Upgrade

On this page we have summarised information about downgrading a MariaDB/MySQL database. We do not cover migrating from MySQL to MariaDB or vice versa. For migrations (sidegrade) please look here: MySQL - MariaDB migration and here: Migration between MySQL/Percona Server and MariaDB.

The downgrade process tends to be neglected because nobody really wants to do it. So we are in swampy territory here. Unforeseen situations can occur very easily and good preparation is essential.

I can think of the following …

Scenario: MariaDB Community Server is release every 3 months. The exact date is not known but it is typically about 2 to 3 weeks after the MySQL/Oracle CPU.

We upgrade regularly customer systems, also their MariaDB Galera Cluster systems. Because we made in the past some very bad experience upgrading production MariaDB Galera Clusters short after release date we became a bit more careful. Our new policy is: We wait a few weeks before installing a new release.

This week we had the situation that on Monday a …

Because we conduct many customers in MariaDB Galera Cluster upgrades and because these customers sometimes have pretty old MariaDB Galera Cluster set-ups I think it is good to have a rough MariaDB Galera Cluster Upgrade Path.

For an Upgrade Path we have to consider a few things:

• We face different MariaDB Galera Cluster version (5.5, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 and soon 10.6).
• We face different Galera plug-in versions (v2, v3 and v4). Direct upgrade from v2 to v4 is not possible. Upgrade from latest …

Because upgrading from MariaDB 10.4 to MariaDB 10.5 (non-clustered) seems not to be a problem
[ 1
] we take the challenge and try to create a receipt based on the MariaDB 10.3 to MariaDB 10.4 Galera Cluster upgrade documentation
[ 3
]:

Before you start

Before you begin with the upgrade you should consider a few things:

• Downgrade is officially not supported!
  [ 4
  ] It might work, or not.
• So you should have taken a proper an clean backup before you start with the upgrade and you should be sure the restore …

Repositories from your favourite Linux distribution and from your favourite database software vendor get regular package updates. If you do periodic system upgrades (for example every 2 weeks as we do) you get the newest packages of a release series.
Unfortunately recently the software vendors started not only to fix bugs in new releases but also to introduce new features. And when you fix bugs or introduce new stuff new bugs might appear.
To avoid being hit unexpectedly by new bugs you do not want to …

Up to version 5.5 MariaDB and MySQL can be considered as “the same” databases. The official wording at those times was “drop-in-replacement”. But now we are a few years later and times and features changed. Also the official wording has slightly changed to just “compatible”.
FromDual recommends that you consider MariaDB 10.3 and MySQL 8.0 as completely different database products (with some common roots) nowadays. Thus you should work and act accordingly.

Because more and …

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Character Sets
• Steps to convert Character Set to utf8mb4
  • Analyzing the Server
  • Analyzing the Application and the Clients
  • Preparation of the Server Settings and the Application
  • Convert Tables to utf8mb4
  • Testing of new Character Set
• MySQL Pump
• MySQL Master/Slave Replication for Character Set conversion
• MySQL Shell, mysqlsh Upgrade Checker Utility

Introduction

Recently we had a consulting engagement where we had to help the customer to migrate from latin1 Character Set to …

Table of Contents

• General findings
• Migration from MySQL 5.x to MariaDB 5.5
• Migration from MySQL 5.0 to MariaDB 10.3
• Migration from MariaDB 10.0 to Percona Server 5.6
• Migration from MySQL/Percona 5.6 to MariaDB 10.0
• Migration from MySQL 5.7 to MariaDB 10.2
• Migration from MySQL 5.7 to MariaDB 10.3
• Migration from MySQL 5.7 to MariaDB 10.4
• Migration from Percona XtraDB Cluster 5.5 to MariaDB Galera Cluster 10.4
• Migration from MySQL 5.7 to MariaDB 10.5
• Migration from MySQL 5.7 to MariaDB 10.6
• Migration from …

Early adopters of our customers are considering to upgrade to MySQL 8.0. To be prepared we have created a check-list:

