How To Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, MariaDB is an open-source relational database management system, commonly used as an alternative to MySQL. It is a MySQL fork which means that MariaDB offers similar features and performance metrics with the advantage of being free and completely open-source.

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 the step-by-step installation of the MariaDB open-source database server on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for MariaDB.
• 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 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish

Step 1. To begin, it’s crucial to update the APT package repository to ensure you have access to the latest versions of the MariaDB packages. Open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing MariaDB on Ubuntu 22.04.

By default, the MariaDB is available on Ubuntu 22.04 base repository. Now run the following command below to install the latest version of MariaDB to your Ubuntu system:

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

This command will install the MariaDB server package, which provides the core database functionality, and the MariaDB client package, which includes the necessary tools for interacting with the database. During the installation process, additional dependencies may be pulled in automatically.

After successful installation, enable MariaDB (to start automatically upon system boot), start, and verify the status using the commands below:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl status mariadb

Confirm the installation and check the installed build version of MariaDB:

mariadb --version

Step 3. Secure MariaDB installation.

By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read 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

You can now connect to the MariaDB server using the new password:

mysql -u root -p

Output:

Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 46
Server version: 10.6.7-MariaDB-2ubuntu1 Ubuntu 22.04

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]>

Step 4. Configure Firewall.

Configure your firewall to allow incoming connections on the MySQL port (default: 3306). If you’re using UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall), you can allow the port with the following command:

sudo ufw allow 3306/tcp

Congratulations! You have successfully installed MariaDB. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the MariaDB open-source database on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official MariaDB website.