There are two types of MariaDB downloads for Windows: ZIP files and MSI packages. As mentioned previously, the ZIP files are similar to the Linux binary .tar.gz files and they are only recommended for those who know that they want it.

If we are starting out with MariaDB for Windows, it is recommended to use the MSI packages. The following are the steps to do just that:

To install MariaDB on Mac OS X or Linux, read on; otherwise, feel free to skip those sections.

One of the easiest ways to install MariaDB on Mac OS X is to use Homebrew, which is an open source package manager for that platform. Before you can install it, however, you need to prepare your system. The first thing you need to do is install Xcode—Apple's integrated development environment. It's available for free from the Mac App Store.

Once Xcode is installed, you can install brew. Full instructions are available on the Homebrew Project website at http://brew.sh but the basic procedure is to open a terminal and run the following command:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

The preceding command downloads the installer and runs it. Once the initial installation is complete, we run the following command to make sure everything is set up properly:

brew doctor

The output of the preceding command will tell us about any potential issues, along with suggestions to fix them. Once brew is working properly, we can install MariaDB with the following commands:

brew update
brew install mariadb

MariaDB will not automatically be started after installation. To do so, we run the following commands:

ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mariadb/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mariadb.plist

To stop MariaDB, we use the unload command, as follows:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mariadb.plist

To learn about installing MariaDB on Linux, read on. Otherwise, skip to the After the installation section at the end of this chapter.

The procedure to install MariaDB on Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint is easy and starts with a visit to the repository configuration tool from:

https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories

This tool is used for APT-based Linux distributions, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint; Yum-based Linux distributions, such as Fedora, CentOS, and Red Hat; and other distributions that have support for MariaDB built-in, such as Mageia, Arch Linux, Suse, openSUSE, and others.

Before using the tool, we need to know which version of Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint we are currently using. If you do not know, an easy way to find out is with the following command:

cat /etc/lsb-release

The output will be similar to the following:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu

DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04

DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty

DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS"

This example output shows that the computer is running Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty". So, using the repository configuration tool, we will click on Ubuntu, then 14.04 LTS "trusty", and then on the MariaDB series we want to install. Lastly, we will click on the mirror we want to use. The tool will then output three pieces of text. The first contains the commands to add the MariaDB repository to our system. The second contains the commands to actually install MariaDB. The third block of text contains alternative instructions in case adding the repository using the first set did not work.

For example, the generated commands for adding a repository for MariaDB 10.1 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "trusty" and using the osuosl mirror are as follows:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys \
--keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0xcbcb082a1bb943db
sudo add-apt-repository \
'deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/mariadb/repo/10.0/ubuntu trusty main'

The first command installs the software-properties-common package if it is not already installed. This package contains the add-apt-repository command we use to install the repository. The second command imports the GPG encryption key that is used to sign MariaDB packages. For more information about this key, see the MariaDB package security section later in this chapter. The third command adds the repository.

Now that the repository is configured, we can install MariaDB using the following installation commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server

The mariadb-server package depends on the other MariaDB packages, so these two commands are all we need to install MariaDB. Once the second apt-get command finishes, MariaDB will be installed and running.

To learn about installing MariaDB on Fedora, Red Hat, and CentOS, read on. Otherwise, jump ahead to the MariaDB package security section if you're interested in the MariaDB GPG signing keys, or skip to the After the installation section if you want to start using MariaDB right away.

The procedure to install MariaDB on Fedora, Red Hat, and CentOS makes use of the Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) package manager. There are two steps: first, create a repo file for MariaDB and second, install MariaDB.

To generate the required text for the repo file, we will visit the MariaDB repository configuration tool from:

https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/

To generate the text, we simply click on the distribution we are using, the distribution release we are using, and the version of MariaDB we want to install. After doing so, the contents of the appropriate repo file will be displayed.

For example, the text generated for MariaDB 10.1 on the 64-bit version of CentOS 7 is as follows:

# MariaDB 10.1 CentOS repository list
# http://mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.1/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

The gpgkey line tells YUM where the GPG signing key is located. The gpgcheck=1 line directs YUM to always use the signing key to verify the MariaDB packages.

The first time we install MariaDB, our system will not have the key, so YUM will have to download and install it. Since YUM has never used the key before, it will ask for confirmation whether it is OK to import the key. See the MariaDB package security section for more information on the MariaDB GPG signing key.

We copy and paste the generated text into a file using our favorite text editor. Naming the file descriptively, such as MariaDB.repo, is recommended. Once the file is created, we then move it to the /etc/yum.repos.d/ folder using a command similar to the following one:

sudo mv -vi MariaDB.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/

Once the file is in place, we are ready to install MariaDB. This is as simple as the following:

sudo yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client

The capitalization of the package names is important because if we type mariadb-server instead of MariaDB-server, we will either get a package cannot be found error or, if we are using a distribution that includes MariaDB, we will get the distribution version of MariaDB instead of the version from the MariaDB project.

