How To Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04

MariaDB is an open-source relational database management system often used as a substitute for MySQL in the widely-used LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl). It is designed to serve as a drop-in replacement for MySQL.

To install MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04, you can follow these steps:

Prerequisites #

• A server running Ubuntu 22.04
• SSH Access to the server with root or a sudo user

You could also check our tutorial on First Server Setup with Ubuntu to get set with the initial set up.

Step 1: Update the System

• Before installing MariaDB, ensure that your package index is updated to the latest available versions by running:

sudo apt update

Step 2: Install MariaDB

• The MariaDB packages are available in the official Ubuntu repositories. You can install it using the apt package manager:

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

• The above command installs both the MariaDB server and the MariaDB client.

Step 3: Start and Enable MariaDB

• Once MariaDB is installed, start the service and enable it to automatically start on boot.
• Start the MariaDB service:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

• Enable MariaDB to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb

• Verify that the service is running:
• You should see output indicating that MariaDB is active and running.

sudo systemctl status mariadb

Step 4: Secure the MariaDB Installation

MariaDB includes a security script that can remove some insecure defaults, like anonymous users and test databases. To run the script:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

The script will prompt you to perform several security-related tasks:

• Enter current password for root: Press Enter
• Switch to unix_socket authentication: Answer Y to switch
• Set/Change the root password: You will be asked whether to set a root password. On new installations, you may not need to, as MariaDB on Ubuntu may use the unix_socket plugin for root access. Press Enter or Answer n

• Remove anonymous users: Answer Y to remove anonymous users.

• Disallow remote root login: Answer Y to disallow root login remotely.

• Remove the test database: Answer Y to remove the test database.

• Reload privilege tables: Answer Y to reload the privilege tables.

Step 5: Verify MariaDB Installation

• To verify that MariaDB is installed correctly, log into the MariaDB shell:

sudo mysql

• Once inside the MariaDB shell, check the version: You should see the MariaDB version number.

SELECT VERSION();

• Exit the shell using the exit command

exit

Step 6: Creating an Administrative User that Employs Password Authentication (Optional)

On Ubuntu systems running MariaDB 10.5, the default root user is configured to authenticate via the unix_socket plugin, instead of using a password. This improves security and ease of use, especially for local access, but it can be inconvenient when external programs (such as phpMyAdmin) require administrative access

It is advised to create a separate administrative account specifically for password-based access. To create this new administrative account, follow these steps:

• Access the MariaDB prompt from your terminal:

sudo mariadb

• Create a new user named admin with root-level privileges and password authentication. Replace admin and password with your preferred username and password respectively.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;

• Save the changes by flushing the privileges:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

• Exit the MariaDB shell:

exit

Step 7: Confirm that MariaDB Installation is running

• To verify that MariaDB is installed correctly, log into the MariaDB shell:

sudo systemctl status mariadb

• If MariaDB is not running, you can start it with:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

That’s it! You’ve successfully installed and secured MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04.