Re: database bigger than the RAM ?

[Stewart Smith]

This is true - however, you can cheat and add swap space. Then, telling ndbd to use more memory, or running more ndbd processes, you can have a database bigger than your physical memory. HOWEVER, you will be hitting swap and be at the mercy of a number of factors. Performance may suck... but then again, it may be good enough for you.

With linux, you can easily add swap temporarily from a file. something like:
dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile1 bs=1024 count=10000

(increase bs and count as appropriate)
mkswap swapfile1
swapon swapfile1

Remmeber though, if you're using a 32bit machine, you'll probably have to use funky kernel options and those horrible extended memory modes of the x86.

Would be interested to see how you go.

But Harisson is right - the best way is to add more machines or add more RAM (preferably both).