5246 MySQL 8.0 FAQ: NDB Cluster You can obtain and compile NDB Cluster from source (see Section 23.2.1.4, “Building NDB Cluster from Source on Linux” , and Section 23.2.2.2, “Compiling and Installing NDB Cluster from Source on Windows” ), but for all but the most specialized cases, we recommend using one of the following installers provided by Oracle that is appropriate to your operating platform and circumstances: Installation packages may also be available from your platform’s package management system. You can determine whether your MySQL Server has  NDB  support using one of the statements  SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ’have_%’ ,  SHOW ENGINES , or  SHOW PLUGINS . “NDB”  stands for “ N etwork  D ata b ase” .  NDB  and  NDBCLUSTER  are both names for the storage engine that enables clustering support with MySQL.  NDB  is preferred, but either name is correct. In traditional MySQL replication, a source MySQL server updates one or more replicas. Transactions are committed sequentially, and a slow transaction can cause the replica to lag behind the source. This means that if the source fails, it is possible that the replica might not have recorded the last few transactions. If a transaction-safe engine such as  InnoDB  is being used, a transaction is either completed on the replica or not applied at all, but replication does not guarantee that all data on the source and the replica remains consistent at all times. In NDB Cluster, all data nodes are kept in synchrony, and a transaction committed by any one data node is committed for all data nodes. In the event of a data node failure, all remaining data nodes remain in a consistent state. In short, whereas standard MySQL replication is  asynchronous , NDB Cluster is  synchronous . Asynchronous replication is also available in NDB Cluster.  NDB Cluster Replication  (also sometimes known as “geo-replication” ) includes the capability to replicate both between two NDB Clusters, and from an NDB Cluster to a non-Cluster MySQL server. See Section 23.6, “NDB Cluster Replication” . NDB Cluster is intended to be used in a high-bandwidth environment, with computers connecting using TCP/IP. Its performance depends directly upon the connection speed between the cluster’s computers. The minimum connectivity requirements for NDB Cluster include a typical 100-megabit Ethernet network or the equivalent. We recommend you use gigabit Ethernet whenever available. A minimum of three computers is required to run a viable cluster. However, the minimum recommended  number of computers in an NDB Cluster is four: one each to run the management and SQL nodes, and two computers to serve as data nodes. The purpose of the two data nodes A.10.5. How many computers do I need to run an NDB Cluster, and why? A.10.4. Do I need any special networking to run NDB Cluster? How do computers in a cluster communicate? A.10.3. What is the difference between using NDB Cluster versus using MySQL Replication? A.10.2. What do “NDB”  and “NDBCLUSTER”  mean? •Windows MSI Installer •Windows binary “no-install”  release •Linux  .deb  file •Linux RPM package •Linux binary release ( tar.gz  file) •The web-based NDB Cluster Auto-Installer (works on all platforms supported by  NDB )