MySQL Reference Manual :: 16.4 MySQL Cluster Configuration

A MySQL server that is part of a MySQL Cluster differs in only one respect from a normal (non-clustered) MySQL server, in that it employs the NDB Cluster storage engine. This engine is also referred to simply as NDB, and the two forms of the name are synonomous.

In order to avoid unnecessary allocation of resources, the server is configured by default with the NDB storage engine disabled. To enable NDB, you will need to modify the server's my.cnf configuration file, or start it with the --ndbcluster option.

Since the MySQL server is a part of the cluster, it will also need to know how to access an MGM node in order to obtain the cluster configuration data. The default behavior is to look for the MGM node on localhost. However, should you need to specify its location elsewhere, this can be done in my.cnf or on the MySQL server command line. Before the NDB storage engine can be used, at least one MGM node must be operational, as well as any desired data nodes.