With IONOS Cloud Database as a Service (DBaaS), you can quickly set up and manage the MariaDB database engine. You can use the database engine's features, such as the flexible cloud-based scaling of the database resources, patching the database, creating backups and redundancy, and enhancing security with IONOS DBaaS.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

IONOS DBaaS for MariaDB is fully integrated into the Data Center Designer and has a dedicated API. You may also launch it via automation tools like Ansible and Terraform.

MariaDB is a reliable, scalable, and secure Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). IONOS DBaaS assures the configured database is automatically provisioned, thus saving time and ensuring your business runs smoothly without disruption. DBaaS gives you access to the capabilities of the MariaDB database engine, ensuring you can use the same code, applications, and tools you already use in your existing databases with DBaaS.

You can order a cluster of multiple redundant nodes with automatic failover for high availability. For more information, see High Availability and Scaling.

The IONOS DBaaS for MariaDB automatically creates and stores backups of your MariaDB content regularly, which is capable of a point-in-time restore. Backups happen automatically to reduce your workload further and ensure that you can swiftly resume operations in the event of a failure.

It is mandatory to specify a periodic maintenance time window for regular maintenance. During the maintenance time window, you may encounter a short, occasional downtime, typically caused by restarting the MariaDB or switching to another replica.

The illustration shows how MariaDB can be created and managed using IONOS DBaaS.

As shown in the illustration, you can order and manage a MariaDB database cluster using the or the corresponding . Simultaneously, you can choose the LAN, the VDC, and the IP address on which the MariaDB should be available. The IONOS Cloud DBaaS Backend provisions the MariaDB cluster according to your request. The primary instance of the MariaDB cluster will be available on your LAN within the VDC and on the chosen IP address after provisioning.

Supported MariaDB Versions

IONOS Cloud supports "MariaDB Long-Term Support (LTS) versions" (example: 10.6, 10.11), starting from MariaDB 10.6.

The IONOS Cloud DBaaS takes care of minor version upgrades during maintenance windows, for example, from 10.11.6 to 10.11.7. For more information, see .

Locations

DBaaS for MariaDB is offered in all IONOS Cloud locations. You can use DBaaS instances running MariaDB in the IONOS Cloud infrastructure. For more information about the regional API endpoints, see .

Security

A MariaDB cluster comes with an x509 certificate for Transport Layer Security (TLS). You can enforce this transport encryption with the client option --ssl-verify-server-cert.

Features

• ACID Compliance: MariaDB ensures data integrity and reliability through the support of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) properties.

• Triggers and Stored Procedures: MariaDB allows the creation of database triggers to automatically perform actions based on specified events and stored procedures for executing sets of SQL statements.

Cluster options

Single-node cluster: A single-node cluster only has one "primary node". This node accepts customer connections and performs read and write operations. It is a single point of truth and a single point of failure.

Multi-node cluster: A multi-node cluster contains one "primary node" and one or more "secondary nodes" replicating data from the primary node. The secondary nodes always attempt to keep up-to-date with the primary, but they may lag due to the asynchronous replication. If the current primary node fails, a secondary node elevates to the primary node. The old primary node is automatically fixed and turned secondary.

Database scaling

You can scale the existing database clusters using "horizontal" and "vertical" scaling.

Replication modes

The synchronization_mode determines how transactions are replicated between multiple nodes before a transaction is confirmed to the client. IONOS DBaaS supports only the asynchronous (default) replication mode for MariaDB, wherein the first transaction commit is always on the master, followed by replication to the standby node(s).

Asynchronous replication sends a transaction confirmation back to the user immediately after the transaction is written to disk on the primary node without waiting for the standby. Replication takes place in the background. The cluster can lose some committed (not yet replicated) transactions during a failover to a secondary node in an asynchronous mode. The performance penalty of asynchronous replication depends on the workload.

MariaDB uses an asynchronous replication mechanism. The primary node's binary log needs to be enabled to save data and make structural changes in the binary log. For more information, refer to the .

Synchronization mode considerations

Please note that the synchronization mode can impact DBaaS in several ways:

Switchover process

For administrative reasons, automatic switchovers happen in a controlled, planned manner during the scheduled maintenance. However, data is preserved during a switchover.

During a switchover, the IP address of the primary server is moved to the promoted replica server. Meanwhile, the client is signaled about the switchover by closing the TCP connection on the server. The client automatically closes the connection and reconnects to the database.

