purposes view the set of all storage nodes as a single entity. Each data node is made up of three main components:

• TC: The transaction coordinator.

• ACC: The index storage component.

• TUP: The data storage component.

When an application executes a transaction, it connects to one transaction coordinator on one data node. Usually, the programmer does not need to specify which TC should be used, but in some cases where performance is important, the programmer can provide “hints” to use a certain TC. (If the node with the desired transaction coordinator is down, then another TC will automatically take its place.)

Each data node has an ACC and a TUP which store the indexes and data portions of the database table fragment. Even though a single TC is responsible for the transaction, several ACCs and TUPs on other data nodes might be involved in that transaction's execution.