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Chapter 10. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Tables

by Bryan Hinton — last modified Jul 03, 2009 05:08 PM

Chapter 10. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Tables
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Chapter 10. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Tables

Table of Contents

10.1. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Objects
10.2. Using Symbolic Links with Disk Data Objects
10.3. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Storage Requirements

Beginning with MySQL 5.1.6, it is possible to store the nonindexed columns of NDB tables on disk, rather than in RAM as with previous versions of MySQL Cluster.

As part of implementing MySQL Cluster Disk Data work, a number of improvements were made in MySQL Cluster for the efficient handling of very large amounts (terabytes) of data during node recovery and restart. These include a “no-steal” algorithm for synchronising a starting node with very large data sets. For more information, see the paper Recovery Principles of MySQL Cluster 5.1, by MySQL Cluster developers Mikael Ronström and Jonas Oreland.

MySQL Cluster Disk Data performance can be influenced by a number of configuration parameters. For information about these parameters and their effects, see MySQL Cluster Disk Data configuration parameters and MySQL Cluster Disk Data storage and GCP Stop errors

The performance of a MySQL Cluster that uses Disk Data storage can also be greatly improved by separating data node file systems from undo log files and tablespace data files, which can be done using symbolic links. For more information, see Section 10.2, “Using Symbolic Links with Disk Data Objects”.

10.1. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Objects

MySQL Cluster Disk Data storage is implemented using a number of Disk Data objects. These include the following:

  • Tablespaces act as containers for other Disk Data objects.

  • Undo log files undo information required for rolling back transactions.

  • One or more undo log files are assigned to a log file group, which is then assigned to a tablespace.

  • Data files store Disk Data table data. A data file is assigned directly to a tablespace.

Undo log files and data files are actual files in the filesystem of each data node; by default they are placed in ndb_node_id_fs in the DataDir specified in the MySQL Cluster config.ini file, and where node_id is the data node's node ID. It is possible to place these elsewhere by specifying either an absolute or relative path as part of the filename when creating the undo log or data file. Statements that create these files are shown later in this section.

MySQL Cluster tablespaces and log file groups are not implemented as files.

Important

Although not all Disk Data objects are implemented as files, they all share the same namespace. This means that each Disk Data object must be uniquely named (and not merely each Disk Data object of a given type). For example, you cannot have a tablespace and a log file group both named dd1.

Assuming that you have already set up a MySQL Cluster with all nodes (including management and SQL nodes) running MySQL 5.1.6 or newer, the basic steps for creating a Cluster table on disk are as follows:

  1. Create a log file group, and assign one or more undo log files to it (an undo log file is also sometimes referred to as an undofile).

    Note

    In MySQL 5.1 and later, undo log files are necessary only for Disk Data tables. They are no longer used for NDBCLUSTER tables that are stored only in memory.

  2. Create a tablespace; assign the log file group, as well as one or more data files, to the tablespace.

  3. Create a Disk Data table that uses this tablespace for data storage.

Each of these tasks can be accomplished using SQL statements in the mysql client or other MySQL client application, as shown in the example that follows.

  1. We create a log file group named lg_1 using CREATE LOGFILE GROUP. This log file group is to be made up of two undo log files, which we name undo_1.log and undo_2.log, whose initial sizes are 16 MB and 12 MB, respectively. (The default initial size for an undo log file is 128 MB.) Optionally, you can also specify a size for the log file group's undo buffer, or allow it to assume the default value of 8 MB. In this example, we set the UNDO buffer's size at 2 MB. A log file group must be created with an undo log file; so we add undo_1.log to lg_1 in this CREATE LOGFILE GROUP statement: 

    CREATE LOGFILE GROUP lg_1
    ADD UNDOFILE 'undo_1.log'
    INITIAL_SIZE 16M
    UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE 2M
    ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;

    To add undo_2.log to the log file group, use the following ALTER LOGFILE GROUP statement: 

    ALTER LOGFILE GROUP lg_1
    ADD UNDOFILE 'undo_2.log'
    INITIAL_SIZE 12M
    ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;

    Some items of note:

    • The .log file extension used here is not required. We use it merely to make the log files easily recognisable.

