21.4.3.12 NDB Cluster Shared Memory Connections

Communications between NDB cluster nodes are normally handled using TCP/IP. The shared memory (SHM) transporter is distinguished by the fact that signals are transmitted by writing in memory rather than on a socket. The shared-memory transporter (SHM) can improve performance by negating up to 20% of the overhead required by a TCP connection when running an API node (usually an SQL node) and a data node together on the same host. You can enable a shared memory connection in either of the two ways listed here:

• By setting the UseShm data node configuration parameter to 1, and setting HostName for the data node and HostName for the API node to the same value.

• By using [shm] sections in the cluster configuration file, each containing settings for NodeId1 and NodeId2. This method is described in more detail later in this section.

Suppose a cluster is running a data node which has node ID 1 and an SQL node having node ID 51 on the same host computer at 10.0.0.1. To enable an SHM connection between these two nodes, all that is necessary is to insure that the following entries are included in the cluster configuration file:

[ndbd]
NodeId=1
HostName=10.0.0.1
UseShm=1

[mysqld]
NodeId=51
HostName=10.0.0.1

Important

The two entries just shown are in addition to any other entries and parameter settings needed by the cluster. A more complete example is shown later in this section.

Before starting data nodes that use SHM connections, it is also necessary to make sure that the operating system on each computer hosting such a data node has sufficient memory allocated to shared memory segments. See the documentation for your operating platform for information regarding this. In setups where multiple hosts are each running a data node and an API node, it is possible to enable shared memory on all such hosts by setting UseShm in the [ndbd default] section of the configuration file. This is shown in the example later in this section.

While not strictly required, tuning for all SHM connections in the cluster can be done by setting one or more of the following parameters in the [shm default] section of the cluster configuration (config.ini) file:

• ShmSize: Shared memory size

• ShmSpinTime: Time in µs to spin before sleeping

• SendBufferMemory: Size of buffer for signals sent from this node, in bytes.

• SendSignalId: Indicates that a signal ID is included in each signal sent through the transporter.

• Checksum: Indicates that a checksum is included in each signal sent through the transporter.

• PreSendChecksum: Checks of the checksum are made prior to sending the signal; Checksum must also be enabled for this to work

This example shows a simple setup with SHM connections definied on multiple hosts, in an NDB Cluster using 3 computers listed here by host name, hosting the node types shown:

1. 10.0.0.0: The management server

2. 10.0.0.1: A data node and an SQL node

3. 10.0.0.2: A data node and an SQL node

In this scenario, each data node communicates with both the management server and the other data node using TCP transporters; each SQL node uses a shared memory transporter to communicate with the data nodes that is local to it, and a TCP transporter to communicate with the remote data node. A basic configuration reflecting this setup is enabled by the config.ini file whose contents are shown here:

[ndbd default]
DataDir=/path/to/datadir
UseShm=1

[shm default]
ShmSize=8M
ShmSpintime=200
SendBufferMemory=4M

[tcp default]
SendBufferMemory=8M

[ndb_mgmd]
NodeId=49
Hostname=10.0.0.0
DataDir=/path/to/datadir

[ndbd]
NodeId=1
Hostname=10.0.0.1
DataDir=/path/to/datadir

[ndbd]
NodeId=2
Hostname=10.0.0.2
DataDir=/path/to/datadir

[mysqld]
NodeId=51
Hostname=10.0.0.1

[mysqld]
NodeId=52
Hostname=10.0.0.2

[api]
[api]

Parameters affecting all shared memory transporters are set in the [shm default] section; these can be overridden on a per-connection basis in one or more [shm] sections. Each such section must be associated with a given SHM connection using NodeId1 and NodeId2; the values required for these parameters are the node IDs of the two nodes connected by the transporter. You can also identify the nodes by host name using HostName1 and HostName2, but these parameters are not required.

The API nodes for which no host names are set use the TCP transporter to communicate with data nodes independent of the hosts on which they are started; the parameters and values set in the [tcp default] section of the configuration file apply to all TCP transporters in the cluster.

For optimum performance, you can define a spin time for the SHM transporter (ShmSpinTime parameter); this affects both the data node receiver thread and the poll owner (receive thread or user thread) in NDB.

