Setting up MariaDB for testing for SQL Server users
This page contains links and hints to setup MariaDB for testing. The page is designed for SQL Server users, assuming that they are mostly familiar with Windows and they are not familiar with MariaDB.
Setting up MariaDB on Windows
There are two different ways to use MariaDB on Windows natively: using Zip packages or MSI packages.
In both cases, 32bit platforms are still supported.
Check the page Installation issues on Windows to verify if current versions of MariaDB have troubles on Windows. More generally, it is a good idea to check the Troubleshooting Installation Issues category.
ZIP packages
Windows users don't necessarily need to install MariaDB to use it. They can download ready-to-use ZIP packages to avoid any change in the system (except for downloading MariaDB and writing databases on the disk). This is very useful for testing without risking some undesired side effect on the machine in use. And it avoids the hassle to install Docker or virtual machines.
The drawback is that MariaDB will need to be started and stopped from the command line.
See installing-mariadb-windows-zip-packages.
MSI packages
MSI packages provide a friendly graphical interface to install MariaDB. The installation process is easy but flexible. For example, the user can decide which components to install, weather to install it as a service or not, and if networking should be enabled. An interface to uninstall MariaDB is also provided.
