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Talk about groovy Cluster!

Wow, MySQL Cluster (part of MySQL 4.1-Max) is really a hot topic with MySQL users. I did that talk for a local group last night, but I’ve already noticed this at various conferences.

There is lots of interest in the general concepts, but I am also getting plenty of questions about intricate details. Since it’s open source (GPL) just like all other MySQL Server code, you can just download the stuff and take a look. It’s also very easy to set up. In my recent Docs days, I wrote a little section on this in the manual: Quick Test Setup of MySQL Cluster gets you through the entire basic setup (including MySQL Server itself!) in less than 15 minutes. Now I don’t know about you, but I think that’s funky! The configuration is not yet as easy as it should be, so work is being done on that.

I think these aspects (and the fact that it can run just fine on cheapo hardware) have actually opened up the technology to a whole new group of users, as many not-so-huge installations also have high demands on availability (and performance). I expected some shift, but not this far in this short space of time… the world has changed!
It’s cool to see all these people now “playing” with the cluster stuff. Excellent.

The SAGE-AU QLD venue was groovy too. This time their meeting was in the Access Grid Room at the university. The room was full. That is, with interested sysadmins as well as with AV gizmos. I understand they often do SAGE meetings live with Rockhampton (that’s 700km North of Brisbane), Canberra, Adelaide. Australia is a bit place, so it’s excellent to see this use of technology to bridge the distances!

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