As a free, relational DBMS, the open-source database management system MariaDB has in many areas replaced the previously widely used MySQL replaced. MariaDB was created by a fork from the MySQL project. A new name was necessary because Oracle holds the trademark rights to MySQL. The project was initiated by Ulf Michael Widenius, former lead developer at MySQL and developer of the storage engine Aria, which is the central component of MariaDB. Development is now under the auspices of the MariaDB Corporation and a MariaDB Foundation is responsible for maintaining open source status.
MySQL and MariaDB - Naming and compatibility
The development of both database systems was initiated and decisively influenced by Ulf Michael Widenius. The naming was done, also for both databases, with reference to the first names of Widenius' two daughters. The oldest daughter My gave the name to MySQL, which has been in existence since 1994. Since 2009, Widenius has dedicated itself to the Fork MariaDB, whose name refers to the younger daughter Maria. MySQL today belongs to Oracle. Until MySQL vs. 5.5, both database systems were largely compatible. In the meantime Oracle has released MySQL Vers. 5.6 and the current MariaDB is available in Vers. 10. Here the first relevant differences become apparent.
Advantages of MariaDB compared to MySQL
MariaDB now supports significantly more engines than MySQL. The engines contain the basic functions of the DatabaseThese include creating, reading, modifying and deleting data records, and are each designed for clearly defined use cases. The aim is to provide an optimally suitable engine for each area of application. In addition to the project's own engine Aria, MariaDB also supports SphinxSE, FederatedX, Spider, TokuDB, ScaleDB, ColumnStore and many more. The respective engines support special features such as transactions, sharding functions or massive parallel architectures, but also all-round tasks such as with the Connect engine. InnoDB was replaced by the significantly higher-performance xtraDB.
MariaDB, unlike MySQL, is under continuous development, Updates are passed on quickly, the project is completely open source and documented with a detailed bug tracker. The database system is also optimized for performance, offers a cluster database for commercial use and a migration from other DB systems can be realized elegantly in many cases. After a migration from MySQL to MariaDB, however, it is no longer possible to return to MySQL from the current version.
Security
With version 10.1 MariaDB offers the possibility to encrypt data on storage level. This applies to complete table spaces, individual tables and also to various log files. The data is encrypted not only in the files of the engines, but also in the binary logs, which are important for replication. It is also possible to use so-called rolling encryption keys, whereby all keys have a limited validity period and are replaced cyclically by new ones.
Availability and high availability
MariaDB allows the management of access rights according to the concept of "Role-based Access Control". The access rights are not only assigned on the basis of individual users or user groups, as is usually the case, but also on the basis of defined roles that the employees in the company exercise. MariaDB realizes high availability and scalability based on the clustering solution Galeria from the Finnish provider Codership. Up to version 10.0 of the MariaDB server, there are two versions, one of which supports MariaDB Galeria clusters and the other does not. Since MariaDB Server vs. 10.1, Galera cluster support is integrated.
Parallel processing and improved availability
MariaDB combines with the current ColumnStore relational database technology with Big Data. The ColumnStore storage engine works column oriented and supports parallel query distribution of data and parallel loading to a high degree. With MaxScale MariaDB offers an application-to-database gateway. It connects client applications with databases and is designed to improve the availability, security and scalability of the database without changing the application. MaxScale received the "Application of the Year 2016" award from the MySQL community.
Organisational structure and support
Former MySQL initiators Michael Widenius, Allan Larsson and David Axmark founded the independent MariaDB Foundation in December 2012. As a foundation, its purpose is to protect the interests of MariaDB developers and users and to ensure that the free database remains free. Further goals are to improve database technology, including the development of standards and ensuring interoperability with other database systems. MariaDB Corporation is the main developer of the free DB system. It was originally founded under the name SkySQL and renamed MariaDB Corporation in October 2014. MariaDB Corporation provides support, consulting, and remote administration for its database systems, as is common for database systems from other vendors.
Acceptance and dissemination
MariaDB has become a standalone database management system through continuous development and has gained a significant lead over MySQL. Well-known users include Google, Mozilla, OpenBSD, openSUSE, Fedora and many others.
