MariaDB is a community-developed, drop-in compatible replacement for MySQL, offering enhanced features and consistent updates since its launch. It is widely adopted in enterprise environments, supports dynamic columns, and allows various storage engines and advanced functionalities like GIS, thread pools, and improved replication techniques. With a focus on performance and scalability, MariaDB is evolving to meet modern demands in cloud and multi-master database environments.

1. MariaDB - a MySQL
replacement
Colin Charles, Team MariaDB, SkySQL Ab
colin@mariadb.org | http://mariadb.org/
http://bytebot.net/blog/ | @bytebot on Twitter
South East Linux Fest, Charlotte, NC, USA
20 June 2014

2. whoami
• Work on MariaDB at SkySQL Ab
• Merged with Monty Program Ab, makers of MariaDB
• Formerly MySQL AB (exit: Sun Microsystems)
• Past lives include Fedora Project (FESCO), OpenOffice.org

3. Who are you?
• Developer?
• Operator? (DBA, sysadmin)
• A bit of both?

4. Global Top 20 sites
1.Google
2.Facebook
3.YouTube
4.Yahoo!
5.Baidu
6.Wikipedia
7.QQ
8.Taobao
9.Twitter
10.Live
11.LinkedIn
12.Sina
13.Amazon
14.hao123.com
15.google.co.in
16.blogspot
17.weibo.com
18.wordpress.com
19.360.cn
20.yandex.ru

5. 5W1H is MariaDB
• Drop-in compatible MySQL replacement
• Community developed, Foundation backed, feature enhanced,
backwards compatible, GPLv2 licensed
• Steady stream of releases in 4 years 4 months: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5, 10.0,
MariaDB Galera Cluster 5.5, MariaDB with TokuDB 5.5
• Enterprise features open: PAM authentication plugin, threadpool, audit
plugin
• Default in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, etc.

7. Microseconds
• TIME, DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, temporal functions, CAST, dynamic
columns
CREATE TABLE microsec(
column_microsec DATETIME(6),
column_millisec TIME(3)
);
SELECT CURTIME(6);
MariaDB 5.3+

8. Microseconds & 5.6
• TIME_TO_SEC(), UNIX_TIMESTAMP() preserve microseconds of the
argument
MariaDB 10.0 MySQL 5.6
SELECT
TIME_TO_SEC('10:10:10.12345');
+-------------------------------+
| TIME_TO_SEC('10:10:10.12345') |
+-------------------------------+
| 36610.12345 |
+-------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
SELECT
TIME_TO_SEC('10:10:10.12345');
+-------------------------------+
| TIME_TO_SEC('10:10:10.12345') |
+-------------------------------+
| 36610 |
+-------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

9. Virtual Columns
• A column in a table that has its value automatically calculated either
with a pre-calculated/deterministic expression or values of other
fields in the table
• VIRTUAL - computed on the fly when data is queried (like a VIEW)
• PERSISTENT - computed when data is inserted and stored in a table
MariaDB 5.2+

10. PCRE Regular Expressions
• Powerful REGEXP/RLIKE operator
• New operators:
• REGEXP_REPLACE(sub,pattern,replace)
• REGEXP_INSTR(sub,pattern)
• REGEXP_SUBSTR(sub,pattern)
• Works with multi-byte character sets that MariaDB supports, including
East-Asian sets
MariaDB 10.0+

11. GIS
• MariaDB implements a subset of SQL with Geometry Types
• No longer just minimum bounding rectangles (MBR) - shapes
considered
CREATE TABLE geom (g GEOMETRY NOT NULL, SPATIAL
INDEX(g)) ENGINE=MyISAM;
• ST_ prefix - as per OpenGIS requirements
MariaDB 5.3+

