Create MariaDB Service

MariaDB is the open source relational database loved by developers all over the world. Created by MySQL’s original developers, MariaDB is compatible with MySQL and guaranteed to stay open source forever.

Create MariaDB using Zerops GUI

If you’re migrating from another database system such as MySQL, please review the migration information section first, as some critical settings must be configured at creation time.

First, set up a project in Zerops GUI. Then go to the project dashboard page and choose Add new service in the left menu in the Services block.

Choose MariaDB version

Select from the currently supported MariaDB versions. The available versions are displayed in the service creation wizard.

Set a hostname

Enter a unique service identifier like mariadb, sql, db etc.

Hostname limitations:

Duplicate services with the same name within the same project are not allowed
Maximum 25 characters
Must contain only lowercase ASCII letters (a-z) or numbers (0-9)
The hostname is fixed after the service is created and cannot be changed later

Configure auto scaling

Zerops automatically scales MariaDB services based on actual database usage. Configure the scaling parameters to match your database needs and control costs. CPU Mode: Choose between shared (cost-effective) or dedicated (consistent performance). Resource Limits: Set minimum and maximum resources for CPU, RAM, and disk to control costs and ensure performance. Deployment Mode: Choose the reliability configuration for your MariaDB service:

Highly Available: Multiple containers with redundancy across different physical machines. Recommended for production environments.
Single Container: One container suitable for development and non-critical environments.

Deployment mode cannot be changed after service creation.

For detailed scaling configuration, deployment mode details, and troubleshooting, see:

How Zerops scales MariaDB - Database-specific scaling guide
Automatic Scaling and High Availability - Complete technical details

Create MariaDB using zCLI

If you’re migrating from another database system such as MySQL, please review the migration information section first, as some critical settings must be configured at creation time.

zCLI is the Zerops command-line tool. To create a new MariaDB service via the command-line, follow these steps:

Install & setup zCLI

Install and configure zCLI if you haven’t already.

Create a project description file

Create a YAML file describing your project infrastructure.

Import the project

Run the import command to create your project and MariaDB service.

Create a project description file

Zerops uses a YAML format file to describe the project infrastructure.

Basic example

Create a directory my-project. Create a description.yaml file inside the directory with the following content:

# basic project data
project:
  # project name
  name: my-project
# array of project services
services:
  - # service name
    hostname: mariadb1
    # service type and version number in mariadb@{version} format
    type: mariadb@10.4
    # mode of operation "HA"/"NON_HA"
    mode: NON_HA

The yaml file describes your future project infrastructure. The project will contain one MariaDB 10.4 service in single container mode with default auto scaling configuration. Hostname will be set to mariadb1.

Full example

Create a directory my-project. Create a description.yaml file inside the directory with the following content:

# basic project data
project:
  # project name
  name: my-project
  # optional: project description
  description: A project with a MariaDB database
  # optional: project tags
  tags:
    - DEMO
    - ZEROPS
# array of project services
services:
  - # first service hostname
    hostname: mariadb1
    # service type and version number in mariadb@{version} format
    type: mariadb@10.4
    # mode of operation "HA"/"NON_HA"
    mode: HA
    # optional: vertical auto scaling customization
    verticalAutoscaling:
      cpuMode: DEDICATED
      minCpu: 2
      maxCpu: 5
      minRam: 2
      maxRam: 24
      minDisk: 6
      maxDisk: 50
      startCpuCoreCount: 3
      minFreeRamGB: 0.5
      minFreeRamPercent: 20
    # optional: system variables configuration
    envSecrets:
      lower_case_table_names: "1"
  - # second service hostname
    hostname: mariadb2
    # service type and version number in mariadb@{version} format
    type: mariadb@10.4
    # mode of operation "HA"/"non_HA"
    mode: NON_HA

The yaml file describes your future project infrastructure. The project will contain two MariaDB 10.4 services. The hostname of the first service will be set to mariadb1. The highly available mode will be chosen and the custom auto scaling configuration will be set. The lower_case_table_names system variable will be set to “1”. The hostname of the second service will be set to mariadb2. The single container mode will be chosen and the default auto scaling configuration will be set.

Description of description.yaml parameters

Project section

The project: section is required. Only one project can be defined.

Parameter	Description	Limitations
name	The name of the new project. Duplicates are allowed.
description	Optional. Description of the new project.	Maximum 255 characters.
tags	Optional. One or more string tags. Tags do not have a functional meaning, they only provide better orientation in projects.

Services section

At least one service in services: section is required. You can create a project with multiple services.

Parameter	Description
hostname	A unique service identifier like `mariadb`,`sql`, `db` etc. Limitations: - duplicate services with the same name in the same project are forbidden - maximum 25 characters - must contain only lowercase ASCII letters (a-z) or numbers (0-9)
type	Specifies the service type and version. See what MariaDB service types are currently supported.
mode	Defines the operation mode of MariaDB service. HA Zerops will create a MariaDB cluster with 3 database containers and 2 free database proxies. This mode is suited for production. Zerops always keep the 3 database containers on different physical machines. All your data is stored redundantly in 3 copies. In case of a failure of a container or the underlying physical machine, Zerops automatically disconnects the failed container from the cluster, creates a new container and syncs all data from the remaining 2 copies. Finally the broken container is automatically deleted. NON_HA Zerops will create a MariaDB database installed in a single container. Useful for non-essential data or dev environments. Your data is stored only in a single container. If the container or the underlying physical machine fails, your data since the last backup are lost. Zerops doesn’t provide any automatic repairs of single node MariaDB services.
verticalAutoscaling	Optional. Defines custom vertical auto scaling parameters. All verticalAutoscaling attributes are optional. Not specified attributes will be set to their default values.
- cpuMode	Optional. Accepts `SHARED`, `DEDICATED` values. Default is `SHARED`
- minCpu/maxCpu	Optional. Set the minCpu or maxCpu in CPU cores (integer).
- minRam/maxRam	Optional. Set the minRam or maxRam in GB (float).
- minDisk/maxDisk	Optional. Set the minDisk or maxDisk in GB (float).
envSecrets	Optional. Defines secret environment variables for the service, including MariaDB system variables.

