Adding Plugins to the MariaDB Docker Official Image

MariaDB has many plugins. Most are not enabled by default, some are in the mariadb container, while others need to be installed from additional packages.

The following methods summarize Installing plugins in the MariaDB Docker Library Container (mariadb.org blog post) on this topic.

Which Plugins Does the Container Contain?

To see which plugins are available in the mariadb:

$ docker run --rm mariadb:latest ls -C /usr/lib/mysql/plugin

Enabling a Plugin Using Flags

Using the `--plugin-load-add` flag with the plugin name (can be repeated), the plugins will be loaded and ready when the container is started:

For example, to enable the `simple\_password\_check` plugin:

$ docker run --name some-%%REPO%% -e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=my-secret-pw --network=host -d mariadb:latest --plugin-load-add=simple_password_check

Enabling a Plugin in the Configuration Files

plugin-load-add` can be used as a configuration option to load plugins. The example below loads the FederatedX Storage Engine.

$ printf "[mariadb]\nplugin-load-add=ha_federatedx\n" > /my/custom/federatedx.conf
$ docker run --name some-mariadb -v /my/custom:/etc/mysql/conf.d -e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=my-secret-pw -d mariadb:latest

Install a Plugin Using SQL in /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d

INSTALL SONAME can be used to install a plugin as part of the database initialization.

Create the SQL file used in initialization:

$ echo 'INSTALL SONAME "disks";' > my_initdb/disks.sql

In this case, the `my\_initdb` is a `/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d` directory per "Initializing a fresh instance" section above.

Identifying Additional Plugins in Additional Packages

A number of plugins are in separate packages to reduce their installation size. The package names of MariaDB-created plugins can be determined using the following command:

$ docker run --rm mariadb:latest sh -c 'apt-get update -qq && apt-cache search mariadb-plugin'

Creating an Image With Plugins From Additional Packages

A new image needs to be created when using additional packages. The mariadb image can however be used as a base:

In the following, the CONNECT Storage Engine is installed:

FROM mariadb:latest
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install mariadb-plugin-connect -y && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

Installing plugins from packages creates a configuration file in the directory `/etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/` that loads the plugin on startup.