• RTFM: Upgrading MySQL. Really! This time is different than all the years before…
• Upgrade Path:
  • Only Upgrade from 5.7 to 8.0 is supported (skipping 5.7 is NOT supported!). So Upgrade to 5.7 first!
  • Only Upgrade between GA releases (5.7.9+, 8.0.11+) is supported.
  • Recommended: Upgrade to newest 5.7 first (5.7.25).
• Check for Incompatibility Changes, Deprecated and Removed Features: …

As in every quarter of the year Oracle has released yesterday its recommendation for the MySQL security updates. This is called, in Oracle terminology, Critical Patch Update (CPU) Advisory.

This CPU is published for all Oracle products. But FromDual is only interested in MySQL related topics. So let us concentrate on those.

This time 25 fixes with a maximum score of 8.1 (out of 10.0) were published.

6 of theses 25 vulnerabilities are exploitable remotely over the network without authentication (no user …

This week, we did some migrations from MariaDB 10.0 to Percona Server 5.6 at the IT department of a big German bank.

We were perfectly aware that since version 10.0 the MariaDB code base started to diverge slightly away from the MySQL and Percona Server code base which are still pretty close to each other.

Because of the Percona Server option enforce_storage_engine we wanted to do this migration.

We stopped the MariaDB 10.0 server, replaced the binaries by the Percona Server 5.6 binaries, and started the …

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
  • System information
  • Installed packages
  • Required packages
• Upgrade the first node
  • Upgrade the installed binaries
  • Upgrade mysql schema
  • Prepare the node to join the cluster
  • Joining the cluster
• Rolling upgrade the other nodes
• Get rid of old release option

Introduction

Codership announced from weeks ago introducing the Galera Cluster new release 3.0 having many bug fixes, performance enhancements plus the main purpose which is working with MySQL 5.6. In this …

Overview

• MySQL Security Products
• Useful Security Links
• Security Vulnerabilities Fixed in MariaDB
• Oracle Critical Patch Update (CPU) Advisory for MySQL
• RedHat/CentOS vulnerabilities by CVE name
• Ubuntu Security Notice (USN) for MariaDB
• Ubuntu Security Notice (USN) for MySQL
• Debian Security Advisories
• Debian Security Advisories for MySQL
• MySQL Exploits
• Debian Security Advisories for MariaDB
• MariaDB Exploits
• MariaDB Security Risk Matrix
• Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Australia and APAC
• MariaDB …

A few days ago Codership announced their new version Galera v1.1 - synchronous Replication Cluster for MySQL. Before we look at the new feature of Rolling Online Schema Upgrade (OSU) we have a look at how to upgrade to the new Galera release.

A rolling upgrade of your synchronous Galera Replication Cluster from version 1.0 to 1.1 is quite easy when you stay at the same MySQL version (5.5).

To not lose the availability of your database service during the upgrade you should have at least 3 Galera nodes in …

Table of Contents

• Reasons to Upgrade MariaDB or MySQL
• How to Upgrade MariaDB or MySQL
• MariaDB and MySQL Reserved Keywords
• MariaDB and MySQL Upgrade Problems we hit in real life
  • Upgrade MySQL 4.1 to MySQL 5.1
  • Upgrade MySQL 4.1 to MySQL 5.6
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.0 to MySQL 5.1
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.0 to MySQL 5.6
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.0 to MariaDB 10.3
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.1 to MySQL 5.5
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.5 to MySQL 5.6
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 5.7
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.7.12 to MySQL 5.7.21
  • Upgrade MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0
  • Upgrade …

The following summary shows my personal understanding of MySQL 5.1 licenses, packages and products. It does not necessarily reflect 100% the way MySQL understands it. But after all the discussions I hope it is as close as possible to the reality:

MySQL Embedded Database Server

(Download → OEM Software)

Classic  (OEM license, -MEM -InnoDB)
Pro      (= Classic +InnoDB)
Advanced (= Pro +Partitioning)

MySQL Community Sever

(Download → Download)

Community (GPL, -NDB)

MySQL Enterprise Server

(Download → …