The MariaDB service hostname and mode are fixed after the service is created. They can’t be changed later.

Create a project based on the description.yaml

When you have your description.yaml ready, use the zcli project project-import command to create a new project and the service infrastructure.

Usage:
  zcli project project-import importYamlPath [flags]

Flags:
  -h, --help                Help for the project import command.
      --org-id string        If you have access to more than one organization, you must specify the org ID for which the
                            project is to be created.
      --working-dir string   Sets a custom working directory. Default working directory is the current directory. (default "./")

Zerops will create a project and one or more services based on the description.yaml content. Maximum size of the description.yaml file is 100 kB. You don’t specify the project name in the zcli project project-import command, because the project name is defined in the description.yaml. If you have access to more than one client, you must specify the client ID for which the project is to be created. The clientID is located in the Zerops GUI under the client name on the project dashboard page.

Add MariaDB service to an existing project

Create a directory my-project if it doesn’t exist. Create an import.yaml file inside the my-project directory with following content:

# array of project services
services:
  - # service name
    hostname: mariadb1
    # service type and version number in mariadb@{version} format
    type: mariadb@10.4
    # mode of operation "HA"/"NON_HA"
    mode: NON_HA
    # optional: system variables configuration
    envSecrets:
      lower_case_table_names: "1"

The yaml file describes the list of one or more services that you want to add to your existing project. In the example above, one MariaDB 10.4 service in single container mode with default auto scaling configuration will be added to your project. Hostname of the new service will be set to mariadb1. The lower_case_table_names system variable will be set to “1”. The content of the services: section of import.yaml is identical to the project description file. The import.yaml never contains the project: section because the project already exists. When you have your import.yaml ready, use the zcli project service-import command to add one or more services to your existing Zerops project.

Usage:
  zcli project service-import importYamlPath [flags]

Flags:
  -h, --help                Help for the project service import command.
  -P, --project-id string   If you have access to more than one project, you must specify the project ID for which the
                           command is to be executed.

zCLI commands are interactive, when you press enter after zcli project service-import importYamlPath, you will be given a list of your projects to choose from. Maximum size of the import.yaml file is 100 kB.

Migrating from other database systems

Configure system variables

When migrating to MariaDB in Zerops from other database systems, you may need to configure specific system variables to maintain compatibility with your existing applications.

Setting `lower_case_table_names` for MySQL compatibility

The lower_case_table_names system variable determines how MariaDB handles table name case sensitivity:

Value	Table Name Storage	Comparison Behavior
0	Stored as specified (preserves case)	Case-sensitive
1	Stored in lowercase	Case-insensitive
2	Stored as specified (preserves case)	Case-insensitive

This variable must be configured when the MariaDB instance is first created and cannot be changed afterward. This is a limitation of MariaDB itself, not specific to Zerops.

When configuring this in Zerops:

Using GUI: Set the lower_case_table_names parameter in the advanced options section when creating a new MariaDB service
Using YAML: Include it in your service configuration under the envSecrets section (see examples above)

Migration considerations

If you’re migrating from MySQL to MariaDB and your application relies on a specific table name case handling:

Determine current value

Determine the value used in your source MySQL installation.

Configure before initialization

Configure the same value in your Zerops MariaDB configuration before initializing the database.

Set recommended value

For most migrations from MySQL 5.7, setting the value to “1” is recommended for compatibility.

After deploying your MariaDB service, you can verify the settings with this SQL command:

SELECT @@lower_case_file_system, @@lower_case_table_names;

If you need to change this setting after the database has been initialized, you’ll need to create a new MariaDB service with the correct configuration and migrate your data.

Next Steps

Connect to MariaDB

Learn how to connect from your applications

Databases

Caching & Key-Value

Search Engines

Message Brokers

Containers

Storage

Create MariaDB Service

Create MariaDB using Zerops GUI

Choose MariaDB version

Set a hostname

Configure auto scaling

Create MariaDB using zCLI

Create a project description file

Basic example

Full example

Description of description.yaml parameters

Project section

Services section

Create a project based on the description.yaml

Add MariaDB service to an existing project

Migrating from other database systems

Configure system variables

Setting `lower_case_table_names` for MySQL compatibility

Migration considerations

Next Steps

Connect to MariaDB

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Databases

Caching & Key-Value

Search Engines

Message Brokers

Containers

Storage

​Create MariaDB using Zerops GUI

​Choose MariaDB version

​Set a hostname

​Configure auto scaling

​Create MariaDB using zCLI

​Create a project description file

​Basic example

​Full example

​Description of description.yaml parameters

​Project section

​Services section

​Create a project based on the description.yaml

​Add MariaDB service to an existing project

​Migrating from other database systems

​Configure system variables

​Setting lower_case_table_names for MySQL compatibility

​Migration considerations

​Next Steps

Connect to MariaDB

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Create MariaDB using Zerops GUI

Choose MariaDB version

Set a hostname

Configure auto scaling

Create MariaDB using zCLI

Create a project description file

Basic example

Full example

Description of description.yaml parameters

Project section

Services section

Create a project based on the description.yaml

Add MariaDB service to an existing project

Migrating from other database systems

Configure system variables

Setting `lower_case_table_names` for MySQL compatibility

Migration considerations

Next Steps