MaxScale Trial

Evaluate MariaDB MaxScale with the free Trial version. Learn about its features and installation steps, limited only by a 30 day license key.

With the release of MaxScale 25.10.2, MariaDB has updated the MaxScale Trial experience to provide a more flexible evaluation period. This free version allows users to explore the latest GA features of MaxScale under a proprietary license.

Unlike previous versions, access to this trial is now managed via a specific license key. This key determines the duration of your evaluation period, providing a hands-on way to test MaxScale’s capabilities and performance within your environment before committing to an enterprise subscription.

The next section explains how to obtain your license key.

Getting the License Key

To use MaxScale 25.10.2 Trial mode, you must first obtain a trial license key from the MariaDB Customer Portal. This key validates your trial and determines the duration of your evaluation period.

1. Log in to MariaDB ID: Navigate to the MaxScale Trial License page. You will be prompted to sign in with your MariaDB ID. If you do not have an account, you can create one using your email, Google, GitHub, or LinkedIn credentials.

2. Generate the Key: Once logged in, follow the on-screen instructions to generate your unique MaxScale Trial license key.

3. Save the Key: Copy or download the generated key. You will need to provide this key during the MaxScale configuration process.

Obtaining MaxScale Trial

MaxScale Trial can be downloaded from the MariaDB Download page. Choose the correct version for your OS.

The downloaded file is a tar-package that must be extracted. Create a directory and extract the package into that.

mkdir maxscale
cd maxscale
tar -xf path/to/maxscale-25.10.2-trial-release.ubuntu.noble.x86_64.tar

The filename will be different for different OSs.

Installing MaxScale Trial

Enter the directory where the tar-package was extracted and execute on a Debian based system

sudo apt install ./*.deb

and on a RedHat based system

sudo dnf install ./*.rpm

When the MaxScale Trial package has been installed, a template MaxScale configuration file will be copied to /etc/maxscale.cnf.template and /etc/maxscale.cnf; the former for reference and the latter for actual use. The configuration file has been written with the assumption that a MariaDB server is running on the same machine where MaxScale is installed.

Before starting MaxScale, the license key must be specified and the database users needed by MaxScale must be created.

Configuring the License Key

Open /etc/maxscale.cnf and add a license_key entry to the [maxscale] section.

[maxscale]
...
license_key=...

The value of license_key can either be the license key itself or the absolute path to a file containing the license.

NOTE If the license is read from a file, it must be readable by the user maxscale.

Database Users used by MaxScale

MaxScale needs two database users for its own use; one user used by a MaxScale service for fetching user account information and another user used by the MaxScale monitor for monitoring the health of the MariaDB server and for performing operations on it. The same user can be used for both purposes, provided the user has all the grants needed by services and monitors.

In the following, the host is specified using '%', which means that MaxScale can access the server from anywhere. In a non-trial context, it is advisable to use the specific IP where MaxScale is running.

If you use the same user names and passwords - that is, service_user/service_pw and monitor_user/monitor_pw - you do not need to modify /etc/maxscale.cnf. Otherwise the user names and passwords must be updated accordingly.

Service User

The service user can be created with the following commands, executed using the mariadb command line utility.

CREATE USER 'service_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'service_pw';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.user TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.db TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.tables_priv TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.columns_priv TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.procs_priv TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.proxies_priv TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.roles_mapping TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON mysql.global_priv TO 'service_user'@'%';
GRANT SHOW DATABASES ON *.* TO 'service_user'@'%';

Monitor User

Creating the monitor user is more complicated, because the required GRANTs depend both on what monitor is used and on the exact server version. The GRANTs needed by the MariaDB Monitor, used for monitoring a regular MariaDB primary/replica cluster can be found here, but for initial testing the user can be given blanket rights:

CREATE USER 'monitor_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'monitor_pw';
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'monitor_user'@'%';

In a non-trial context, the monitor user should be granted only the GRANTs it really needs.

Configuring the REST-API

The command line utility maxctrl and the web UI MaxGUI communicate with MaxScale using a REST-API. By default, MaxGUI requires that TLS is enabled and it is configured as explained here.

Alternatively, the requirement of TLS can be turned off by adding the entry

admin_secure_gui=false

to the [maxscale] section in the MaxScale configuration file.

Please note that unless TLS is configured, your administrative credentials will be exposed in plain text over the network. Not using TLS should only be in a trial context in a controlled environment.

Starting MaxScale Trial

Once the database users have been created, MaxScale Trial can be started.

sudo systemctl start maxscale.service

If no errors are shown by the command, which indicates that MaxScale started, the error log of MaxScale should be checked.

sudo cat /var/log/maxscale/maxscale.log

If there are no error entries, MaxScale is running and can be used.

Smoketests

With the following command it can be checked that MaxScale can connect to the server

maxctrl list servers

and with the following command that the service is running

maxctrl list services

If TLS has been configured, the secure mode must be enabled with the flag --secure and the relevant parameters provided using the --tls... flags. Invoke maxctrl with the flag --help for the details.

After that the web-browser can be pointed to http://127.0.0.1:8989. Logging in is done using the username admin and the password mariadb. If TLS has not been disabled by the setting admin_secure_gui=false, https must be used.

Note that by default MaxScale listens only on the interface 127.0.0.1, which means that you must access MaxScale from the same machine on which MaxScale is running. If you want to access MaxScale over the network, you need to add

admin_host=0.0.0.0

to the [maxscale] section in /etc/maxscale.cnf.

MaxScale Trial Login Dialog

Upgrading to MaxScale

The configuration file of MaxScale Trial is 100% compatible with MaxScale. To replace MaxScale Trial with MaxScale, the following steps are needed:

• Uninstall MaxScale Trial.

• Install MaxScale 25.10.2 or higher.

Although the uninstallation of MaxScale Trial will not cause the configuration file to be erased, it is recommended to make a backup of it before the operation.

It is not possible to have MaxScale Trial and MaxScale installed simultaneously on the same machine.\