    • Every CREATE LOGFILE GROUP and ALTER LOGFILE GROUP statement must include an ENGINE clause. In MySQL 5.1, the permitted values for this clause are NDBCLUSTER and NDB.

      Important

      In MySQL 5.1.8 and later, there can exist only one log file group in the same MySQL Cluster at any given time.

    • When you add an undo log file to a log file group using ADD UNDOFILE 'filename', a file with the name filename is created in the ndb_node_id_fs directory within the DataDir of each data node in the cluster, where node_id is the node ID of the data node. Each undo log file is of the size specified in the SQL statement. For example, if a MySQL Cluster has 4 data nodes, then the ALTER LOGFILE GROUP statement just shown creates 4 undo log files, 1 each on in the data directory of each of the 4 data nodes; each of these files is named undo_2.log and each file is 12 MB in size.

    • UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE is limited by the amount of system memory available.

    • For more information about the CREATE LOGFILE GROUP statement, see CREATE LOGFILE GROUP Syntax. For more information about ALTER LOGFILE GROUP, see ALTER LOGFILE GROUP Syntax.

  2. Now we can create a tablespace, which contains files to be used by MySQL Cluster Disk Data tables for storing their data. A tablespace is also associated with a particular log file group. When creating a new tablespace, you must specify the log file group which it is to use for undo logging; you must also specify a data file. You can add more data files to the tablespace after the tablespace is created; it is also possible to drop data files from a tablespace (an example of dropping data files is provided later in this section).

    Assume that we wish to create a tablespace named ts_1 which uses lg_1 as its log file group. This tablespace is to contain two data files named data_1.dat and data_2.dat, whose initial sizes are 32 MB and 48 MB, respectively. (The default value for INITIAL_SIZE is 128 MB.) We can do this using two SQL statements, as shown here: 

    CREATE TABLESPACE ts_1
    ADD DATAFILE 'data_1.dat'
    USE LOGFILE GROUP lg_1
    INITIAL_SIZE 32M
    ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;
ALTER TABLESPACE ts_1
    ADD DATAFILE 'data_2.dat'
    INITIAL_SIZE 48M
    ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;

    The CREATE TABLESPACE statement creates a tablespace ts_1 with the data file data_1.dat, and associates ts_1 with log file group lg_1. The ALTER TABLESPACE adds the second data file (data_2.dat).

    Some items of note:

    • As is the case with the .log file extension used in this example for undo log files, there is no special significance for the .dat file extension; it is used merely for easy recognition of data files.

    • When you add a data file to a tablespace using ADD DATAFILE 'filename', a file with the name filename is created in the ndb_node_id_fs directory within the DataDir of each data node in the cluster, where node_id is the node ID of the data node. Each undo log file is of the size specified in the SQL statement. For example, if a MySQL Cluster has 4 data nodes, then the ALTER TABLESPACE statement just shown creates 4 undo log files, 1 each on in the data directory of each of the 4 data nodes; each of these files is named data_2.dat and each file is 48 MB in size.

    • All CREATE TABLESPACE and ALTER TABLESPACE statements must contain an ENGINE clause; only tables using the same storage engine as the tablespace can be created in the tablespace. In MySQL 5.1, the only permitted values for this clause are NDBCLUSTER and NDB.

    • For more information about the CREATE TABLESPACE and ALTER TABLESPACE statements, see CREATE TABLESPACE Syntax, and ALTER TABLESPACE Syntax.

  3. Now it is possible to create a table whose nonindexed columns are stored on disk in the tablespace ts_1: 

    CREATE TABLE dt_1 (
    member_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    last_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    first_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    dob DATE NOT NULL,
    joined DATE NOT NULL,
    INDEX(last_name, first_name)
    )
    TABLESPACE ts_1 STORAGE DISK
    ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;

    The TABLESPACE ... STORAGE DISK option tells the NDBCLUSTER storage engine to use tablespace ts_1 for disk data storage.

