SQL Cluster hardware/software questions

[Leon Croese]

Hi All,

I have been reading a lot about the MySQL Cluster software in the past weeks.
Almost every FAQ, documentation or other webpage and ofcourse this forum.

I do have a couple of questions before I spent a lot of money to new equipment.

Please correct me if I am wrong:

(1) the SQL node is place where incoming SQL queries come in and the SQL node performs the query at the SQL Cluster and return the results? Is this correct?
(2) the Management node is only used to manage the SQL Cluster like starting, stopping, backups etc?
(3) the Data node is place where the data is actually stored I assume?
(4) Can we combine the SQL and data node to 1 server?
(5) Can we combine the Management and SQL node to 1 server?


After these questions I am coming to the next one:

(6) what are the hardware requirements for each node? The data node should be scsi and a lot of RAM installed but should the SQL and Management nodes be the same or can they run without lots of RAM etc?

I have read a lot about the memory usage of the Cluster.

(7) Is it true now to say, if you have only 4 Gb of ram in the server it is nonsense to have 150 Gb of disk space in the server (ofcourse the os and software takes some but not 100 Gb) ?

(8) Does anyone has already the MySQL Cluster running with FreeBSD as I read it is not official supported?

My original plan was:

3 hosts

2 x Data+SQL node (Dual Opteron, 4 Gb RAM, 6 x 36 Gb SCSI RAID 5, 2 x Gb SCSI RAID 1 for OS)
1 x Management node (Intel P4, 2 Gb RAM, 2 x 80 Gb SATA RAID1)



But I hope I can make a good decision with the awnser to the questions above.
Thanks in advance !