In this tutorial I’ll guide you on how to upgrade/install MariaDB to latest Mariadb10.4 on Centos 7 this tutorial will also work with CWP and VestaCP or any other compatible control panel.

MariaDB 10.4/10.5/10.6 is now very stable and many features has been added and improved in this version you can check all lists of changes here

I’ve checked MariaDB 10.4 with WordPress, Joomla, xenforo, IPS forum and some more PHP scripts which depends on MySQL DB are working fine with this version hence it is safe to upgrade to this version.

Short description about MariaDB :

MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement of MySQL with more features, new storage engines, fewer bugs, and better performance. MariaDB is developed by many of the original developers of MySQL who now work for the MariaDB Foundation and the MariaDB Corporation, and by many people in the community.

To upgrade follow this simple steps to upgrade it to latest version :

Step 1 Remove MariaDB 5.5/10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3

Before installing it is recommended to backup your databases, although it is not necessary if you followed this steps carefully.

First backup your current my.cnf config :

cp /etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf.bak

Now we need to remove current version of mariadb 5.5 installed on centos 7 :

For MariaDB 5.5 :

service mariadb stop  /  service mysql stop
rpm -e --nodeps galera
yum remove mariadb mariadb-server

At this point MariaDB 5.5 will be removed completely but the databases are not removed don’t need to worry.

For MariaDB 10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3 :

service mysql stop 
rpm -e --nodeps galera
yum remove MariaDB-server MariaDB-client

At this point MariaDB 10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3 will be removed completely but the databases are not removed don’t need to worry.

Then Install MariaDB 10.4 :

Step 2 Installation/Updating from MariaDB 5.5/10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3 to MariaDB 10.4/10.5

To upgrade Mariadb to 10.4/10.5 in Centos 7 CWP do this :

Install/enable Official repo for mariadb 10.4/10.5:

yum install nano epel-release -y

Now edit/create the Repo file :

Ensure you don’t have any other MariaDB repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d if exists delete or backup the existing repo file :

mv /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo.bak
nano /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo

then paste this lines and save it :
to install Mariadb 10.4

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.4/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

to install Mariadb 10.5

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.5/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

to install Mariadb 10.6

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.6/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

After that we’ll install Mariadb 10.4/10.5/10.6 what you chosen

yum clean all
yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client net-snmp perl-DBD-MySQL -y
yum update -y

To upgrade Mariadb 10.4 to 10.5 or 10.6 in Centos 8/CWP do this :

Now edit/create the Repo file :

Ensure you don’t have any other MariaDB repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d if exists delete or backup the existing repo file :
To use mariadb 10.5 :

mv /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo.bak
nano /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo

add this lines and save it :

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.5/centos8-amd64
module_hotfixes=1
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

To use mariadb 10.6 :

mv /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo.bak
nano /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo

add this lines and save it :

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.6/centos8-amd64
module_hotfixes=1
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

After that update Mariadb 10.4/10.5/10.6 what you chosen

yum clean all
yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client net-snmp perl-DBD-MySQL -y
yum update -y

Step 3

Restore the my.cnf file :

rm -rf /etc/my.cnf
cp /etc/my.cnf.bak /etc/my.cnf

Then enable mariadb to start on boot and start the service :

systemctl enable mariadb
service mysql start

Step 4

After Installation we need to upgrade current databases by this command :

mysql_upgrade

that’s it you’ve successfully upgraded MariaDB 5.5/10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3 to MariaDB 10.4/10.5.

You can confirm the version by running this command from terminal ssh:

mysql

Troubleshoot if root login doesn’t work for mysql :

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

Go to :
https://blog.alphagnu.com/how-to-reset-root-password-in-mariadb-10-4-and-mysql-8-0/