Cluster Utilities Revealed
Ever wonder what all those binaries with names starting in “ndb” were doing in mysql/bin? Not surprisingly, they’re MySQL Cluster monitoring, utility, and demonstration programs, and after a couple of fun-filled weeks of experimenting with them (and asking a few of the usual sorts of silly questions I’m know for asking in the right quarters) I’ve been able to document most of them in a new Cluster Utility Programs section of the MySQL Manual (I’ve linked to the 5.1 version, but they’re available in 4.1 and 5.0, too).
If you’ve not looked at these before, check them out. A couple of them — like ndb_waiter and ndb_desc — are handy for monitoring a MySQL Cluster or getting information about NDB tables and other Cluster data objects; others — such as ndb_select_all and ndb_delete_all — can accomplish some basic maintenance tasks on large tables, sometimes faster than can be done using mysqld. And if you’re interested in writing Cluster apps against the NDB API, you’ll find that these might provide some nice examples to help get you started.
I’ve not yet added a description of ndb_config to the Manual, but I’ll try my best to do so in the next day or two. Otherwise, the list of utilities that have been documetned in the MySQL Manual is fairly complete.
Nice work, and thanks for mentioning it. I linked to this item in Log Buffer #10
Dave Edwards.Log Buffer
Thanks, Dave!
Links are always appreciated - I hope the new material proves useful.
I’ve received some new info from some of the devs and QA folks and will be adding the missing description of
ndb_configto that section — and more about availablendb_mgmdoptions to the corresponding section of the Manual as well — in the next day or so.[…] Jon Stephens has also looked into the darker corners, of MySQL clustering in this case. On his My So-Called Blog, he briefly describes what he found there, and points to the Cluster Utility Programs section of the MySQL Manual which he authored. […]