    Note

    Beginning with MySQL Cluster NDB 6.2.5 and MySQL Cluster NDB 6.3.2, it is also possible to specify whether an individual column is stored on disk or in memory by using a STORAGE clause as part of the column's definition in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement. STORAGE DISK causes the column to be stored on disk, and STORAGE MEMORY causes in-memory storage to be used. See CREATE TABLE Syntax, for more information.

    Once table ts_1 has been created as shown, you can perform INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements on it just as you would with any other MySQL table.

    For table dt_1 as it has been defined here, only the dob and joined columns are stored on disk. This is because there are indexes on the id, last_name, and first_name columns, and so data belonging to these columns is stored in RAM. In MySQL 5.1, only nonindexed columns can be held on disk; indexes and indexed column data continue to be stored in memory. This tradeoff between the use of indexes and conservation of RAM is something you must keep in mind as you design Disk Data tables.

Performance note.  The performance of a cluster using Disk Data storage is greatly improved if Disk Data files are kept on a separate physical disk from the data node file system. This must be done for each data node in the cluster to derive any noticeable benefit.

You may use absolute and relative file system paths with ADD UNDOFILE and ADD DATAFILE. Relative paths are calculated relative to the data node's data directory. You may also use symbolic links; see Section 10.2, “Using Symbolic Links with Disk Data Objects”, for more information and examples.

A log file group, a tablespace, and any Disk Data tables using these must be created in a particular order. The same is true for dropping any of these objects:

  • A log file group cannot be dropped as long as any tablespaces are using it.

  • A tablespace cannot be dropped as long as it contains any data files.

  • You cannot drop any data files from a tablespace as long as there remain any tables which are using the tablespace.

  • Beginning with MySQL 5.1.12, it is no longer possible to drop files created in association with a different tablespace than the one with which the files were created. (Bug#20053)

For example, to drop all the objects created so far in this section, you would use the following statements: 

mysql> DROP TABLE dt_1;
mysql> ALTER TABLESPACE ts_1
    -> DROP DATAFILE 'data_2.dat'
    -> ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;
mysql> ALTER TABLESPACE ts_1
    -> DROP DATAFILE 'data_1.dat'
    -> ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;
mysql> DROP TABLESPACE ts_1
    -> ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;
mysql> DROP LOGFILE GROUP lg_1
    -> ENGINE NDBCLUSTER;

These statements must be performed in the order shown, except that the two ALTER TABLESPACE ... DROP DATAFILE statements may be executed in either order.

You can obtain information about data files used by Disk Data tables by querying the FILES table in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database. An extra “NULL row” was added to this table in MySQL 5.1.14 for providing additional information about undo log files. For more information and examples of use, see The INFORMATION_SCHEMA FILES Table.

10.2. Using Symbolic Links with Disk Data Objects

The performance of a MySQL Cluster that uses Disk Data storage can be greatly improved by separating data node file systems from undo log files and tablespace data files and placing these on different disks. While there is currently no direct support for this in MySQL Cluster, it is possible to achieve this separation using symbolic links.

Each data node in the cluster creates a file system in the directory named ndb_node_id_fs under the data node's DataDir as defined in the config.ini file. In this example, we assume that each data node host has 3 disks, aliased as /data0, /data1, and /data2, and that the cluster's config.ini includes the following: 

[ndbd default]
DataDir= /data0

Our objective is to place all Disk Data log files in /data1, and all Disk Data data files in /data2, on each data node host.

Note

In this example, we assume that the cluster's data node hosts are all using Linux operating systems. For other platforms, you may need to substitute you operating system's commands for those shown here.

