How To Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MariaDB on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, MariaDB is a powerful, open-source relational database management system that has become increasingly popular in modern web applications. As a fork of MySQL, MariaDB offers enhanced performance, scalability, and security features, making it an excellent choice for developers and system administrators alike.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of MariaDB in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint or elementary OS.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. To ensure a smooth installation process, it is essential to update your system packages to their latest versions. This step helps prevent potential compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities. Open your terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing MariaDB on Ubuntu 20.04.

Once the system is updated, use the following commands to install MariaDB Server on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa):

sudo apt install software-properties-common mariadb-server mariadb-client

After the server is installed, the commands below can be used to stop, start and restart the database services:

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service

 Once the installation is complete, you can verify the installed version of MariaDB by running:

mysql -V

Step 3. Securing MariaDB after installation.

By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read below each step carefully which will set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB:

mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like this:

- Set root password? [Y/n] y
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y

To log into MariaDB, use the following command (note that it’s the same command you would use to log into a MySQL database):

mysql -u root -p

Once inside the MariaDB shell, you can create a new database using the following command:

CREATE DATABASE your_database_name;

To create a new user and grant them privileges on the newly created database, use the following commands:

CREATE USER 'your_username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON your_database_name.* TO 'your_username'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

To exit the MariaDB shell, simply type:

EXIT;

Congratulations! You have successfully installed MariaDB. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing MariaDB in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official MariaDB website.