The Ultimate Guide to High Availability with MariaDB
This is a read-only copy of the MariaDB Knowledgebase generated on 2025-04-23. For the latest, interactive version please visit https://mariadb.com/kb/.

Migrate external MariaDB into Kubernetes

In this guide, we will be migrating an external MariaDB into a new MariaDB instance running in Kubernetes and managed by MariaDB Enterprise Operator. We will be using logical backups for achieving this migration.

IMPORTANT
Ensure you understand the key considerations and limitations of the Backup and Restore resources in the MariaDB Enterprise Operator.

1. Take a logical backup of your external MariaDB using one of the commands below:

mariadb-dump --user=${MARIADB_USER} --password=${MARIADB_PASSWORD} --host=${MARIADB_HOST} --single-transaction --events --routines --all-databases > backup.2024-08-26T12:24:34Z.sql

If you are currently using or migrating to a Galera instance, use the following command instead:

mariadb-dump --user=${MARIADB_USER} --password=${MARIADB_PASSWORD} --host=${MARIADB_HOST} --single-transaction --events --routines --all-databases --skip-add-locks --ignore-table=mysql.global_priv > backup.2024-08-26T12:24:34Z.sql

2. Ensure that your backup file matches the following format: backup.2024-08-26T12:24:34Z.sql. If the file name does not follow this format, it will be ignored by the operator.

3. Upload the backup file to one of the supported storage types. We recommend using S3.

4. Create your MariaDB resource declaring that you want to bootstrap from the previous backup and providing a root password Secret that matches the backup:

apiVersion: enterprise.mariadb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
  name: mariadb-galera
spec:
  rootPasswordSecretKeyRef:
    name: mariadb
    key: root-password
  replicas: 3
  galera:
    enabled: true
  storage:
    size: 1Gi
  bootstrapFrom:
    s3:
      bucket: backups
      prefix: mariadb
      endpoint: minio.minio.svc.cluster.local:9000
      accessKeyIdSecretKeyRef:
        name: minio
        key: access-key-id
      secretAccessKeySecretKeyRef:
        name: minio
        key: secret-access-key
      tls:
        enabled: true
        caSecretKeyRef:
          name: minio-ca
          key: tls.crt
    targetRecoveryTime: 2024-08-26T12:24:34Z

5. If you are using Galera in your new instance, migrate your previous users and grants to use the User and Grant CRs. Refer to the SQL resource documentation for further detail.

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