• Checksum

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	boolean
  Default	true
  Range	true, false
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  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.

• Group

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	unsigned
  Default	35
  Range	0 - 200
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  Determines the group proximity; a smaller value is interpreted as being closer. The default value is sufficient for most conditions.

• HostName1

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	name or IP address
  Default	[...]
  Range	...
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  The HostName1 and HostName2 parameters can be used to specify specific network interfaces to be used for a given SHM connection between two nodes. The values used for these parameters can be host names or IP addresses.

• HostName2

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	name or IP address
  Default	[...]
  Range	...
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  The HostName1 and HostName2 parameters can be used to specify specific network interfaces to be used for a given SHM connection between two nodes. The values used for these parameters can be host names or IP addresses.

• NodeId1

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	numeric
  Default	[none]
  Range	1 - 255
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

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

• NodeId2

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	numeric
  Default	[none]
  Range	1 - 255
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

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

• NodeIdServer

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	numeric
  Default	[none]
  Range	1 - 63
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  Identify the server end of a shared memory connection. By default, this is the node ID of the data node.

• OverloadLimit

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	bytes
  Default	0
  Range	0 - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  When more than this many unsent bytes are in the send buffer, the connection is considered overloaded.

  This parameter can be used to determine the amount of unsent data that must be present in the send buffer before the connection is considered overloaded. See Section 21.4.3.13, “Configuring NDB Cluster Send Buffer Parameters”, and Section 21.6.15.44, “The ndbinfo transporters Table”, for more information.

• PortNumber

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	unsigned
  Default	[...]
  Range	0 - 64K
  Removed	NDB 7.5.1
  Restart Type	System Restart: Requires a complete shutdown and restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  Set the port to be used by the SHM transporter.

• PreSendChecksum

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.6.6
  Type or units	boolean
  Default	false
  Range	true, false
  Added	NDB 7.6.6
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  If this parameter and Checksum are both enabled, perform pre-send checksum checks, and check all SHM signals between nodes for errors. Has no effect if Checksum is not also enabled.

• SendBufferMemory

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.6.6
  Type or units	integer
  Default	2M
  Range	256K - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Added	NDB 7.6.6
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  Size (in bytes) of the shared memory buffer for signals sent from this node using a shared memory connection.

• SendSignalId

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	boolean
  Default	false
  Range	true, false
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  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.

• ShmKey

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	unsigned
  Default	0
  Range	0 - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  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. If UseShm is enabled, the shared memory key is calculated automatically by NDB.

• ShmSize

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	bytes
  Default	1M
  Range	64K - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Version (or later)	NDB 7.6.6
  Type or units	bytes
  Default	4M
  Range	64K - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  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 in NDB 7.6 is 4MB.

• ShmSpinTime

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.6.6
  Type or units	integer
  Default	0
  Range	0 - 2000
  Added	NDB 7.6.6
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  When receiving, the time to wait before sleeping, in microseconds.

• SigNum

  Version (or later)	NDB 7.5.0
  Type or units	unsigned
  Default	[...]
  Range	0 - 4294967039 (0xFFFFFEFF)
  Deprecated	NDB 7.6.6
  Restart Type	Node Restart: Requires a rolling restart of the cluster. (NDB 7.5.0)

  This parameter is no longer used in NDB 7.6, in which any setting for it is ignored.

  The following applies only in NDB 7.5 (and earlier):

  When using the shared memory transporter, a process sends an operating system signal to the other process when there is new data available in the shared memory. Should that signal conflict with an existing signal, this parameter can be used to change it. This is a possibility when using SHM due to the fact that different operating systems use different signal numbers.

  The default value of SigNum is 0; therefore, it must be set to avoid errors in the cluster log when using the shared memory transporter. Typically, this parameter is set to 10 in the [shm default] section of the config.ini file.

Restart types.  Information about the restart types used by the parameter descriptions in this section is shown in the following table:

Table 21.20 NDB Cluster restart types

Symbol	Restart Type	Description
N	Node	The parameter can be updated using a rolling restart (see Section 21.6.5, “Performing a Rolling Restart of an NDB Cluster”)
S	System	All cluster nodes must be shut down completely, then restarted, to effect a change in this parameter
I	Initial	Data nodes must be restarted using the --initial option