12. Sample use cases
• Import OpenStreetMap data into MariaDB: http://www.slideshare.net/
hholzgra/fosdem-2014mariadbgis
• Use the OpenStreetMap dataset: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/
openstreetmap-dataset/
• Screencast: https://blog.mariadb.org/screencast-mariadb-gis-demo/
• node.js example use case for mapping GPX data: https://
blog.mariadb.org/node-js-mariadb-and-gis/ & jQuery usage: https://
blog.mariadb.org/jquery-and-gis-distance-in-mariadb/

13. Dynamic columns
• Allows you to create virtual columns with dynamic content for each row in
table. Store different attributes for each item (like a web store).
• Basically a BLOB with handling functions: COLUMN_CREATE,
COLUMN_ADD, COLUMN_GET, COLUMN_DELETE, COLUMN_EXISTS,
COLUMN_LIST, COLUMN_CHECK, COLUMN_JSON
• In MariaDB 10.0: name support (instead of referring to columns by numbers,
name it), convert all dynamic column content to JSON array, interface with
Cassandra
INSERT INTO tbl SET
dyncol_blob=COLUMN_CREATE("column_name", "value");
MariaDB 5.3+

14. Full-text search via SphinxSE
mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN sphinx SONAME 'ha_sphinx.so';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
MariaDB 5.2+

15. What is SphinxSE?
• SphinxSE is just the storage engine that still depends on the Sphinx
daemon
• It doesn’t store any data itself
• Its just a built-in client to allow MariaDB to talk to Sphinx searchd,
run queries, obtain results
• Indexing, searching is performed on Sphinx

16. Sphinx search table
CREATE TABLE t1
(
id INTEGER UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
weight INTEGER NOT NULL,
query VARCHAR(3072) NOT NULL,
group_id INTEGER,
INDEX(query)
) ENGINE=SPHINX CONNECTION="sphinx://localhost:9312/test";
!
SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE query='test it;mode=any';

17. Sphinx search tables
• 1st column: INTEGER UNSIGNED or BIGINT (document ID)
• 2nd column: match weight
• 3rd column: VARCHAR or TEXT (your query)
• Query column needs indexing, no other column needs to be

18. Query Cassandra
• Data is mapped: rowkey, static columns, dynamic columns
• super columns aren’t supported
• No 1-1 direct map for data types
• Write to Cassandra from SQL (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)
MariaDB 10.0+

19. Cassandra II
pk varchar(36) primary key,
data1 varchar(60),
data2 bigint
) engine=cassandra keyspace='ks1' column_family='cf1'
• Table must have a primary key
• name/type must match Cassandra’s rowkey
• Columns map to Cassandra’s static columns
• name must be same as in Cassandra, datatypes must match, can be subset of CF’s columns

20. Mapping
• Datatype mapping - complete table at KB
• Data mapping is safe - engine will refuse incorrect mappings
• Command mapping: INSERT overwrites rows, UPDATE reads then
writes, DELETE reads then writes

21. Typical use cases
• Web page hits collection, streaming data
• Sensor data
• Reads served with a lookup
• Want an auto-replicated, fault-tolerant table?

22. CONNECT
• Target: ETL for BI or analytics
• Import data from CSV, XML, ODBC, MS Access, etc.
• WHERE conditions pushed to ODBC source
• DROP TABLE just removes the stored definition, not data itself
• “Virtual” tables cannot be indexed
MariaDB 10.0+

23. SPIDER
• Horizontal partitioning, built on top of PARTITIONs
• Associates a partition with a remote server
• Transparent to user, easy to expand
• Has index condition pushdown support enabled
MariaDB 10.0+

24. TokuDB
• Opensource - separate MariaDB 5.5+TokuDB/integrated in 10.0.5
• Improved insert (10-20x faster) & query speed, compression (up to
90% space reduction), replication performance and online schema
flexibility
• Uses Fractal Tree Indexes instead of B-Tree
• Tests & builds of TokuDB on multiple platforms

25. Engines, etc
• Plan for backups - TokuDB can be cool for your uses as an example
• Galera: study your workload patterns, your application, etc.
• SPIDER (built-in sharding capabilities, partitioning & XA transaction
capable with multiple backends including Oracle)
• its not going to be straightforward to “just start” - need to know
right tables to implement, etc.

