What's New in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4?

An overview of changes, improvements, and what's new in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4

MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4 introduces the following new features:

Enterprise Lifecycle

MariaDB Enterprise Server uses an enterprise lifecycle that provides optimized builds, predictable release behavior, and vendor support.

InnoDB Instant ALTER

Instant ALTER enables reliable and predictable schema change behavior.

Optimizer Trace

Optimizer Trace collects trace data to aid query optimization and diagnosis of query execution issues.

Temporal Data

Temporal data table support has been expanded from system-versioned tables to also include application-time period and bitemporal tables.

Enterprise Audit Plugin

MariaDB Enterprise Audit provides support for auditing resource access to MariaDB Enterprise Server.

Enterprise Backup

MariaDB Enterprise Backup enables non-blocking backups of MariaDB Enterprise Server.

Data-at-Rest Encryption

With data-at-rest encryption, data is encrypted before writing to the disk and decrypted when read from disk. MariaDB Enterprise Server extends data-at-rest encryption support to include:

• Encryption of Spatial indexes

• Key rotation when encrypting the InnoDB Redo Log

• Encryption of MariaDB Enterprise Cluster's write-set cache (GCache)

MariaDB Enterprise Cluster

MariaDB Enterprise Server includes support for MariaDB Enterprise Cluster, which incorporates Galera Cluster 4. New features include:

• Parallel replication and improved performance when blocks of grouped transactions can be committed without conflict.

• The Streaming replication, to eliminate transaction limitations by fragmenting huge transactions for replication.

• Rolling upgrades to permit a smooth transition of MariaDB Cluster deployments to Galera 4 functionality by operating as a Galera 3-compatible node until all nodes are Galera 4-compatible.

Data Reliability and SQL Functionality

MariaDB Enterprise Server includes changes to improve data reliability and SQL functionality:

• System tables use the Aria storage engine, making them crash-safe.

• UNIQUE index support for the BLOB data type.

• JSON data type validation.

• Parentheses in UNION, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT operations to control order of execution.

Enhanced Credential Management

MariaDB Enterprise Server features security improvements, including:

• Ability to reload SSL certificates without server restart.

• SET PASSWORD option to specify authentication plugins.

• Improved support for authentication plugins, including the ability to set multiple authentication plugins on individual users. Also supported is fallback on internal methods, such as password authentication.

• ALTER USER option for account locking, to enable MariaDB Enterprise Server to reject all new connections for an account.

• Account blocking based on number of failed login attempts.

• Ability to set password expiration dates.

• Logging of access when passwords are ignored, e.g., for password less authentication by UNIX socket.

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