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Updating MariaDB to a newer major version

Updating MariaDB to a newer major version

Upgrading a containerized MariaDB to a new major version is easy

MariaDB has been designed to be easily upgraded, something helpful specially when it has been containerized. The standard Linux procedure is explained in this official documentation page, but you will not need to follow it. There is a much easier way available for containerized MariaDB instances like the one in your Ghost setup.

Concerns

The main concerns you should be aware of when updating to a new major MariaDB version are:

  • Although MariaDB is designed to backwards compatible, always check the new version’s upgrade notes to find out if there are any breaking changes announced there.

  • The update procedure makes, by default, a backup of your databases before executing the update itself. If you want this backup, ensure having enough free space within the storage volume where your databases are stored: the update procedure will dump the backup in your MariaDB server’s data directory.

  • You will need to see the logs of your MariaDB instance to monitor the update and detect any issues that may happen in the process.

  • The update procedure also updates the databases stored in the MariaDB instance. In other words, the databases in your MariaDB server will be adapted to work with the newer version.

    • Downgrading your MariaDB server once updated is technically possible but dangerous. Doing it involves deleting MariaDB’s own system tables among other details, so better avoid it if possible.

Enabling the update procedure

Rather than executing the update (or upgrade) process yourself, just enable it so it starts on its own when the MariaDB container runs:

  1. You need to add up to two optional environment variables to the MariaDB StatefulSet declaration, in the end of the env section of its server container. The parameters in the Nextcloud setup should look like below:

    ...
containers:
- name: server
  image: mariadb:11.8-noble
  ports:
  - name: server
    containerPort: 3306
  env:
  - name: MYSQL_DATABASE
    valueFrom:
      configMapKeyRef:
        name: db-mariadb-config
        key: ghost-db-name
    ...
  - name: MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE
    value: "1"
  - name: MARIADB_DISABLE_UPGRADE_BACKUP
    value: "1"
...

    The two new parameters at the bottom have the same "1" value, but it could have been anything else. As long as it is a non-empty one, any value will do:

    • MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE
      Enables the upgrade process to run automatically on each start of the MariaDB server. This is a very convenient feature for containerized instances:

      • MariaDB will check if it needs to run the upgrade process before starting the server instance. This check implies a small delay in the server startup process.

      • The upgrade procedure creates first a backup saved as a file named system_mysql_backup_*.sql.zst, which you will find at the root of your MariaDB instance’s data directory (in the Ghost setup it is found at /var/lib/mysql).

        Important

        Check the storage space available in your MariaDB instance
        On every update, check first that you have enough space in the associated storage volume for that backup!

    • MARIADB_DISABLE_UPGRADE_BACKUP
      Disables the backup the upgrade process executes by default before doing the upgrade itself.

    Note

    MariaDB’s official documentation of these environment variables is here.

  2. After modifying the MariaDB deployment, redeploy the whole Kustomize project (of Ghost in this case) as usual:

    • Remember that you will have to open the log of your MariaDB’s server container to see if any issues happen in the update process.

    • Also be aware that, if something goes wrong in the upgrade, the MariaDB server container (and the pod that holds it) could start behaving in odd ways (like restarting itself).

References

MariaDB

Other contents about upgrading the MariaDB container

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