Upgrade MariaDB Community Server from 10.3.X to 10.3.Y

Data Backup

Occasionally, issues can be encountered during upgrades. These issues can even potentially corrupt the database's data files, preventing you from easily reverting to the old installation. Therefore, it is generally best to perform a backup prior to upgrading. If an issue is encountered during the upgrade, you can use the backup to restore your MariaDB Server database to the old version. If the upgrade finishes without issue, then the backup can be deleted.

The instructions below show how to perform a backup using MariaDB Backup. For more information about backing up and restoring the database, please see the Recovery Guide.

1. Take a full backup.

   On MariaDB Community Server 10.4 and later:

   $ sudo mariadb-backup --backup \
         --user=mariabackup_user \
         --password=mariabackup_passwd \
         --target-dir=/data/backup/preupgrade_backup
   

   On MariaDB Community Server 10.3 and earlier:

   $ sudo mariabackup --backup \
         --user=mariabackup_user \
         --password=mariabackup_passwd \
         --target-dir=/data/backup/preupgrade_backup
   

   Confirm successful completion of the backup operation.

2. The backup must be prepared.

   On MariaDB Community Server 10.4 and later:

   $ sudo mariadb-backup --prepare \
         --target-dir=/data/backup/preupgrade_backup
   

   On MariaDB Community Server 10.3 and earlier:

   $ sudo mariabackup --prepare \
         --target-dir=/data/backup/preupgrade_backup
   

   Confirm successful completion of the prepare operation.

3. Backups should be tested before they are trusted.

Stop the MariaDB Server Process

Before the new version can be installed, we first need to stop the current MariaDB Server process.

1. Set the innodb_fast_shutdown system variable to 1:

   SET GLOBAL innodb_fast_shutdown = 1;
   

2. Use XA RECOVER to confirm that there are no external XA transactions in a prepared state:

   XA RECOVER;
   

   Commit or rollback any open XA transactions before stopping the node for upgrade.

3. Stop the server process:

   For distributions that use systemd (most supported OSes), you can manage the Server process using the systemctl command:

   $ sudo systemctl stop mariadb
   

Install the New Version

MariaDB Corporation provides package repositories for YUM (RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux), APT (Debian, Ubuntu), and ZYpp (SLES).

Configuration

For platforms that use YUM or ZYpp as a package manager:

MariaDB Community Server's packages bundle several configuration files:

• /etc/my.cnf

• /etc/my.cnf.d/client.cnf

• /etc/my.cnf.d/mysql-clients.cnf

• /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

If your version of any of these configuration files contained any custom edits, then the package manager may save your edited version with the .rpmsave extension during the upgrade process. If you want to continue using your version with the custom edits, then you may need to move it back. For example, to move server.cnf back in place:

$ sudo mv /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf.original
$ sudo mv /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf.rpmsave /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

Starting the Server

MariaDB Community Server includes configuration to start, stop, restart, enable/disable on boot, and check the status of the Server using the operating system default process management system.

For distributions that use systemd, you can manage the Server process using the systemctl command:

Upgrading the Data Directory

MariaDB Community Server ships with a utility that can be used to identify and correct compatibility issues in the new version. After you upgrade your Server and start the server process, run this utility to upgrade the data directory.

The utility is called mariadb-upgrade in MariaDB Community Server 10.4 and later:

$ sudo mariadb-upgrade

And the utility is called mysql_upgrade in MariaDB Community Server 10.3 and 10.2):

$ sudo mysql_upgrade

Testing

When MariaDB Community Server is up and running on your system, you should test that it is working and there weren't any issues during startup.

1. Connect to the server using MariaDB Client using the root@localhost user account.

   MariaDB Client is called mariadb (CS10.5, CS10.4) or mysql (CS10.3, CS10.2):

   $ sudo mysql
   Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
   Your MariaDB connection id is 9
   Server version: 10.3.39-MariaDB MariaDB Server
   
   Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
   
   Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
   
   MariaDB [(none)]>
   

   The version of the server can be verified by checking the client's initial output.

2. You can also verify the server version by checking the value of the version system variable with the SHOW GLOBAL STATUS statement:

   SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'version';
   

   +---------------+-----------------+
   | Variable_name | Value           |
   +---------------+-----------------+
   | version       | 10.3.39-MariaDB |
   +---------------+-----------------+
   

3. You can also verify the server version by calling the VERSION() function:

   SELECT VERSION();
   

   +-----------------+
   | VERSION()       |
   +-----------------+
   | 10.3.39-MariaDB |
   +-----------------+