Install MariaDB

MariaDB is a MySQL-compatible relational engine, ideal for WordPress, PrestaShop, or PHP apps on a HolyCloud Linux VPS. This guide installs MariaDB from official repositories, runs the hardening script, creates an application user, and limits network exposure.

Prerequisites

• HolyCloud VPS Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or Debian 12
• At least 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended in production with traffic)
• sudo access
• HolyCloud snapshot before changing bind-address or opening port 3306

Tip: in production, keep MariaDB listening on 127.0.0.1 only; expose 3306 only via VPN or allowed IPs.

Step 1: installation

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo systemctl status mariadb

Installed version:

mariadb --version

Step 2: interactive hardening

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Recommended answers:

• Enable password validation plugin if offered (MEDIUM or STRONG)
• Set a strong password for root
• Remove anonymous users: Y
• Disallow remote root login: Y
• Remove test database: Y
• Reload privilege tables: Y

Step 3: local administrator login

sudo mariadb -u root -p

In the SQL client:

SELECT VERSION();
SHOW DATABASES;
EXIT;

On some Debian installs, root uses the Unix socket without a password:

sudo mariadb

Step 4: create a database and application user

Replace monapp, monapp_user, and the password:

sudo mariadb <<'EOF'
CREATE DATABASE monapp CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'monapp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'MotDePasseFortIci!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON monapp.* TO 'monapp_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EOF

Test:

mariadb -u monapp_user -p -h 127.0.0.1 monapp -e "SELECT 1 AS ok;"

Step 5: network configuration (bind-address)

Main config file (path varies by version):

sudo mariadb -e "SELECT @@datadir;"
ls /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/

Edit:

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

[mysqld] section:

bind-address = 127.0.0.1
skip-name-resolve

To allow a remote application IP (discouraged without strict firewall):

CREATE USER 'monapp_user'@'10.0.0.5' IDENTIFIED BY 'MotDePasseFortIci!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON monapp.* TO 'monapp_user'@'10.0.0.5';

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Step 6: basic memory settings (small VPS)

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

Example for 2 GB RAM:

[mysqld]
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 512M
max_connections = 100

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Step 7: quick logical backup

mysqldump -u monapp_user -p -h 127.0.0.1 monapp > /var/backups/monapp-$(date +%F).sql
gzip /var/backups/monapp-$(date +%F).sql

Automate with cron (see « Scheduled tasks with cron »).

Verification

sudo systemctl is-active mariadb
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3306
mariadb -u monapp_user -p -h 127.0.0.1 -e "SHOW TABLES FROM monapp;"
sudo mariadb -e "SELECT user, host FROM mysql.user WHERE user='monapp_user';"

ss should show 127.0.0.1:3306 if you restricted bind-address.

Need help?

• Access denied: user/host mismatch ('user'@'localhost' vs 'user'@'127.0.0.1') — recreate with the correct host
• MariaDB won't start: sudo journalctl -u mariadb -n 50 --no-pager
• Performance: free -h, tune innodb_buffer_pool_size (max ~70% RAM if MySQL is the only heavy service)
• HolyCloud support: mariadb --version, df -h, log excerpt after startup failure