Following are a few limitations that you can encounter while using MariaDB.

• The total upper limit for the Number of CPUs depends on your quota. A single instance cannot exceed 16 cores. For more information, see .

• The total upper limit for RAM Size depends on your quota. A single instance cannot exceed 32 GB.

• The upper limit for Storage Size is 2 TB.

Calculate disk requirements

The requested disk space stores all the data that MariaDB is working with, including database logs and binary log files. Each MariaDB instance contains storage of the configured size. IONOS manages and stores the applications and operating system independently from the configured storage.

MariaDB rejects further write requests if the disk exceeds the storage limit. Ensure that you order enough storage to keep the MariaDB cluster operational. You can monitor the storage utilization in the DCD.

You can also verify if the tables are oversized. For more information, refer to the . Bloated tables can consume space, so we recommend diagnosing the cause and reclaiming the free space. For more information, see .

IONOS DBaaS stores the generated logs on the same disk as the database. Log files are rotated according to their size to conserve the disk space. Log messages are subject to a 7-day retention policy.

Logs are generated for the following:

• Connections established during a session creation

• Disconnections when the session terminates

• Statements that run for at least 5 seconds

• Statements that result in an error

For more information, refer to the .

Binary logs

MariaDB uses for continuous archiving and replication.

The binary logs record every change to the database. MariaDB deletes older log files automatically with the expire_logs_days in a typical operation mode. It means that binary log files, regular database log files such as audit logs, error logs, and client logs are deleted. For more information, refer to the .

Password hashing

Ensure that the client library is up-to-date and supports the mysql_native_password authentication. For more information, refer to the . The following links on the MariaDB website can help you with:

• . For more information about resetting the database password, see .

Connection encryption

All client connections are encrypted using TLS. To secure communications with the MariaDB Server using TLS, you need a private key and an X509 certificate for the server. Server certificates are issued by Let's Encrypt. For more information about certificates, refer to the .

Certificates are issued for the DNS name of the cluster which is assigned automatically during creation and will look similar to ma-98tcp98ofe.qa.mariadb.fr-par.ionos.com. It is available via the IONOS API as the dnsName property of the cluster resource.

Here is how to verify the certificate using MariaDB with ssl option:

Follow the network specifications and resource considerations listed on this page to successfully set up a MariaDB cluster.

Network configuration

To set up a database inside an existing data center, you should have at least one server in a private LAN. You need to choose an IP address, under which the database leader should be made available.

There is currently no IP address management for databases. If you use your subnet, you may use any IP address in that corresponding subnet. You must choose the IP address of the subnet that IONOS assigns you if your servers use DHCP. The IP address of the subnet can be found in your NIC configuration.

Resource considerations

CPU, RAM, storage, and number of database clusters are counted against quotas. Database performance depends on the storage type. Currently, IONOS supports only storage type, by default.

The are stored alongside the database. The amount of files can grow and shrink depending on your workload. For a reasonable performance, we recommend that you set the SSD's storage size to at least 100 GB.

Database backups

All database clusters are backed up automatically. For more information, see .

Get help troubleshooting common issues with MariaDB.

IONOS Cloud updates and patches your database cluster to achieve high standards of functionality and security. This includes minor patches for MariaDB and patches for the underlying operating system. Generally, these updates are unnoticeable and do not interrupt your operation. However, occasionally, IONOS restarts your MariaDB instance to allow the changes to take effect.

Prerequisites

• Prepare for a downtime during the version upgrade.

• Ensure the database cluster has enough available storage. While the upgrade is space-efficient (because it does not copy the data directory), some temporary data is written to the disk.

Currently, MariaDB only supports minor upgrades. IONOS replaces the mariadb executable binaries with those from a newer version, followed by the execution of the mariadb-upgrade command.

The process replicates data from the old version to the new version and the database switches to the new version. For more information about the upgrade process, refer to the .

Any changes that could cause service interruptions, such as version upgrades, are performed during a one-hour weekly maintenance window, which may result in brief connection interruptions. We recommend reconnecting to resume and complete any transactions that may have been affected during the maintenance window. For more information about how to configure maintenance windows for MariaDB, see .

Although IONOS DBaaS does not grant superuser access to MariaDB services, you may still view database clusters and perform administrator-level activities.