26. Threadpool
• Modified from 5.1 (libevent based), great for CPU bound
loads and short running queries
• Windows (threadpool), Linux (epoll), Solaris (event ports),
FreeBSD/OSX (kevents)
• No minimization of concurrent transactions with dynamic
pool size
• thread_handling=pool-of-threads
• https://mariadb.com/kb/en/thread-pool-in-mariadb-55/
MariaDB 5.5+

27. PAM Authentication
• Authentication using /etc/shadow
• Authentication using LDAP, SSH pass phrases, password expiration,
username mapping, logging every login attempt, etc.
• INSTALL PLUGIN pam SONAME ‘auth_pam.so’;
• CREATE USER foo@host IDENTIFIED via pam
• Remember to configure PAM (/etc/pam.d or /etc/pam.conf)
• http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2013/02/24/using-two-factor-
authentication-with-percona-server/
MariaDB 5.2+

28. Non-blocking client library
• start operation, do work in thread, operation processed, result
travels back
• use cases: multiple queries against single server (utilize more
CPUs); queries against multiple servers (SHOW STATUS on many
machines)
• https://mariadb.com/kb/en/about-non-blocking-operation-in-the-
client-library/
• fast node.js driver available: mariasql
MariaDB 5.5+

29. LIMIT ROWS EXAMINED
• The purpose of this optimization is to provide the means to terminate
the execution of SELECTstatements which examine too many rows,
and thus use too many resources.
• SELECT * from t1, t2 LIMIT 10 ROWS EXAMINED 1000;
• https://mariadb.com/kb/en/limit-rows-examined/
MariaDB 5.5+

30. SQL Error Logging Plugin
• Log errors sent to clients in a log file that can be analysed later. Log
file can be rotated (recommended)
• a MYSQL_AUDIT_PLUGIN
install plugin SQL_ERROR_LOG soname 'sql_errlog.so';
MariaDB 5.5+

31. Audit Plugin
• Log server activity - who connects to the server, what queries run,
what tables touched - rotating log file or syslogd
• a MYSQL_AUDIT_PLUGIN
INSTALL PLUGIN server_audit SONAME
‘server_audit.so’;
MariaDB 10.0+

32. Replication made better
• Selective skipping of replication events (session-based or on master
or slave)
• Dynamic control of replication variables (no restarts!)
• Using row-based replication? Annotate the binary log with SQL
statements
• Slaves perform checksums on binary log events
• Slaves crash-safe (data stored inside transaction tables)
MariaDB 5.3+

33. Replication made better II
• Group commit in the binary log - finally, sync_binlog=1,
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=1 performs
• START TRANSACTION WITH CONSISTENT SNAPSHOT
• mysqldump —single-transaction —master-data - full non-
blocking backup
• Parallel replication
• Multi-source replication - (real-time) analytics, shard provisioning,
backups, etc.

34. New KILL syntax
• HARD | SOFT & USER USERNAME are MariaDB-specific (5.3.2)
• KILL QUERY ID query_id (10.0.5) - kill by query id, rather than thread id
• SOFT ensures things that may leave a table in an inconsistent state
aren’t interrupted (like REPAIR or INDEX creation for MyISAM or Aria)
KILL [HARD | SOFT] [CONNECTION | QUERY] [thread_id |
USER user_name]
MariaDB 5.3+

35. Statistics
• Understand server activity better to understand database loads
• SET GLOBAL userstat=1;
• SHOW CLIENT_STATISTICS; SHOW USER_STATISTICS;
• # of connections, CPU usage, bytes received/sent, row statistics
• SHOW INDEX_STATISTICS; SHOW TABLE_STATISTICS;
• # rows read, changed, indexes
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PROCESSLIST has MEMORY_USAGE, EXAMINED_ROWS
(similar with SHOW STATUS output)
MariaDB 5.2+
MariaDB 10.0+

