Senior DevOps Technical Writer
MariaDB is an open-source relational database management system, commonly used as an alternative for MySQL as the database portion of the popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack. It is intended to be a drop-in replacement for MySQL.
The short version of this installation guide consists of these three steps:
apt
mariadb-server
package using apt
. The package also pulls in related tools to interact with MariaDBmysql_secure_installation
security script to restrict access to the server- sudo apt update
- sudo apt install mariadb-server
- sudo mysql_secure_installation
This tutorial will explain how to install MariaDB on a Debian 11 server and verify that it is running and has a safe initial configuration.
As of this writing, Debian 11’s default software repositories include MariaDB version 10.5.15. It is marked as the default MySQL variant by the Debian MySQL/MariaDB packaging team.
To install it, update the package index on your server with apt
:
- sudo apt update
Then install the package:
- sudo apt install mariadb-server
These commands will install MariaDB, but will not prompt you to set a password or make any other configuration changes. Because the default configuration leaves your installation of MariaDB insecure, you will use a script that the mariadb-server
package provides to restrict access to the server and remove unused accounts.
For new MariaDB installations, the next step is to run the included security script. This script changes some of the less secure default options for things like remote root logins and sample users.
Run the security script:
- sudo mysql_secure_installation
This will take you through a series of prompts where you can make some changes to your MariaDB installation’s security options. The first prompt will ask you to enter the current database root password. Since you have not set one up yet, press ENTER
to indicate “none”.
OutputNOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MariaDB
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MariaDB to secure it, you'll need the current
password for the root user. If you've just installed MariaDB, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.
Enter current password for root (enter for none):
You’ll be asked if you want to switch to unix socket authentication. Since you already have a protected root account, you can skip this step. Type n
and then press ENTER
.
Output. . .
Setting the root password or using the unix_socket ensures that nobody
can log into the MariaDB root user without the proper authorisation.
You already have your root account protected, so you can safely answer 'n'.
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n] n
The next prompt asks you whether you’d like to change the root password. On Debian 11, the root account for MariaDB is tied closely to automated system maintenance, so you should not change the configured authentication methods for that account.
Doing so would make it possible for a package update to break the database system by removing access to the administrative account. Type n
and then press ENTER
.
OutputChange the root password? [Y/n]
Later, you’ll go over how to set up an additional administrative account for password access if socket authentication is not appropriate for your use case.
From there, you can press Y
and then ENTER
to accept the defaults for all the subsequent questions. This will remove some anonymous users and the test database, disable remote root logins, and load these new rules so that MariaDB immediately implements the changes you have made.
With that, you’ve finished MariaDB’s initial security configuration. The next step is an optional one, though you should follow it if you prefer to authenticate to your MariaDB server with a password.
On Debian systems running MariaDB 10.5, the root MariaDB user is set to authenticate using the unix_socket
plugin by default rather than with a password. This allows for some greater security and usability in many cases, but it can also complicate things when you need to allow an external program (e.g., phpMyAdmin) administrative rights.
Because the server uses the root account for tasks like log rotation and starting and stopping the server, it is best not to change the root account’s authentication details. Changing credentials in the /etc/mysql/debian.cnf
configuration file may work initially, but package updates could potentially overwrite those changes. Instead of modifying the root account, the package maintainers recommend creating a separate administrative account for password-based access.
To this end, we will create a new account called admin with the same capabilities as the root account, but configured for password authentication. Open up the MariaDB prompt from your terminal:
- sudo mariadb
Then create a new user with root privileges and password-based access. Be sure to change the username and password to match your preferences:
- GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Flush the privileges to ensure that they are saved and available in the current session:
- FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Following this, exit the MariaDB shell:
- exit
Finally, let’s test the MariaDB installation.
When installed from the default repositories, MariaDB will start running automatically. To test this, check its status.
- sudo systemctl status mariadb
You’ll receive output that is similar to the following:
Output● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.5.15 database server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-03-11 22:01:33 UTC; 14min ago
Docs: man:mariadbd(8)
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
. . .
If MariaDB isn’t running, you can start it with the command sudo systemctl start mariadb
.
For an additional check, you can try connecting to the database using the mysqladmin
tool, which is a client that allows you to run administrative commands. For example, this command says to connect to MariaDB as root using the Unix socket and return the version:
- sudo mysqladmin version
You will receive output similar to this:
Outputmysqladmin Ver 9.1 Distrib 10.5.15-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu on x86_64
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Server version 10.5.15-MariaDB-0+deb11u1
Protocol version 10
Connection Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime: 4 min 20 sec
Threads: 1 Questions: 72 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 32 Open tables: 25 Queries per second avg: 0.276
In this guide you installed the MariaDB relational database management system, and secured it using the mysql_secure_installation
script that it came installed with. You also had the option to create a new administrative user that uses password authentication before testing the MariaDB server’s functionality.
Now that you have a running and secure MariaDB server, here some examples of next steps that you can take to work with the server:
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Deciding whether or not to upgrade MariaDB depends on several factors related to your current setup and specific needs. Here are some things to consider when deciding if an upgrade is necessary or beneficial for you:
Reasons to Consider Upgrading MariaDB:
Security Updates:
New Features:
Compatibility with Other Software:
mysqlclient
, PHP’smysqli
) are optimized or require newer versions of MariaDB to take advantage of new capabilities or optimizations.End of Life (EOL) Concerns:
Bug Fixes:
Performance Enhancements:
Reasons You Might Hold Off on Upgrading:
Stability and Compatibility:
Upgrade Complexity:
New Features Not Needed:
When You Should Definitely Upgrade:
How to Upgrade Safely:
Backup Your Data: Before any upgrade, ensure you have full backups of your databases.
Test in a Staging Environment: Set up a clone of your production environment in a staging area and test the upgrade thoroughly before applying it to production.
Read the Release Notes: Review the MariaDB release notes for the version you’re upgrading to. These will inform you about any breaking changes, deprecated features, and enhancements.
Plan for Downtime: Schedule the upgrade during off-peak hours and inform users in advance, in case you need to take the database offline during the process.
I’ve inherited a MatterMost stack with a MariaDB back-end, and I’ve been working to familiarize myself with the upgrade process. This article was super helpful. Thanks Alex!