DBaaS services offered by IONOS Cloud

All back-end tasks necessary to keep your database operating at peak efficiency are handled by the IONOS platform. You can perform the following:

• Database installation via the DCD or the DBaaS API.

• Pre-set database configuration and configuration management options.

• Automated backups for seven days with point-in-time restore.

• Regular patches and upgrades during maintenance.

• Service monitoring both for the database and the underlying infrastructure.

Database administration

Tasks related to the optimal health of the database remain your responsibility. These include:

• Optimization

• Data organization

• Index creation

• Statistics modification

The request restores a MariaDB cluster from a backup.

Prerequisites

The backup must:

• belong to the MariaDB cluster to be restored.

• be in the AVAILABLE state.

Request

Response

You will receive a 202 Successful operation when the request is complete.

A user's identity in MariaDB is determined by their username and host combination. If you have numerous users from different source hosts, you will need to reset the password for each user. To reset your database password, connect to the MariaDB cluster and run either of the following commands using the user whose password should be changed:

• SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD('<new password>');

• SET PASSWORD = '<passwordhash>';

To delete a MariaDB cluster, follow these steps:

A list of all MariaDB clusters is displayed.

2. Click in the OPTIONS column and select Delete.

Alternatively, you can also choose a MariaDB cluster by clicking on its name and in the Details window, select x Delete cluster.

3. Select Delete in the dialog box to confirm deletion.

Tables can become bloated during regular operation, meaning they consume more disk space than is required. The causes can be deletions or updating large amounts of data, resulting in the following:

• The disk of the MariaDB cluster runs out of space.

• MariaDB tables might be bloated.

IONOS DBaaS MariaDB is a flexible database engine that is a perfect fit for facilitating enterprise-level analytics and solutions to drive online web applications for both individual use and business purposes. Due to its open-source nature, improved performance and MySQL compatibility, it is liked by developers and companies alike.

Scenario 1: Data warehousing and analytics

Precondition

The price and overhead of managing voluminous data for businesses and individuals rise as the data increases.

Solution

MariaDB can be recommended for various instances where extensive data is stored and analyzed. Its high-availability environment ensures minimized downtime and continuous availability of data. Here are some scenarios where it can be implemented:

• Web Applications: MariaDB is highly scalable, provides fast and reliable data retrieval, and can support sudden spikes in traffic. Hence, it can be used for web applications as a backend database, because it can handle the data storage needs of a dynamic website or web application.

• Healthcare Systems: It is ideally suited for the secure and scalable storage and management of healthcare information, medical records, and patient data.

• E-commerce Organizations: With its ability to manage user accounts, transactional data, and product catalogs, it is an ideal match for e-commerce platforms. Its ACID compliance ensures integrity and data consistency.

Scenario 2: Corrupted data cluster

Precondition

Restoring data to its previous state manually can become a tedious and time-consuming task.

Solution

The self-restore feature for MariaDB in IONOS DBaaS can be beneficial in various use cases where data recovery or restoration to a specific point in time is necessary. You can restore a MariaDB cluster from the backup via the or using the . Here are some common use cases:

• Accidental Data Deletion: In situations where critical data is accidentally deleted from the MariaDB cluster, the self-restore feature enables you to roll back the cluster to a point before the deletion occurs, helping to recover lost data effectively.

• Data Corruption: If the MariaDB cluster experiences data corruption due to software issues or hardware failures, the self-restore feature allows you to restore the cluster to a consistent state before the corruption, ensuring data integrity and minimizing the impact of the corruption.

• Human Errors: Mistakes made during operations such as incorrect updates or changes can be resolved by using the self-restore feature to revert the cluster to a state where the errors did not exist, preventing potential data inconsistencies.

With IONOS DBaaS, you may roll back your MariaDB clusters to a previous point in time or use it to create a new cluster. This reliable function prevents data loss and downtime in unexpected situations.

For example, consider that certain values were accidentally deleted from your MariaDB cluster around 11 hours today. The easiest way to recover missing data is to restore a backup before 11 hours.

Prerequisites

• The backup must belong to the MariaDB cluster to be restored.

• The cluster must be in the AVAILABLE state.

