How To Install MariaDB on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6

MariaDB is the most popular open-source database management system. It is used by small to large enterprises for storing data.

MariaDB is a fork of famous database server MySQL, developed by MariaDB Corporation Ab, led by the original developers of MySQL. It is fully compatible with MySQL database for ensuring a drop-in replacement capability and used as a database server in LAMP and LEMP stack.

In this post, we will see how to install MariaDB on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6.

Install MariaDB on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6

Add MariaDB Repository

MariaDB foundation offers MariaDB packages for CentOS 6 / RHEL 6. Packages provided by MariaDB community is always the latest and is supported by them.

Add MariaDB repository to the system.

CentOS 6

### CentOS 6 64 Bit ### cat <<EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.3/centos6-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
EOF ### CentOS 6 32 Bit ### cat <<EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.3/centos6-x86
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
EOF

RHEL 6

### RHEL 6 64 Bit ### cat <<EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.3/rhel6-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
EOF ### RHEL 6 32 Bit ### cat <<EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.3/rhel6-x86
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
EOF

Install MariaDB server using the following command.

yum install -y MariaDB-server MariaDB-client

Manage MariaDB Service

Start the MariaDB (mysql) service with the following command.

service mysql start

Verify whether MariaDB service is running or not.

service mysql status

Set MariaDB server to start automatically on system startup.

chkconfig mysql on

Secure MariaDB Installation

Run the mysql_secure_installation command to perform the initial setup of the MariaDB server.

This initial setup is recommended to perform in production Linux servers to remove anonymous users, test database, and disallows remote root login.

mysql_secure_installation

Output:

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): << No root password. Just press Enter
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 << Set MariaDB root password
New password: << Enter root password
Re-enter new password: << Re-enter root 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 << Remove anonymous users ... 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 << Disallow root login remotely ... 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  << Remove test database - 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  << Reload privilege ... 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!

Access MariaDB

Login into MariaDB server.

mysql -u root -p

Output:

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have understood how to install MariaDB on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6. Read Beginner MariaDB Articles to know more about working with MariaDB.