How to Build a Multi‑Node MySQL InnoDB Cluster from Scratch

1. Introduction

InnoDB Cluster setup can be divided into two scenarios:

(1) Experimental environment – use a sandbox to simulate instances, see the previous article and MySQL official documentation.

(2) Real multi‑server node environment – more complex, with limited reference material and several challenges.

The following summarizes the detailed process of building a multi‑node InnoDB Cluster.

2. Goal

Prepare four servers: node01, node02, node03 as cluster nodes, and node04 as the management node that creates the cluster and acts as the router.

Finally, a high‑availability cluster is built, with a router that clients connect to.

3. Architecture Overview

(1) Install base environment

node01, node02, node03 install mysql and mysql-shell.

node04 installs mysql-shell and mysql-router.

(2) Create cluster – on node01 configure MySQL, start it, then from node01 shell run dba.configureLocalInstance(); to make it ready, and from node04 shell run dba.createCluster() to create the cluster.

(3) Add nodes – configure node02 and node03 MySQL, start them, then from node04 shell run dba.addInstance() to add each node.

(4) Use router – start mysql‑router on node04 and let clients connect through it.

4. Detailed Build Steps

(1) Environment Installation

Configure /etc/hosts on each server, e.g.:

192.168.31.13 node03
192.168.31.228 node02
192.168.31.36 node01

Required software:

mysql-5.7.17-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz

mysql-shell-1.0.9-linux-glibc2.12-x86-64bit.tar.gz

mysql-router-2.1.3-linux-glibc2.12-x86-64bit.tar.gz

Install each on the respective servers.

1. MySQL

# Extract
 tar zxf mysql-5.7.17-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz
 mv mysql-5.7.17-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64 /usr/local/mysql-5.7
 cd /usr/local

 # Initialize instance
 mkdir data
 mysql-5.7/bin/mysqld --initialize-insecure --basedir=$PWD/mysql-5.7 --datadir=$PWD/data

 # Create mysql user
 groupadd mysql5.7
 useradd -g mysql5.7 mysql5.7
 chown -R mysql5.7:mysql5.7 /usr/local/mysql-5.7
 chown -R mysql5.7:mysql5.7 /usr/local/data

2. Shell

# Extract
 tar zxf mysql-shell-1.0.9-linux-glibc2.12-x86-64bit.tar.gz mysql-shell

3. Router

# Extract
 tar zxf mysql-router-2.1.3-linux-glibc2.12-x86-64bit.tar.gz mysql-router

(2) Create Cluster

Configure node01 MySQL and start it.

Switch to the mysql user: su mysql5.7 Edit my.cnf (e.g., /usr/local/data/my.cnf) with settings such as datadir, basedir, port, server_id=1, GTID mode, etc.

[mysqld]

datadir=/usr/local/data
basedir=/usr/local/mysql-5.7/
port=3306
socket=/usr/local/data/mysql.sock
server_id=1
gtid_mode=ON
enforce_gtid_consistency=ON
master_info_repository=TABLE
relay_log_info_repository=TABLE
binlog_checksum=NONE
log_slave_updates=ON
log_bin=binlog
binlog_format=ROW
transaction_write_set_extraction=XXHASH64

Start MySQL:

nohup /usr/local/mysql-5.7/bin/mysqld --defaults-file=data/my.cnf >data/nohup.out 2>&1 &

# Return to root
exit

Login and set the root password:

/usr/local/mysql-5.7/bin/mysql -uroot -h127.0.0.1 --skip-password
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'A123456';

Configure the instance with mysql‑shell:

bin/mysqlsh
shell.connect('root@localhost:3306');
dba.configureLocalInstance();

From node04, create the cluster:

bin/mysqlsh
shell.connect('root@node01:3306');
var cluster = dba.createCluster('myCluster');
cluster.status();

(3) Add Instance node02

Configure node02 MySQL and start it.

Edit my.cnf (same as node01 but with server_id=2). server_id=2 Configure with mysql‑shell on node02, then add to the cluster from node04:

bin/mysqlsh
shell.connect('root@localhost:3306');
dba.configureLocalInstance();
# Stop MySQL, edit my.cnf to add:
# group_replication_allow_local_disjoint_gtids_join=ON
# Restart MySQL
# From node04:
cluster.addInstance('root@node02:3306');
cluster.status();

(4) Add Instance node03

Same steps as node02, but set server_id=3 and add with

cluster.addInstance('root@node03:3306');

(5) Install Router

On node04, start mysql‑router:

mysqlrouter --bootstrap root@ic-1:3306 --directory myrouter --name=myrouter
myrouter/start.sh

Clients can now connect to the router.

5. Summary

Download links:

https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/shell/
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/router/

Choose the Linux Generic version for all components.