Infrastructure Setup

Three virtual machines running Windows 10 x64 form the cluster:

• Management node: 192.168.37.128
• Data node + SQL node: 192.168.37.129
• Data node + SQL node: 192.168.37.130

Each machine running both data and SQL nodes consolidates roles for smaller deployments.

Downloading MySQL Cluster

Obtain the distribution from the official MySQL downloads page (mysql-cluster-gpl-7.5.6-winx64.zip). Alternative mirror sources are available if the primary download is slow.

Management Node Configuration

On the management server (192.168.37.128), establish the following directory structure under C:\mysql\bin:

C:\mysql\bin\
├── config.ini
├── my.ini
├── ndb_mgm.exe
├── ndb_mgmd.exe
├── cluster-logs\
└── mysql-cluster\

my.ini:

[mysql_cluster]
config-file=C:/mysql/bin/config.ini

config.ini:

[NDBD DEFAULT]
NoOfReplicas=2
DataDir=D:/mysqlCluster/datanode/mysql/bin/cluster-data
DataMemory=80M
IndexMemory=18M

[MYSQLD DEFAULT]
[NDB_MGMD DEFAULT]
[TCP DEFAULT]

[NDB_MGMD]
Nodeid=1
HostName=192.168.37.128
DataDir=C:/mysql/cluster-logs

[NDBD]
Nodeid=2
HostName=192.168.37.130

[NDBD]
Nodeid=3
HostName=192.168.37.129

[MYSQLD]
Nodeid=4
HostName=192.168.37.130

[MYSQLD]
Nodeid=5
HostName=192.168.37.129

The NoOfReplicas=2 setting means each data fragment has two copies distributed acrosss nodes, ensuring fault tolerance if one node fails.

Copy ndb_mgm.exe and ndb_mgmd.exe from the downloaded package's bin directory.

Data Node Configuration

On both data node servers (192.168.37.129 and 192.168.37.130), create the directory D:\mysqlCluster\datanode\mysql\bin\cluster-data.

my.ini for data nodes:

[mysql_cluster]
ndb-connectstring=192.168.37.128

Copy ndbd.exe from the downloaded package's bin directory to the data node bin folder.

SQL Node Configuraton

On both SQL servers, create D:\mysqlCluster\sqlnode\ and extract the MySQL Cluster package there. Rename the extracted folder to "mysql". Create a data subdirectory.

my.ini for SQL nodes:

[mysqld]
ndbcluster
ndb-connectstring=192.168.37.128

Service Registration

Run the following commands with administrator privileges. First, initialize the data directory if it doesn't exist (required for versions 5.7+):

mysqld --initialize-insecure
mysqld --install mysql

Use --initialize-insecure for root accounts without passwords, or --initialize for auto-generated random passwords.

Copy the entire D:\mysqlCluster directory to 192.168.37.130 and repeat the service registration step.

Startup Procedure

Launch nodes in this sequence: management → data → SQL. Each category must stabilize before proceeding.

Management node startup:

cd C:\mysql\bin
ndb_mgmd -f C:\mysql\bin\config.ini --configdir=C:\mysql\mysql-cluster

Include --reload to force configuraton reload.

Data node startup (on both data servers):

cd D:\mysqlCluster\datanode\mysql\bin
ndbd

SQL node startup: Start the MySQL Windows service normally. Once management and data nodes are operational, SQL nodes connect automatically.

Verification

Connect to the cluster from either SQL node:

cd D:\mysqlCluster\sqlnode\mysql\bin
mysql -u root

Execute the following test sequence:

CREATE DATABASE cluster_test;
USE cluster_test;

CREATE TABLE regions (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  region_code VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
  region_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=ndbcluster;

INSERT INTO regions (region_code, region_name) VALUES ('NA', 'North America');

Query the table from the other SQL node to confirm cluster-wide replication:

SELECT * FROM regions;

Successful cross-node query results confirm proper cluster operation.