Installing MariaDB alongside MySQL

MariaDB is a drop in place replacement for MySQL, but you can also install it alongside MySQL. (This can be useful, for example, if you want to migrate databases/applications one by one.)

Here are the steps to install MariaDB near an existing MySQL installation.

• Download the compiled binary tar.gz that contains the latest version (mariadb-5.5.24-linux-x86_64.tar.gz - as of writing this article) and extract the files in a directory of your choice. I will assume for this article that the directory was /opt.

[root@mariadb-near-mysql ~]# cat /etc/issue
CentOS release 6.2 (Final)

[root@mariadb-near-mysql ~]# rpm -qa mysql*
mysql-5.1.61-1.el6_2.1.x86_64
mysql-libs-5.1.61-1.el6_2.1.x86_64
mysql-server-5.1.61-1.el6_2.1.x86_64

[root@mariadb-near-mysql ~]# ps axf | grep mysqld
 2072 pts/0    S+     0:00          \_ grep mysqld
 1867 ?        S      0:01 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock ...
 1974 ?        Sl     0:06  \_ /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql ...

• Create data directory and symlinks as below:

[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# mkdir mariadb-data
[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# ln -s mariadb-5.5.24-linux-x86_64 mariadb
[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# ls -al
total 20
drwxr-xr-x.  5 root root 4096 2012-06-06 07:27 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 23 root root 4096 2012-06-06 06:38 ..
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root   27 2012-06-06 07:27 mariadb -> mariadb-5.5.24-linux-x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 13 root root 4096 2012-06-06 07:07 mariadb-5.5.24-linux-x86_64
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 4096 2012-06-06 07:26 mariadb-data

• Create group „mariadb” and user „mariadb” and set correct ownerships:

[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# groupadd --system mariadb
[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# useradd -c "MariaDB Server" -d /opt/mariadb -g mariadb --system mariadb
[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# chown -R mariadb:mariadb mariadb-5.5.24-linux-x86_64/
[root@mariadb-near-mysql opt]# chown -R mariadb:mariadb mariadb-data/