22.2.1.2 Using the NDB Cluster Auto-Installer

The Auto-Installer is provided together with the NDB Cluster software. Separate RPM and .deb packages containing only the Auto-Installer are also available for many Linux distributions. (See Section 22.2, “NDB Cluster Installation”.)

The present section explains how to start the installer. You can do by invoking the ndb_setup.py executable.

ndb_setup.py is found in the bin within the NDB Cluster installation directory; a typical location might be /usr/local/mysql/bin on a Linux system or C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin on a Windows system. This can vary according to where the NDB Cluster software is installed on your system, and the installation method.

On Windows, you can also start the installer by running setup.bat in the NDB Cluster installation directory. When invoked from the command line, this batch file accepts the same options as ndb_setup.py.

ndb_setup.py can be started with any of several options that affect its operation, but it is usually sufficient to allow the default settings be used, in which case you can start ndb_setup.py by either of the following two methods:

In either case, once ndb_setup.py is invoked, the Auto-Installer's Welcome screen should open in the system's default web browser. If not, you should be able to open the page http://localhost:8081/welcome.html or https://localhost:8081/welcome.html manually in the browser.

In some cases, you may wish to use non-default settings for the installer, such as specifying HTTPS for connections, or a different port for the Auto-Installer's included web server to run on, in which case you must invoke ndb_setup.py with one or more startup options with values overriding the necessary defaults. The same startup options can be used on Windows systems with the setup.bat file supplied for such platforms in the NDB Cluster software distribution. This can be done using the command line, but if you want or need to start the installer from a desktop or file browser while employing one or more of these options, it is also possible to create a script or batch file containing the proper invocation, then to double-click its file icon in the file browser to start the installer. (On Linux systems, you might also need to make the script file executable first.) If you plan to use the Auto-Installer from a remote host, you should start using the -S option. For information about this and other advanced startup options for the NDB Cluster Auto-Installer, see Section 22.4.26, “ndb_setup.py — Start browser-based Auto-Installer for NDB Cluster”.

The Welcome screen is loaded in the default browser when ndb_setup.py is invoked. The first time the Auto-Installer is run (or if for some other reason there are no existing configurations), this screen appears as shown here:

Figure 22.7 The NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Welcome screen, first run

In this case, the only choice of cluster listed is for configuration of a new cluster, and both the View Cfg and Continue buttons are inactive.

To create a new configuration, enter and confirm a passphrase in the text boxes provided. When this has been done, you can click Continue to proceed to the Define Cluster screen where you can assign a name to the new cluster.

If you have previously created one or more clusters with the Auto-Installer, they are listed by name. This example shows an existing cluster named mycluster-1:

Figure 22.8 The NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Welcome screen, with previously created cluster mycluster-1

To view the configuration for and work with a given cluster, select the radiobutton next to its name in the list, then enter and confirm the passphrase that was used to create it. When you have done this correctly, you can click View Cfg to view and edit this cluster's configuration.

The Define Cluster screen is appears following the Welcome screen, and is used for setting general properties of the cluster. The layout of the Define Cluster screen is shown here:

Figure 22.9 The NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Define Cluster screen

This screen and subsequent screens also include Settings and Help menus which are described later in this section; see NDB Cluster Installer Settings and Help Menus.

The Define Cluster screen allows you to set three sorts of properties for the cluster: cluster properties, SSH properties, and installation properties.

Cluster properties that can be set on this screen are listed here:

SSH properties are described in the following list:

The SSH properties set on this page apply to all hosts in the cluster. They can be overridden for a given host by editing that hosts's properties on the Define Hosts screen.

Two installation properties can also be set on this screen:

The next figure shows the Define Cluster page with settings for a small test cluster with all nodes running on localhost:

Figure 22.10 The NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Define Cluster screen, with settings for a test cluster

After making the desired settings, you can save them to the configuration file and proceed to the Define Hosts screen by clicking the Save & Next button.

If you exit the installer without saving, no changes are made to the configuration file.

The Define Hosts screen, shown here, provides a means of viewing and specifying several key properties of each cluster host:

Figure 22.11 NDB Cluster Define Hosts screen, start

Properties shown include the following:

This screen also provides an extended view for each host that includes the following properties:

The extended view is shown here:

Figure 22.12 NDB Cluster Define Hosts screen, extended host info view

All cells in the display are editable, with the exceptions of those in the Host, Res.info, and FQDN columns.

Be aware that it may take some time for information to be retrieved from remote hosts. Fields for which no value could be retrieved are indicated with an ellipsis (…). You can retry the fetching of resource information from one or more hosts by selecting the hosts in the list and then clicking the Refresh selected host(s) button.

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Adding and Removing Hosts

You can add one or more hosts by clicking the Add Host button and entering the required properties where indicated in the Add new host dialog, shown here:

Figure 22.13 NDB Cluster Add Host dialog

This dialog includes the following fields:

To save the new host and its properties, click Add. If you wish to cancel without saving any changes, click Cancel instead.

Similarly, you can remove one or more hosts using the button labelled Remove selected host(s). When you remove a host, any process which was configured for that host is also removed.

