> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/release-notes/enterprise-server/about/mariadb-enterprise-server-differences/differences-in-available-plugins-for-enterprise-server.md).

# Differences in Available Plugins for Enterprise Server

The availability, maturity, and package inclusions of [plugins](/docs/server/reference/plugins/plugin-overview.md) continuously change from version to version to maintain a predictable operational ecosystem:

## MariaDB Enterprise Server 11.8

* [**caching\_sha2\_password**](/docs/server/reference/plugins/authentication-plugins/authentication-plugin-caching_sha2_password.md#overview) **Plugin**: This authentication plugin was added to provide MySQL-compatible authentication, allowing users to be moved from MySQL to MariaDB without changing their passwords (it is not installed by default). It also shipped in the Enterprise Server 11.4 maintenance series.
* [**HashiCorp Vault**](/docs/server/server-management/automated-mariadb-deployment-and-administration/hashicorp-vault-and-mariadb.md) **Upgrade**: Namespace support was added to HashiCorp Vault to integrate with HashiCorp enterprise namespaces.
* [**file\_key\_management**](/docs/server/security/encryption/data-at-rest-encryption/key-management-and-encryption-plugins/file-key-management-encryption-plugin.md) **Encryption Plugin**: This plugin can now read keys from a named pipe instead of just local files. It also added key rotation capability along with a new Information Schema table named [FILE\_KEY\_MANAGEMENT\_KEYS](/docs/server/reference/system-tables/information-schema/information-schema-tables/information-schema-file_key_management_keys.md).
* [**Enterprise Audit**](/docs/server/reference/plugins/mariadb-enterprise-audit.md) **Buffering**: Audit logging buffer writes are now possible, controlled by the server\_audit\_file\_buffer\_size variable, with synchronous flushing of buffered writes to disk controlled by `server_audit_sync_log_file`.

## MariaDB Enterprise Server 11.4

* **`PARSEC` Authentication**: This plugin (Password Authentication using Response Signed with Elliptic Curve) is included as a backported feature. It uses salted passwords, pbkdf2 key derivation, and signed responses to mitigate replay and man-in-the-middle attacks.
* [**password\_reuse\_check**](/docs/server/reference/plugins/password-validation-plugins/password-reuse-check-plugin.md) **Plugin**: Included as a backported feature to prevent users from reusing previous passwords. *(Note: Upgrading this plugin to version 2.0 alters the data storage format to fix a weakness under* [*MDEV-28838*](https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-28838)*, which invalidates older v1.0 history)*.
* [**SQL Error Log**](/docs/server/server-management/server-monitoring-logs/sql-error-log-plugin.md) **Plugin**: Enhanced to display the active thread ID and the default schema for errors when `sql_error_log_with_db_and_thread_info=ON` is set.

## MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.6

* **Object Filtering for Audit**: Advanced filtering was added to MariaDB Enterprise Audit, allowing administrators to define JSON filters (`ignore_databases`, `ignore_tables`, `log_databases`, `log_tables`) to restrict logging to specific databases or tables. This capability was also backported to [Enterprise Server 10.5.12-8](/docs/release-notes/enterprise-server/old-releases/10.5/10.5.12-8.md) and [Enterprise Server 10.4.21-13](/docs/release-notes/enterprise-server/old-releases/10.4/10.4.21-13.md).

## MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.5

* [**ColumnStore Storage Engine Plugin**](/docs/analytics/mariadb-columnstore/architecture/columnstore-storage-engine-overview.md): MariaDB ColumnStore 5 was introduced as an integrated enterprise plugin to provide distributed columnar storage for analytical workloads.
* [**Spider Storage Engine Plugin**](/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/spider-storage-engine-introduction.md): Updated to support an ODBC foreign data wrapper and added the[ information\_schema.SPIDER\_WRAPPER\_PROTOCOLS](/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/spider/information-schema-spider_wrapper_protocols-table.md) system table.
* **Plugin Phase-outs & Repository Splits**:
  * [**TokuDB**](/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/legacy-storage-engines/tokudb/tokudb-overview.md) **and** [**Cassandra**](/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/legacy-storage-engines/cassandra.md): Both storage engine plugins were removed from the installation packages in 10.5. They were subsequently removed from the server codebase entirely in 10.6.
  * [**CONNECT Storage Engine**](/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/connect.md): Moved from the main Enterprise repository to an "unsupported" repository. To ensure it functions, you must explicitly include the `--include-unsupported` flag in the `mariadb_es_repo_setup` script, or else the library `ha_connect.so` will be unavailable.

## MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4

* **Aria System Tables**: System tables transitioned to use the crash-safe Aria storage engine plugin by default.
* **Multi-Plugin Authentication**: Added the ability to specify multiple authentication plugins for an individual user account using `OR` fallback constraints (e.g., executing `IDENTIFIED VIA unix_socket OR mysql_native_password`).

## Querying Plugin Information

Because your specific installation state depends on repository definitions (such as whether the `unsupported` repository is active), documentation can diverge from real-time database deployments. You can dynamically query plugin availability via the following database interface methods:

### Using `SHOW PLUGINS`

The simplest statement to review all loaded plugins and identify hard-coded components:

```sql
SHOW PLUGINS;
```

*Mechanic:* If a plugin's `Library` column returns a `NULL` value, the plugin is natively built-in and cannot be uninstalled.

### Using `information_schema.PLUGINS`

To filter plugins systematically by maturity level, type, or library names:

```sql
SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, 
       PLUGIN_STATUS, 
       PLUGIN_TYPE, 
       PLUGIN_MATURITY,
       PLUGIN_LIBRARY 
FROM information_schema.PLUGINS 
WHERE PLUGIN_STATUS = 'ACTIVE'
ORDER BY PLUGIN_NAME;
```

*Mechanic:* If the `PLUGIN_LIBRARY` column is `NULL`, the plugin is built-in and cannot be uninstalled.

### Using `mysql.plugin`

To see exactly which plugins have been explicitly installed onto the database system registry:

```sql
SELECT name, dl FROM mysql.plugin;
```

*Critical Nuance:* This table only retains records for plugins explicitly loaded via the `INSTALL SONAME` statement, the `INSTALL PLUGIN` statement, or the offline `mariadb-plugin` utility. It does not contain information about built-in plugins or plugins loaded temporarily at server startup using the `--plugin-load` or `--plugin-load-add` configuration options.


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