10 Easy Steps to Upgrade from MySQL to MariaDB on CentOS 6.4

This article describes you how to upgrade MySQL to MariaDB in ten simple steps. We have already shown you How to Migrate from MySQL to MariaDB on FreeBSD. I assume that you already have installed MySQL latest version and it’s up and running now.

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Step1 : Backup MySQL Databases

[root@server ~]#  mysqldump --all-databases --user=root --password --master-data > backupdatabase.sql
Enter password: 
-- Warning: Skipping the data of table mysql.event. Specify the --events option explicitly.

This command will backup all databases and save them in the current directory.

Step 2: Stop MySQL service

[root@server ~]# service mysqld stop
Stopping mysqld:                                           [  OK  ]
[root@server ~]# chkconfig mysqld off

Step 3: Remove MySQL

Remove all MySQL packages now:

[root@server ~]# yum remove mysql* mysql-server mysql-devel mysql-libs

The above command will take the backup of your current MySQL config file /etc/my.cnf to /etc/my.cnf.rpmsave.

Step 4: Install REMI Repository to resolve MySQL Compatibility issue

You will probably get dependencies errors while installing MariaDB. So let us add REMI Repository to solve dependencies problems.

Thanks to AskMonty Knowledgebase to help me to solve the dependencies issues.

[root@server ~]# rpm -ivh http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm

Install compat-mysql55 package now:

[root@server ~]# yum --enablerepo=remi-test --disablerepo=remi install compat-mysql55

Step 5: Install MariaDb

Create a repository file for MariaDB and add the following lines:

For 32bit systems:

[root@server ~]# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
# MariaDB 5.5 CentOS repository list - created 2013-06-06 07:42 UTC
# http://mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/5.5/centos6-x86
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

For 64bit systems:

[root@server ~]# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo

#
MariaDB 5.5 CentOS repository list - created 2013-06-06 07:53 UTC
#
http://mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/ [mariadb] name = MariaDB baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/5.5/centos6-amd64 gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB gpgcheck=1

Save and exit the file and run yum update command:

[root@server ~]# yum update

Now start installing MariaDB:

[root@server ~]# yum install MariaDB-devel MariaDB-client MariaDB-server -y

Step 6: Start MariaDB service

[root@server ~]# service mysql start
Starting MySQL...... SUCCESS! 
[root@server ~]# chkconfig mysql on

Step 7: Set MySQL root password

[root@server ~]# /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation 
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation: line 379: find_mysql_client: command not found

NOTE: 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, we'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): 
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.

You already have a root password set, so you can safely answer 'n'.

Change the root password? [Y/n] y
New password: 
Re-enter new password: 
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
 ... Success!

By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] 
 ... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] 
 ... Success!

By default, MariaDB comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] 
 - Dropping test database...
ERROR 1008 (HY000) at line 1: Can't drop database 'test'; database doesn't exist
 ... Failed!  Not critical, keep moving...
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] 
 ... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MariaDB!

Step 8: Restore /etc/my.cnf config file

Now copy the contents of the file /etc/my.cnf.rpmsave to /etc/my.cnf file:

[root@server ~]# cp /etc/my.cnf.rpmsave /etc/my.cnf
cp: overwrite `/etc/my.cnf'? y

Step 9: Import Database

Now import the database backup which we created back in Step 1:

[root@server ~]# mysql -u root -p < backupdatabase.sql 
Enter password:

Step 10: Restart MariaDB service

[root@server ~]# service mysql restart
Shutting down MySQL.. SUCCESS! 
Starting MySQL...... SUCCESS!

That’s it. Login to the MySQL server and check for the old databases and tables.

Sample outputs

[root@server ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 2
Server version: 5.5.31-MariaDB-log MariaDB Server

Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle, Monty Program Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]>

Check Databases:

MariaDB [(none)]> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| unixmen            |
+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Check the status of the of database server:

MariaDB [(none)]> status;
--------------
mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 5.5.31-MariaDB, for Linux (i686) using readline 5.1

Connection id:        3
Current database:    
Current user:        root@localhost
SSL:            Not in use
Current pager:        stdout
Using outfile:        ''
Using delimiter:    ;
Server:            MariaDB
Server version:        5.5.31-MariaDB-log MariaDB Server
Protocol version:    10
Connection:        Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset:    latin1
Db     characterset:    latin1
Client characterset:    utf8
Conn.  characterset:    utf8
UNIX socket:        /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Uptime:            6 min 15 sec

Threads: 1  Questions: 7  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 0  Flush tables: 2  Open tables: 8  Queries per second avg: 0.018
--------------

Verify the tables:

MariaDB [(none)]> use unixmen;
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
MariaDB [unixmen]> show tables;
+-------------------+
| Tables_in_unixmen |
+-------------------+
| sample            |
+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

If you seen the output like shown above, you’re done. You successfully upgraded from MySQL to MariaDB.