YUM will gather in all of the dependencies for MariaDB and present us with a list of everything that needs to be installed to install MariaDB. The following screenshot shows this:

After answering y, the installation will get going and we will be prompted to accept the GPG signing key. We will verify the fingerprint with y. YUM will then continue downloading and installing MariaDB and will end with a Complete! message.

As a final step of the installation, we start MariaDB with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

If everything has gone well, we will see output similar to the following:

[dbart@centos70-x86-64 ~]$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

Starting MySQL.. SUCCESS! 

MariaDB is now installed and running.

Jump ahead to the MariaDB package security section if you're interested in the MariaDB GPG signing key, or skip to the After the installation section if you want to start using MariaDB right away.

MariaDB is available on more Linux distributions than just the ones listed previously in this chapter, and even if no formal packages are provided, the MariaDB developers provide generic Linux binaries that work with many versions of Linux. Instructions on how to install and use the generic binaries are available from:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/installing-mariadb-binary-tarballs/

Before installing these generic packages, however, it is worth your while to look in your distribution's package manager to see if MariaDB is already there.

The packages provided by the MariaDB developers are signed with a security key so that they can be verified by package managers such as yum and apt. The key signing and verification infrastructure on Linux is called Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG). It is a compatible open source version of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which is an industry standard data encryption, decryption, and verification system.

The identification number (GPG ID) of the MariaDB signing key is 0xcbcb082a1bb943db. For longtime users of GPG, this ID may seem a little long. That's because, until recently, it was common to share a short form of the GPG ID. This is discouraged now because of a GPG vulnerability discovered a couple years ago; however, many utilities will still display the short form by default. The long form of the ID is more secure, so this is what the MariaDB developers share when talking about the key. But, in case we want it, the short form of the ID is 1BB943DB (it's just the last eight characters of the long form ID). For the extra cautious, the full key fingerprint is:

1993 69E5 404B D5FC 7D2F E43B CBCB 082A 1BB9 43DB

The key IDs and fingerprint are also posted in the MariaDB Knowledge Base, which is the official location of the MariaDB documentation and is available from:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/gpg/

By checking the signature of the packages, Linux package managers, and more importantly, WE can verify whether the package that comes from the MariaDB developers and hasn't been tampered with since they created it.

When configuring the MariaDB repository on Debian and Ubuntu and during the initial MariaDB install on Fedora, Red Hat, and CentOS, an important task is to import the signing key. It's a good idea to verify the key by comparing it to the IDs and the fingerprint when doing so. Thankfully, this is a one-time operation. Once the key is imported, the process is fully automatic. We will only be notified if the signature check fails.

For MariaDB Windows, binary Linux, and the MariaDB source code files, we can verify them in two ways, first is by comparing the md5sum of the file we downloaded with the md5sum posted on the MariaDB downloads page next to the file. The second way is to use PGP or GPG to verify the cryptographic signature of the file. These signatures are also posted on the MariaDB downloads page.

After installing MariaDB, we can quickly verify that MariaDB is up and running by opening a terminal or command-line window and running the following command (on Windows, we can also open the mysql.exe client in the MariaDB folder):

mysql -u root -p

This command connects to MariaDB as the root user (-u root) and prompts for the password of that user (-p). When prompted, we will type in the password we configured during installation. If no password was set during installation, we simply remove the -p from the command. Until a password is set, we can connect without a password.

If MariaDB has been successfully installed and started, we should see something similar to the following screenshot when connecting using the previous command to launch the mysql command-line client:

If you get the MariaDB command-line prompt, as illustrated in the preceding screenshot, congratulations! You've just installed MariaDB and can successfully connect to the server using the command-line client. You can quit the command-line client for now. Don't worry; we'll come back to it soon.

The MariaDB installers work very well, and they are tested and retested constantly. Occasionally, issues with either installing MariaDB or running it for the first time are discovered, but they are almost always fixed promptly so that users are not affected.

If we do happen to run into an issue when trying to start MariaDB, what should we do?

The first thing we should do is look in the error log. The MariaDB error log is either stored with the system log files (for example, under /var/log/ on Linux) or in the MariaDB data directory. Common locations for the MariaDB data directory include /var/lib/mysql/ on Linux, C:\Program Files\MariaDB <version>\data\ on Windows (<version> is the version number of MariaDB we are using), and /usr/local/var/mysql/ on Mac OS X. The error log file itself will either be called mysql.err or hostname.err where "hostname" is the name that we've given our computer. It is also worth noting that the name and location of the log file can be customized by either the my.cnf file or the my.ini file. Chapter 2, Configuring MariaDB, will delve further into this file and its location.

Each entry inside the error log file consists of a timestamp and a description of what went wrong at that timestamp. Sometimes, the information given is enough for us to figure it out ourselves, but at other times, we may need to ask for help. We shouldn't feel bad if we can't figure out an error; even experts are sometimes stumped! If we do need to ask for help, the resources listed on the following link, especially the Maria discuss mailing list and the official IRC channel can help greatly:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/where-are-other-users-and-developers-of-mariadb/

In this chapter, we installed MariaDB on various operating systems. Our next task is to configure it, which also happens to be the subject and the title of the next chapter.