36. EXPLAIN enhanced
• Explain analyser: https://mariadb.org/explain_analyzer/analyze/
• SHOW EXPLAIN for <thread_id>
• EXPLAIN output in the slow query log
• EXPLAIN not just for SELECT but INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
MariaDB 10.0+

37. Roles
• Bundles users together, with similar privileges - follows the SQL
standard
CREATE ROLE audit_bean_counters;
GRANT SELECT ON accounts.* to audit_bean_counters;
GRANT audit_bean_counters to ceo;
MariaDB 10.0+

38. FusionIO
• If you have nvmfs (formerly DirectFS), you can disable the
innodb_doublewrite buffer
• page level compression in background threads (reduces I/O, saves
the life of your device)
MariaDB 10.0+

39. What else is there
• Engines: Aria, OQGRAPH, FederatedX
• Progress reporting for ALTER/LOAD DATA INFILE
• Table Elimination
• HandlerSocket
• SHUTDOWN functionality
• And a lot more….

40. Feedback plugin
• feedback=on in my.cnf [mysql]

41. Connectors
• The MariaDB project provides LGPL connectors (client libraries) for:
• C
• Java
• ODBC
• Embedding a connector? Makes sense to use these LGPL licensed
ones…

42. Optimizer
MariaDB 10 MySQL 5.6
index_merge=on
index_merge_union=on
index_merge_sort_union=on
index_merge_intersection=on
index_merge_sort_intersection=off
engine_condition_pushdown=off
index_condition_pushdown=on
derived_merge=on
derived_with_keys=on
firstmatch=on
loosescan=on
materialization=on
in_to_exists=on
semijoin=on
partial_match_rowid_merge=on
partial_match_table_scan=on
subquery_cache=on
mrr=off
mrr_cost_based=off
mrr_sort_keys=off
outer_join_with_cache=on
semijoin_with_cache=on
join_cache_incremental=on
join_cache_hashed=on
join_cache_bka=on
optimize_join_buffer_size=off
table_elimination=on
extended_keys=on
exists_to_in=off
index_merge=on
index_merge_union=on
index_merge_sort_union=on
index_merge_intersection=on
engine_condition_pushdown=o
n
index_condition_pushdown=on
mrr=on
mrr_cost_based=on
block_nested_loop=on
batched_key_access=off
materialization=on
semijoin=on
loosescan=on
firstmatch=on
subquery_materialization_cost_
based=on
use_index_extensions=on
MariaDB 5.3+

43. MariaDB Galera Cluster
• MariaDB Galera Cluster is made for today’s cloud based
environments. It is fully read-write scalable, comes with synchronous
replication, allows multi-master topologies, and guarantees no lag or
lost transactions.
• Currently 5.5-based
• 10.0 is in beta (almost ready for release)

44. Trusted by many
• Google
• Wikipedia
• Tumblr
• SpamExperts
• Limelight Networks
• KakaoTalk
• Paybox Services

45. Quality matters
• security@mariadb.org is now commonly on CC when it comes to
MySQL bugs
• Selective (not blind) merging
• Tests (mysql-test/)
• MySQL 5.5: 2,466
• MySQL 5.6: 3,603
• MariaDB 10.0: 3,812

46. Going forward
• column level & block level encryption (Eperi, Google - InnoDB, Aria)
• Kerberos authentication plugin
• Query timeouts
• More Google Summer of Code features (4 students 2014; 3 students
2013)
• Full 5.6 compatibility + 5.7 features (so syntax will match for
duplicated functionality)

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

48. Resources
• We moved to github! https://github.com/MariaDB/server
• We’re still on launchpad for older branches: https://launchpad.net/maria
• maria-discuss@lists.launchpad.net
• maria-developers@lists.launchpad.net
• #maria on freenode
• facebook.com/MariaDB.dbms
• @mariadb / +MariaDB

49. Q&A
colin@mariadb.org | byte@bytebot.net
http://skysql.com/ | http://mariadb.org/
twitter: @bytebot | url: http://bytebot.net/blog/