Deploying MySQL/MariaDB through the Linode Marketplace

MySQL is an open-source database management system that uses a relational database and SQL (Structured Query Language) to manage its data. In Debian 9, MySQL is replaced with MariaDB as the default database system. MariaDB is an open-source, multi-threaded relational database management system, backward compatible replacement for MySQL. It is maintained and developed by the MariaDB Foundation.

Deploying the MySQL/MariaDB Marketplace App

The Linode Marketplace allows you to easily deploy software on a Linode using the Linode Cloud Manager.

1. Log in to the Cloud Manager and select the Marketplace link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Compute Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Fill out all required Options for the selected app as well as any desired Advanced Options (which are optional). See the Configuration Options section for details.

4. Complete the rest of the form as discussed within the Getting Started > Create a Linode.

5. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Linode has provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the Linode is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail. To determine if the installation has completed, open the Linode’s Lish console and wait for the system login prompt to appear.

6. Follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section.

Software installation should complete within 2-5 minutes after the Linode has finished provisioning.

Configuration Options

MySQL/MariaDB Options

General Options

For advice on filling out the remaining options on the Create a Linode form, see Getting Started > Create a Linode. That said, some options may be limited or recommended based on this Marketplace App:

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• Recommended plan: Depends on the size of your MySQL database and the amount of traffic you expect.

Getting Started after Deployment

Access MySQL/MariaDB

After MySQL has finished installing, you will be able to access MySQL from the console via ssh with your Linode’s IPv4 address:

1. SSH into your Linode and create a limited user account.

2. Log out and log back in as your limited user account.

3. Update your server:

   sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
   

Using MySQL/MariaDB

The standard tool for interacting with MySQL is the mysql client which installs with the mysql-server package. The MySQL client is used through a terminal.

Root Login

1. To log in to MySQL as the root user:

   sudo mysql -u root -p
   

2. When prompted, enter the MySQL root password that you set when launching the Marketplace App. You’ll then be presented with a welcome header and the MySQL prompt as shown below:

   MariaDB [(none)]>
   

3. To generate a list of commands for the MySQL prompt, enter \h. You’ll then see:

   List of all MySQL commands:
   Note that all text commands must be first on line and end with ';'
   ?         (\?) Synonym for `help'.
   clear     (\c) Clear command.
   connect   (\r) Reconnect to the server. Optional arguments are db and host.
   delimiter (\d) Set statement delimiter. NOTE: Takes the rest of the line as new delimiter.
   edit      (\e) Edit command with $EDITOR.
   ego       (\G) Send command to mysql server, display result vertically.
   exit      (\q) Exit mysql. Same as quit.
   go        (\g) Send command to mysql server.
   help      (\h) Display this help.
   nopager   (\n) Disable pager, print to stdout.
   notee     (\t) Don't write into outfile.
   pager     (\P) Set PAGER [to_pager]. Print the query results via PAGER.
   print     (\p) Print current command.
   prompt    (\R) Change your mysql prompt.
   quit      (\q) Quit mysql.
   rehash    (\#) Rebuild completion hash.
   source    (\.) Execute an SQL script file. Takes a file name as an argument.
   status    (\s) Get status information from the server.
   system    (\!) Execute a system shell command.
   tee       (\T) Set outfile [to_outfile]. Append everything into given outfile.
   use       (\u) Use another database. Takes database name as argument.
   charset   (\C) Switch to another charset. Might be needed for processing binlog with multi-byte charsets.
   warnings  (\W) Show warnings after every statement.
   nowarning (\w) Don't show warnings after every statement.
   
   For server side help, type 'help contents'
   
   MariaDB [(none)]>
   

4. Grant access to the database that you created when launching the Marketplace App for MySQL User. In this example, the database is called webdata, the user webuser, and password of the user is password. Be sure to enter your own password. This should be different from the root password for MySQL:

   GRANT ALL ON webdata.* TO 'webuser' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   

5. To Exit MySQL/MariaDB type:

   exit
   

Create a Sample Table

1. Log back in as MySQL User that you set when launching the Marketplace App. In the following example the MySQL User is webuser.

   sudo mysql -u webuser -p
   

2. Create a sample table called customers. This creates a table with a customer ID field of the type INT for integer (auto-incremented for new records, used as the primary key), as well as two fields for storing the customer’s name. In the following example webdata is the database that you created when launching the Marketplace App.

   use webdata;
   create table customers (customer_id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, first_name TEXT, last_name TEXT);
   

3. To view the contents of the table that you created:

   describe customers;
   

   The output would be:

   +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
   | Field       | Type    | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
   +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
   | customer_id | int(11) | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
   | first_name  | text    | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
   | last_name   | text    | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
   +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
   

4. Then exit MySQL/MariaDB.

    exit
   

Next Steps

Note

Currently, Linode does not manage software and systems updates for Marketplace Apps. It is up to the user to perform routine maintenance on software deployed in this fashion.

For more on MySQL/MariaDB, checkout the following guides:

• MariaDB Clusters with Galera

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• MySQL 5.6 Reference Manual
• PHP MySQL Manual
• MySQLdb User’s Guide