# Install MariaDB on CentOS 7

By

Charl Cronje

While CentOS 7 and RHEL 7 include MariaDB Server 5.5, substantial improvements have been made as MariaDB Community Server changed through the 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 release series. The MariaDB Server 10.4 release series includes:

• Instant ALTER for InnoDB tables
• Optimizer trace to aid in performance diagnosis
• Window functions and Common Table Expressions (CTE)
• Temporal tables, including system-versioned, application time-period, and bitemporal (both)
• Ability to reload SSL certificates without server restart
• Galera 4 technology, a major enhancement over Galera 3
• Additional storage engines, including MyRocks
• SQL_MODE=ORACLE for compatibility with a subset of Oracle PL/SQL
• Expanded data-at-rest encryption
• Authentication enhancements, including multiple authentication methods per user

sudo yum install mariadb-server

Start the systemd service for MariaDB Server 5.5 or 10.4 using systemctl:

sudo systemctl start mariadb.service

Specific security practices should always follow any business-specific requirements and governance. Some basic steps should be taken to help harden the MariaDB Community Server 5.5 or 10.4 deployment:

sudo mysql_secure_installation