I’m using Flarum 2.0.0-rc.6 in production, and it recently started showing a warning about my MariaDB version.
My server is running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Virtualmin 8.1.0 GPL and Webmin 2.660. MariaDB is currently 10.11.14.
Flarum still supports MariaDB 10.11, but it recommends 11.8.0 or newer for better performance and to stay on a maintained release. So I’m considering upgrading MariaDB, but I’d like to make sure I do it safely.
The server has 19 virtual servers and 26 databases, so I’m a little concerned about the possible impact on the other websites and databases. Everything is currently working fine, and I obviously don’t want to break anything just to get rid of the Flarum warning.
Has anyone here already upgraded MariaDB from 10.11 to 11.8+ on Ubuntu 24.04 with Virtualmin?
I’d mainly like to know if there are any Virtualmin-specific things I should check before doing the upgrade, and whether an in-place upgrade is normally safe with existing databases.
Any advice on the safest procedure and what I should back up/check beforehand would be greatly appreciated.
Hi there,
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for the suggestion.
I understand that upgrading is technically possible, but I want to clarify a detail about my setup: MariaDB 10.11 is actually the latest and default version provided by the official Ubuntu 24.04 LTS repositories.
To reach version 11.x, I would need to add the external MariaDB Foundation repository. While I know Virtualmin can work with third-party repos, performing a major version jump outside the default OS packages on a production server hosting 19 virtual servers and 26 active databases feels like an unnecessary risk for my specific use case.
I’m also asking to the Flarum Team about this warning introduction.
For now seems I can just ignore that warning from Flarum but I’m also trying here to understand if the upgrade is possibile and how to do as I’m already using the latest MariaDB from Ubuntu but this is not updated to the new MariaDB suggested by Flarum.
I’m sorry but I dont know this procedure.
I’m asking because I’m not expert. I dont know what is rhel module streams and how to use.
Also I need to be careful as this is a production server. I dont have a test server so for now I think I will not upgrade.
If the base OS is at a minimal version then you are stuck with using 3rd party or compiling from source. Just depends how you want to proceed and what the reward is . Me personally I’m done with compiling from source as it is a pain to remove and all that. 3rd party, well depends , you just have to do research.
Never compile from source on a production server, under any circumstance.
If you use the upstream Mariadb deb package, you may find they use different paths and service names, which means you’ll need to modify the Webmin Mariadb module configuration to know where to find the files and service.
If Ubuntu offers some sort of new packages stream, that would be recommended over the upstream package which won’t necessarily be beholden to the Ubuntu packaging guidelines. I’ve sometimes been able to find a PPA of the package I need a newer version of.
I’d strongly recommend you test whatever you decide to do on a development system before risking your prod system. Database upgrades are easy and safe until they’re not, and then they’re really not.
I assume you’re keeping good backups and you have tested restoring them on another system so you know you have your complete database backed up.
