A positive new chapter for MariaDB Server

MariaDB Server has lots of energy and potential to increase its impact amongst Open Source RDBMSes. As the CEO of MariaDB Foundation, I’m happy to note that I can finally share a positive outlook for the next chapters in the story of MariaDB Server, based on what is happening with its namesake commercial entity, MariaDB plc. After years of missed opportunities, let me share with you why and how I have entered into this positive mood. 

The Foundation and the plc are two separate entities … 

Let me begin by reiterating what is clear only to those following MariaDB Server very closely, namely that MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB plc are two separate entities, with separate governance, separate staff, and separate – although not conflicting – goals. 

On yearly goals, plc woes and habits at MariaDB Foundation

When setting long-term goals, striking the right balance is difficult: Not too generic (fluffy), not too specific (micromanagement). Not too few (lack of challenges), not too many (overwhelming). Consistently focusing on core values, while adapting to changes in the environment.

MariaDB Foundation’s internal goal setting process for 2023 seems to be working out well – and some lessons learned may be of interest even to our community.

The most important lesson learned is about our half-year review.

Adverse conditions when planning 2023

We set our 2023 yearly goals in December, with an emphasis on the first half of the year.

Coming to a language near you!

In a movie theater near you, expect to soon see an explanation of MariaDB Server and MariaDB Foundation in your own language! That is, providing you speak one of the good dozen of languages we have frequently encountered in the MariaDB Server ecosystem.

English is a least common denominator

Like a majority of the MariaDB Server users, most of the developers behind MariaDB Server are non-native English speakers. We use Bad English as our lingua franca. Our pronunciation may be bearable to OK, but as with most techies, our understanding of written and spoken English is OK to good.

Going for a Code of Conduct

It may be long overdue, but based on recent events, we have launched Code of Conduct project at MariaDB Foundation. Our aim is to get your feedback and define a CoC, ideally by end of January, if we see convergence.

In the meantime, if we see unacceptable behaviour on the MariaDB mailing list or elsewhere, we will take action. We want to extend our apology to those who have had unpleasant experiences, about which we have done nothing in the past.

As for the code of conduct wording, our goal is to keep it short. Lofty goals often trigger distractive debates;

Congratulations, MRDB – MariaDB plc!

Today, MariaDB Corporation announced that it completed its merger, landing on NYSE as “MRDB”. With MariaDB Corporation being our founding member as well as our primary code contributor, we want to congratulate what is now MariaDB plc for this remarkable achievement.

Joint goals

MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB Corporation, while independent entities, share a joint interest in the development and adoption of MariaDB Server. In the new scenario with what is now to be referred to as MariaDB plc being a publicly traded company, we expect further interest in MariaDB Server by the ecosystem and community.

MariaDB & K8s: How to replicate MariaDB in K8s

In the previous blog we have seen how to create a statefulset MariaDB application. Also, we learned how replication works in MariaDB in this blog. Now, we will try to create a replicated statefulset application. As good references for creating this blog, I would like to give credit to the Kubernetes documentation as well as an example from Alibaba Cloud.

Configure replication

To replicate a MariaDB application we are going to create a statefulset that will consist of a single init container and one application container.

A mirror manager system to simplify the distribution of MariaDB binaries and packages

The MariaDB Foundation relies on public mirrors to distribute binaries and packages to the world. An overview of the full list can be seen at https://mirmon.mariadb.org. If you would like to volunteer to become a mirror, take a look at https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mirror-sites-for-mariadb/.

Our download page already automatically suggests one of those mirrors for you to download our binaries. Same goes for the repository configuration tool; see https://mariadb.org/download.

The purpose of this blog post is to present you a new system that we have been testing since December 2021 and that we believe is now ready for public adoption.

MariaDB replication using containers

In this blog we are going to demonstrate how to replicate a MariaDB database that runs in a Docker container (let’s call it primary) to one or more MariaDB servers that run in a Docker container (let’s call them replicas) using binary logging, a method that creates binary log files and an index that contains the record of all changes to the database (both data and structure). You can find an overview of how replication works here and you can find how to setup replication here. An example can be found in this GitHub script.