MariaDB Server Docker Official Image Environment Variables

Complete guide to MariaDB in Docker. Complete resource for container deployment, volume management, networking, and environment setup for production use.

When you start the image, you can adjust the initialization of the MariaDB Server instance by passing one or more environment variables on the docker run command line. Do note that all of the variables below, except MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE, will have no effect if you start the container with a data directory that already contains a database: any pre-existing database will always be left untouched on container startup.

All tags from 10.6 and above, MARIADB_* variables will be used in preference to MYSQL_* variables.

One of the following is required: MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD_HASH, MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD, MARIADB_ALLOW_EMPTY_ROOT_PASSWORD, or MARIADB_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD (including *_FILE equivalents).

Other environment variables are optional.

MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD_HASH / MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD / MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD

This specifies the password that will be set for the MariaDB root superuser account.

MARIADB_ALLOW_EMPTY_ROOT_PASSWORD / MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD

Set to a non-empty value, like 1, to allow the container to be started with a blank password for the root user.

Setting this variable to yes is not recommended unless you really know what you are doing, since this will leave your MariaDB instance completely unprotected, allowing anyone to gain complete superuser access.

MARIADB_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD / MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD

Define a non-empty value, such as "yes," to auto-generate a random initial password for the root user. The password will be output to stdout, prefixed with "GENERATED ROOT PASSWORD: ...".

MARIADB_ROOT_HOST / MYSQL_ROOT_HOST

% is the default hostname part of the root user in MariaDB. This can be changed to any valid hostname. Setting it to localhost restricts root access to only the local machine via the Unix socket.

MARIADB_DATABASE / MYSQL_DATABASE

This variable allows you to specify the name of a database to be created on image startup.

MARIADB_USER / MYSQL_USER, MARIADB_PASSWORD_HASH / MARIADB_PASSWORD / MYSQL_PASSWORD

To create a new user with full access permissions in MariaDB, both user and password variables are required, along with a designated database. This new user will be granted comprehensive privileges (GRANT ALL) to the specified MARIADB_DATABASE. Note that this method should not be utilized for creating the root superuser, as this user is automatically created with the password provided by the MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD or MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD variable.

MARIADB_MYSQL_LOCALHOST_USER / MARIADB_MYSQL_LOCALHOST_GRANTS

Set MARIADB_MYSQL_LOCALHOST_USER to a non-empty value to create the mysql@localhost database user. This user is useful for health checks and backup scripts. The mysql@localhost user gets USAGE privileges by default. If more access is needed, additional global privileges can be provided as a comma-separated list. Be cautious when sharing a volume containing MariaDB's unix socket (/var/run/mysqld by default) as privileges beyond USAGE may pose security risks. This user can also be used with mariadb-backup. Refer to healthcheck.sh for required privileges for each health check test.

MARIADB_HEALTHCHECK_GRANTS

Set MARIADB_HEALTHCHECK_GRANTS to the grants required to be given to the healthcheck@localhost, healthcheck@127.0.0.1, healthcheck@::1, users. When not specified the default grant is USAGE.

The main value used here will be [REPLICA MONITOR](../../../reference/sql-statements/account-management-sql-statements/grant.md#replica-monitor) for the [healthcheck --replication](using-healthcheck-sh.md) test.

MARIADB_INITDB_SKIP_TZINFO / MYSQL_INITDB_SKIP_TZINFO

By default, the entrypoint script automatically loads the timezone data needed for the CONVERT_TZ() function. If it is not needed, any non-empty value disables timezone loading.

MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE / MARIADB_DISABLE_UPGRADE_BACKUP

Set MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE to a non-empty value to have the entrypoint check whether mariadb-upgrade needs to run, and if so, run the upgrade before starting the MariaDB server.

Before the upgrade, a backup of the system database is created in the top of the datadir with the name system_mysql_backup_*.sql.zst. This backup process can be disabled by setting MARIADB_DISABLE_UPGRADE_BACKUP to a non-empty value.

If MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE is set, and the .my-healthcheck.cnf file is missing, the healthcheck users are recreated if they don't exist, MARIADB_HEALTHCHECK_GRANTS grants are given, the passwords of the healthcheck users are reset to a random value and the .my-healthcheck.cnf file is recreated with the new password populated.

MARIADB_MASTER_HOST

When specified, the container will connect to this host and replicate from it.

MARIADB_REPLICATION_USER / MARIADB_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_HASH / MARIADB_REPLICATION_PASSWORD

When MARIADB_MASTER_HOST is defined, MARIADB_REPLICATION_USER and MARIADB_REPLICATION_PASSWORD will be used to connect to the master. When not specified, the MARIADB_REPLICATION_USER will be created with the REPLICATION REPLICA grants needed for a client to initiate replication.

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