MariaDB Community Server 11.4 With Improved Query Performance, Now GA With Long Term Maintenance

Today, we released MariaDB Community Server 11.4 as GA. This is the first release series since MariaDB Community Server 10.11 to be declared a Long Term Maintenance (also known as “LTS”) release series. LTS releases are publicly maintained for 5 years.

MariaDB Community Server 11.4 Release Series Focuses on Improved Query Performance

We started with the first 11.0 series in early 2023 and have since released many new features each quarter. A big focus for us with this series was to increase query performance and we did that with a new cost based model for the optimizer. This new optimizer cost model is a change from a more rule-based to a purely cost-based model. Huge effort went into improving the calculations of the optimizer costs, taking into account state of the art SSD disks. The new implementation also takes the different characteristics of a storage engine into account. If an index lookup cannot be used, the optimizer can now make better choices when to use a full index scan, a table scan, index merges or other methods to join data. While one model may work well for a specific use case, it may not be the right model for other use cases. With the changes we’ve made, it’s now possible to fine-tune the optimizer by changing costs for different metrics.

Built-in Online Schema Change For More Operational Efficiency

Another key new feature is the Online Schema Change that was originally introduced in the 11.2 version. With this new feature, all ALTER TABLE operations are now, by default, done as online operations (unless they are defined to be INSTANT operations, which is even faster). In the past the table was locked (not available for other operations) for the duration of the ALTER TABLE operation, which typically is linearly dependent on the size of the table. For large tables, this could mean that the table was not available for several hours. With the new Online Schema Change, the table will be available (online) for most of the operation and instead a change log will be kept to track changes to the table. At the end of the ALTER TABLE operation a table lock will just be held for a short period of time to apply the changes that took place during the ALTER TABLE operation. For more information about this feature please read this blog post: https://mariadb.com/resources/blog/alter-table-is-now-universally-online/.

To see a list of all the significant new features available in the MariaDB Community Server 11.4 release series, read this blog.

What’s Next – New MariaDB Enterprise Server Version

MariaDB Community Server 11.4 will serve as the basis for our next upcoming MariaDB Enterprise Server release series. While we are going through rigorous testing for enterprise use cases, we will release a Tech Preview version of the Enterprise Server release so that anyone interested in trying the enterprise version can do so. Stay tuned for more information about this.

Getting Help

MariaDB is here to help if you need additional assistance, see our MariaDB Migration Service, or try community resources like the MariaDB Slack Community, DBA Stack Exchange, and the Community Knowledge Base.

Get Started with MariaDB Server

Go to mariadb.com/downloads for MariaDB Community Server downloads, along with connectors and everything else you need to get going with MariaDB Server! Customers also have access to MariaDB Enterprise Server which includes the advanced database proxy MariaDB MaxScale for production deployments.

For a step-by-step on how to upgrade, check out Upgrading from MariaDB 10.11 to MariaDB 11.4.