How to install MariaDB on Ubuntu 18.04

MariaDB Server is one of the most popular database servers in the world. It’s made by the original developers of MySQL and guaranteed to stay open source. Notable users include Wikipedia, WordPress.com and Google.

In this post, we will learn how to install MariaDB on Ubuntu 18.04 using two methods.

Before proceeding, the user must have sudo privileges using which you are logged in.

Installing MariaDB

1) Run Updates on Server

$ sudo apt update 

2) After Packages update, run below command

$ sudo apt install mariadb-server 

3) MySQL service will start automatically or run below command

$ sudo systemctl start mariadb 

Output would be like

● mariadb.service - MariaDB database server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset
 Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-06-16 1558 UTC; 20s ago
 Main PID: 25845 (mysqld)
 Status: "Taking your SQL requests now…"
     Tasks: 87 (limit: 600)
 CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
         └─25845 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Check MySQL version:

$ mysql -V 

mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.1.29-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 5.2

Installing MariaDB using MariaDB repo

1) Add the MariaDB GPG key  on the server

$ sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0xF1656F24C74CD1D8

2) Add MariaDB repo

$ sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,arm64,ppc64el] http://ftp.utexas.edu/mariadb/repo/10.3/ubuntu bionic main'

3) Update package list

$ sudo apt update

4) Install MariaDB package

$ sudo apt install mariadb-server

MariaDB service will start automatically

$ sudo systemctl status mariadb

● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.3.8 database server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service.d
        └─migrated-from-my.cnf-settings.conf
Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-06-16 1649 UTC; 56s ago
    Docs: man:mysqld(8)
        https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
Main PID: 18576 (mysqld)
Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
    Tasks: 32 (limit: 604)
CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
        └─18576 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Check MySQL version

$ mysql -V 

mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.3.8-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 5.2

After installation Secure MySQL using below steps

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

This command will prompt you for root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB.

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MariaDB
      SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE!  PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!

In order to log into MariaDB to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user.  If you've just installed MariaDB, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):

OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.

Set root password? [Y/n] Y

New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
 ... Success!

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
 ... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
 ... Success!

By default, MariaDB comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
 - Dropping test database...
 ... Success!
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y
 ... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MariaDB!

Restart MySQL service

$ sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service