If the SSH user credentials on the Define Cluster screen are changed, the Auto-Installer attempts to refresh the resource information from any hosts for which information is missing.

You can edit the host's platform name, hardware resource information, installation directory, and data directory by clicking the corresponding cell in the grid, by selecting one or more hosts and clicking the button labelled Edit selected host(s). This causes a dialog box to appear, in which these fields can be edited, as shown here:

Figure 22.14 NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Edit Hosts dialog

When more than one host is selected, any edited values are applied to all selected hosts.

Once you have entered all desired host information, you can use the Save & Next button to save the information to the cluster's configuration file and proceed to the Define Processes screen, where you can set up NDB Cluster processes on one or more hosts.

The Define Processes screen, shown here, provides a way to assign NDB Cluster processes (nodes) to cluster hosts:

Figure 22.15 NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Define Processes dialog

This screen contains a process tree showing cluster hosts and processes set up to run on each one, as well as a panel which displays information about the item currently selected in the tree.

When this screen is accessed for the first time for a given cluster, a default set of processes is defined for you, based on the number of hosts. If you later return to the Define Hosts screen, remove all hosts, and add new hosts, this also causes a new default set of processes to be defined.

NDB Cluster processes are of the types described in this list:

For more information about process (node) types, see Section 22.1.1, “NDB Cluster Core Concepts”.

Processes shown in the tree are numbered sequentially by type, for each host—for example, SQL node 1, SQL node 2, and so on—to simplify identification.

Each management node, data node, or SQL process must be assigned to a specific host, and is not allowed to run on any other host. An API node may be assigned to a single host, but this is not required. Instead, you can assign it to the special Any host entry which the tree also contains in addition to any other hosts, and which acts as a placeholder for processes that are allowed to run on any host. Only API processes may use this Any host entry.

Adding processes.  To add a new process to a given host, either right-click that host's entry in the tree, then select the Add process popup when it appears, or select a host in the process tree, and press the Add process button below the process tree. Performing either of these actions opens the add process dialog, as shown here:

Figure 22.16 NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Add Process Dialog

Here you can select from among the available process types described earlier this section; you can also enter an arbitrary process name to take the place of the suggested value, if desired.

Removing processes.  To delete a process, select that process in the tree and use the Del process button.

When you select a process in the process tree, information about that process is displayed in the information panel, where you can change the process name and possibly its type. You can change a multi-threaded data node (ndbmtd) to a single-threaded data node (ndbd), or the reverse, only; no other process type changes are allowed. If you want to make a change between any other process types, you must delete the original process first, then add a new process of the desired type.

Like the Define Processes screen, this screen includes a process tree; the Define Parameters process tree is organized by process or node type, in groups labelled Management Layer, Data Layer, SQL Layer, and API Layer. An information panel displays information regarding the item currently selected. The Define Attributes screen is shown here:

Figure 22.17 NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Define Parameters screen

The checkbox labelled Show advanced configuration, when checked, makes advanced options for data node and SQL node processes visible in the information pane. These options are set and used whether or not they are visible. You can also enable this behavior globally by checking Show advanced configuration options under Settings (see NDB Cluster Installer Settings and Help Menus).

You can edit attributes for a single process by selecting that process from the tree, or for all processes of the same type in the cluster by selecting one of the Layer folders. A per-process value set for a given attribute overrides any per-group setting for that attribute that would otherwise apply to the process in question. An example of such an information panel (for an SQL process) is shown here:

Figure 22.18 Define Parameters—Process Attributes

Attributes whose values can be overridden are shown in the information panel with a button bearing a plus sign. This + button activates an input widget for the attribute, enabling you to change its value. When the value has been overridden, this button changes into a button showing an X. The X button undoes any changes made to a given attribute, which immediately reverts to the predefined value.

All configuration attributes have predefined values calculated by the installer, based such factors as host name, node ID, node type, and so on. In most cases, these values may be left as they are. If you are not familiar with it already, it is highly recommended that you read the applicable documentation before making changes to any of the attribute values. To make finding this information easier, each attribute name shown in the information panel is linked to its description in the online NDB Cluster documentation.

This screen allows you to perform the following tasks:

The Deploy Configuration screen is shown here:

Figure 22.19 NDB Cluster Auto-Installer Deploy Configuration screen

Like the Define Parameters screen, this screen features a process tree which is organized by process type. Next to each process in the tree is a status icon indicating the current status of the process: connected (CONNECTED), starting (STARTING), running (STARTED), stopping (STOPPING), or disconnected (NO_CONTACT). The icon shows green if the process is connected or running; yellow if it is starting or stopping; red if the process is stopped or cannot be contacted by the management server.

This screen also contains two information panels, one showing the startup command or commands needed to start the selected process. (For some processes, more than one command may be required—for example, if initialization is necessary.) The other panel shows the contents of the configuration file, if any, for the given process.

This screen also contains four buttons, labelled as and performing the functions described in the following list:

The Auto-Installer generates a config.ini file containing NDB node parameters for each management node, as well as a my.cnf file containing the appropriate options for each mysqld process in the cluster. No configuration files are created for data nodes or API nodes.