The MySQL Cluster Management API, also known as the MGM API, is a C-language programming interface intended to provide administrative services for the cluster. These include starting and stopping Cluster nodes, handling Cluster logging, backups, and restoration from backups, as well as various other management tasks. A conceptual overview of MGM and its uses can be found in Chapter 3, The MGM API.

The MGM API's principal structures model the states of individual modes (ndb_mgm_node_state), the state of the Cluster as a whole (ndb_mgm_cluster_state), and management server response messages (ndb_mgm_reply). See Section 3.4, “MGM Structures”, for detailed descriptions of these.