Restore a Cluster

To restore a cluster, follow these steps:

2. Select a MariaDB cluster from the list by clicking on its name. Alternatively, click Details in the OPTIONS column.

3. The Details window displays the necessary information of the chosen cluster. For more information, see .

• Point In Time Recovery displays the earliest backup available for restoration. Select Restore backup to choose the date and time for backup restoration.

a. In the Restore backup pop-up window, click within the text box to open the Calendar.

b. Backups are available only for those dates that are available for selection. Select a date and click Ok.

c. Select the Clock icon to set a time for restoring the appropriate backup from the chosen day and click Ok to confirm your selection.

d. Select Restore to proceed with the restoration.

e. Select Restore to confirm the restoration.

After creation, you can view the list of MariaDB clusters and delete them if they are no longer required.

To view a list of the clusters, follow these steps:

• In the DCD, go to Menu > Databases > MariaDB.

View individual Cluster details

To view the details of each cluster in the Details window:

2. You can navigate to the Details window using either of these options:

• Select the name of the cluster.

• Selecting Details from the OPTIONS column.

3. You can view the following:

• Properties: Displays the cluster's UUID, DNS name, its version, state, the number of instances created, and the data center location where it is located.

• Instance configuration: Displays the number of CPUs utilized, RAM size and the storage used.

• Datacenter connection: Displays the name of the data center, the associated LAN, and the dedicated private IP address.

• Maintenance period:

Will DBaaS be offered on Cloud Cubes?

DBaaS is only available on Virtual Servers at this time. There may be support for Cloud Cubes in the future.

What happens when the connection reaches its limits?

Depending on the library you are using, you may see an error message similar to the following:

Too many connections

How do we prevent reaching the connection limit?

As each user has 250 connections and max_connections is set to 500, it is less probable that a user will use up all of their connections with MariaDB.

Can I scale the deployment to increase its connection limit?

Unfortunately, it is not allowed to scale the deployment for increasing connection limits.

What are the supported backup methods?

IONOS provides an automated backup within the cloud infrastructure. You can use the mariadb-dump client to back up data to a different location. For more information, refer to the .

What are the main considerations for latency and performance?

Achieving high availability and minimal latency are the main goals of the IONOS Cloud. We recommend that you host your application servers closer to your database and in a appropriate for your user base to reduce the adverse effects of network latency on your application. For more information, refer to the .

MariaDB supports both automatic and manual backups. In addition, you can also use the self-restore function via the API to restore MariaDB clusters from a backup.

Automatic backups

IONOS, by default, performs automatic backups, which are full backups that run regularly at a specific hour based on the value set in the DBaaS component. Automatic backups are created in either of the following instances:

• During the creation of a cluster.

• Upon upgrading the current version of MariaDB to a higher version.

• When a Point-In-Time-Recovery operation is conducted.

Manual backup

IONOS facilitates the "logical" backup option using mariadb-dump. Alternatively, you can also use the mariadb-dump client to back data to a different location. For more information, refer to the .

Self-Restore MariaDB Clusters from the Backup

IONOS DBaaS offers a self-restore feature to restore MariaDB clusters, which allows an efficient restoration of your clusters from a backup to a previous state or point in time without manual intervention. It reduces downtime and minimizes data loss in case of unforeseen events. You can either use the or the to self-restore your MariaDB clusters.

The following are some of the features and benefits of self-restore:

• Point-in-Time Recovery: You can restore your MariaDB clusters to a specific point in time. For example, you can roll back the cluster to a state before data corruption, accidental deletions, etc.

• Automated Process: The automated process significantly streamlines and reduces the time and effort required to restore a MariaDB cluster. You can initiate the restore process through the API.

• Data Consistency: It ensures that the restored MariaDB cluster is consistent and matches the data state at the specified point in time. It helps maintain data integrity and coherence across applications interacting with the respective MariaDB cluster.

The database will be deployed in about five minutes after the creation of your first MariaDB cluster. For more information about creating a MariaDB cluster, see Create a MariaDB Cluster.

You can manually verify whether the create request is successful because the notification mechanism is not yet available. However, you can poll the API to see when the state switches to AVAILABLE. You can use the following command:

Initialize the database and connect it to the cluster

You can connect to your MariaDB cluster soon after its creation. For example, you can connect using the ssh command as follows and the credentials that you set in the :

You can use the following command to set the environment:

Alternatively, you can use the following commands to connect to the database:

Manage access

You can create additional users, roles, databases, and other objects via the SQL. These operations are highly dependent on your database architecture.