To accomplish this, perform the following steps:

  • Under the data node file system create symbolic links pointing to the other drives: 

    shell> cd /data0/ndb_2_fs
shell> ls
D1  D10  D11  D2  D8  D9  LCP
shell> ln -s /data0 dnlogs
shell> ln -s /data1 dndata

    You should now have two symbolic links: 

    shell> ls -l --hide=D*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user group   30 2007-03-19 13:58 dndata -> /data1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user group   30 2007-03-19 13:59 dnlogs -> /data2

    We show this only for the data node with node ID 2; however, you must do this for each data node.

  • Now, in the mysql client, create a log file group and tablespace using the symbolic links, as shown here: 

    mysql> CREATE LOGFILE GROUP lg1
    ->    ADD UNDOFILE 'dnlogs/undo1.log'
    ->    INITIAL_SIZE 150M
    ->    UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE = 1M
    ->    ENGINE=NDBCLUSTER;
mysql> CREATE TABLESPACE ts1
    ->    ADD DATAFILE 'dndata/data1.log'
    ->    USE LOGFILE GROUP lg1
    ->    INITIAL_SIZE 1G
    ->    ENGINE=NDBCLUSTER;

    Verify that the files were created and placed correctly as shown here: 

    shell> cd /data1
shell> ls -l
total 2099304
-rw-rw-r--  1 user group 157286400 2007-03-19 14:02 undo1.dat
shell> cd /data2
shell> ls -l
total 2099304
-rw-rw-r--  1 user group 1073741824 2007-03-19 14:02 data1.dat

  • If you are running multiple data nodes on one host, you must take care to avoid having them try to use the same space for Disk Data files. You can make this easier by creating a symbolic link in each data node filesystem. Suppose you are using /data0 for both data node filesystems, but you wish to have the Disk Data files for both nodes on /data1. In this case, you can do something similar to what is shown here: 

    shell> cd /data0
shell> ln -s ndb_2_fs/dd /data1/dn2
shell> ln -s ndb_3_fs/dd /data1/dn3
shell> ls -l --hide=D* ndb_2_fs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user group   30 2007-03-19 14:22 dd -> /data1/dn2
shell> ls -l --hide=D* ndb_3_fs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user group   30 2007-03-19 14:22 dd -> /data1/dn3

    Now you can create a logfile group and tablespace using the symbolic link, like this: 

    mysql> CREATE LOGFILE GROUP lg1
    ->    ADD UNDOFILE 'dd/undo1.log'
    ->    INITIAL_SIZE 150M
    ->    UNDO_BUFFER_SIZE = 1M
    ->    ENGINE=NDBCLUSTER;
mysql> CREATE TABLESPACE ts1
    ->    ADD DATAFILE 'dd/data1.log'
    ->    USE LOGFILE GROUP lg1
    ->    INITIAL_SIZE 1G
    ->    ENGINE=NDBCLUSTER;

    Verify that the files were created and placed correctly as shown here: 

    shell> cd /data1
shell> ls
dn2        dn3
shell> ls dn2
undo1.log        data1.log
shell> ls dn3
undo1.log        data1.log

10.3. MySQL Cluster Disk Data Storage Requirements

The following items apply to Disk Data storage requirements:

  • Variable-length columns of Disk Data tables take up a fixed amount of space. For each row, this is equal to the space required to store the largest possible value for that column.

    For general information about calculating these values, see Data Type Storage Requirements.

    You can obtain an estimate the amount of space available in data files and undo log files by querying the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.FILES table. For more information and examples, see The INFORMATION_SCHEMA FILES Table.

    Note

    The OPTIMIZE TABLE statement does not have any effect on Disk Data tables.

  • In a Disk Data table, the first 256 bytes of a TEXT or BLOB column are stored in memory; only the remainder is stored on disk.

  • Each row in a Disk Data table uses 8 bytes in memory to point to the data stored on disk. This means that, in some cases, converting an in-memory column to the disk-based format can actually result in greater memory usage. For example, convering a CHAR(4) column from memory-based to disk-based format increases the amount of DataMemory used per row from 4 to 8 bytes.

Important

Starting the cluster with the --initial option does not remove Disk Data files. You must remove these manually prior to performing an initial restart of the cluster.

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