How To Install MariaDB on CentOS 7

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MariaDB on CentOS 7. For those of you who didn’t know, MariaDB is a popular open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that serves as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. It offers enhanced performance, security, and scalability, making it an excellent choice for various applications, from small websites to large-scale enterprise systems.

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. I will show you the step-by-step installation of MariaDB on CentOS 7.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: CentOS 7.
• 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).
• 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 CentOS 7

Step 1. It’s always a good practice to update your system before installing any new software. This ensures that you have the latest security patches and bug fixes, reducing the risk of potential conflicts or vulnerabilities. To update your CentOS 7 system, open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo yum update

Step 2. Install MariaDB on CentOS 7.

Navigate to /etc/yum.repos.d/ on your CentOS box and create a new file called MariaDB repo:

[mariadb] 
name = MariaDB 
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.0/centos7-amd64 
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB 
gpgcheck=1

Make sure that all packages are up to date:

yum update
yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client

Start MariaDB and enable it to start on the boot of the server:

systemctl start mariadb.service
systemctl enable mariadb.service

Step 3. Configuring MariaDB.

The configuration files and binaries for MariaDB are mostly the same as MySQL. For example, both use a configuration file called my.cnf.

cp /usr/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Step 4. Secure MariaDB after installation too.

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

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!


By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

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!
[root@idroot]#

Step 5. Login into MariaDB.

Login to MariaDB with the root credential which was set earlier:

mysql  -u root -p

Once logged in, you can run various SQL commands to interact with the database. For example, to list all available databases, use:

SHOW DATABASES;

Congratulations! You have successfully installed MariaDB. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing MariaDB on the CentOS 7 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official MariaDB website.

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