The PUBLIC role is a special role in which all database users inherit the permissions. This is also important if you want to have a user without write permissions, since by default PUBLIC is only allowed to write to the public schema.

For more information about managing databases, refer to the .

Create Users

The CREATE USER statement can be used to create one or more user accounts in the MariaDB database. Only users with the global CREATE USER privilege or the INSERT privilege for the MySQL database can create users. For more information, refer to the .

You can retrieve all backups of a specific MariaDB cluster using its clusterId. Specify a limit to limit the maximum number of elements returned and define pagination using offset.

Request

curl -X 'GET' \
  'https://mariadb.de-txl.ionos.com/clusters/{clusterId}/backups' \
  -H 'accept: application/json'

Response

200 Successful operation

This topic describes connecting to MariaDB from your managed Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

Ensure that the following are available before connecting to the database:

• A datacenter with the following id: xyz-my-datacenter.

• A private LAN with id 3 using the network 10.1.1.0/24.

• A database connected to LAN 3 with the following IP address: 10.1.1.5/24.

• A Kubernetes cluster with the following id: xyz-my-cluster.

Connect to the database from the cluster

In this example, we use DHCP to assign IP addresses to node pools. Therefore, the database must be in the same subnet as the DHCP server.

To enable connectivity, follow these steps:

1. Connect node pools to the private LAN, which is connected to the database:

1. Create a pod to test the connectivity. Schedule the pod exclusively for the node pools connected to the additional LAN if you have several node pools.

Alternatively, you can also use the following commands:

1. Create the pod: kubectl apply -f pod.yaml

2. Attach the pod and test connectivity:

You can delete a MariaDB cluster using its UUID. The response body will provide details about the cluster's UUID once a MariaDB cluster has been created or when obtaining a list of clusters.

Request

Response

202 Successful operation

This section provides detailed guides and examples on how to interact with the MariaDB REST API. Each guide covers specific tasks such as creating, managing, and deleting MariaDB clusters, as well as handling backups and connecting from Kubernetes.

Quick Links

You can retrieve a MariaDB cluster using its UUID. It is found in the response body when a MariaDB cluster is created or when you retrieve a list of MariaDB clusters using GET.

Request

To query a single cluster, you need the id from your create response.

You can retrieve a list of MariaDB clusters and also specify the maximum number of elements to be returned by specifying an integer for limit and defining the pagination using offset.

Additionally, you can also use a response filter (filter.name) to list only the MariaDB clusters that contain the specified name.

Request

You can retrieve a specific backup of a MariaDB cluster using its ID. You can find the ID when you the list of all MariaDB cluster backups. You can specify an integer for limit to return the maximum number of elements and define the pagination using offset.

Request

When you use MariaDB with IONOS DBaaS, the initial user is given a full set of administrative permissions. These privileges allow the user to create, manage, and control the database.

The request creates a new MariaDB cluster, which involves restoring a backup of an existing MariaDB cluster and configuring it to function as a new cluster. Ensure you have a backup of your MariaDB cluster containing all the necessary data and configuration files for appropriate functioning.

Prerequisite

• Only contract administrators, owners, and users with Access and manage DBaaS privilege can create and manage MariaDB clusters. Ensure that you have the necessary privilege.

Prerequisites

• Before setting up a database, ensure that you are working within a provisioned that contains at least one VM from which to access the database. The VM you create is counted against the quota allocated in your contract.

• Database Manager is available only for contract administrators, owners, and users with

Learn how to use MariaDB in the DCD. This section provides step-by-step guides to help you effectively manage your MariaDB instances within the DCD.

Quick Links

You can retrieve a list of backups for all MariaDB clusters in your contract. You can specify an integer for limit to return the maximum number of elements and define the pagination using offset.

Request

The request creates a new MariaDB cluster.

Prerequisite

• Only contract administrators, owners, and users with Access and manage DBaaS privilege can create and manage MariaDB clusters. Ensure that you have the necessary privilege.

Request

Response

Your values will differ from those in the sample code. It may contain different IDs, timestamps etc.

You may have noticed that the metadata.state is BUSY and that the database is not yet reachable. This is because the cloud will create a completely new cluster and needs to provision new nodes for all the requested replicas. This process runs asynchronously in the background and might take up to 30 minutes.

200 Successful operation

After creation, remember to validate the status of your MariaDB cluster. For more information, see .