How to upgrade MariaDB from version 10.0 to 10.3 on Ubuntu 16.4

The official documentation for the upgrade process can be found at: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/upgrading/

The official documents suggest following the sequential order of upgrades, as it is the preferred method.

Below are the necessary steps to upgrade MariaDB from 10.0 to 10.3:

Updating the repository on Ubuntu 16.04

To enable the required repository source for Ubuntu 16.04, add it to the /etc/apt/sources.list file. A trusted download source can be found at: https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/#version=10.3

For instructions on enabling a repository in /etc/apt/sources.list, refer to the following document: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList

Once the source is added to /etc/apt/sources.list, enable the repository on the server. Here is an example of how to enable a repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ‘deb [arch=amd64,arm64,i386] http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/mariadb/repo/10.1/ubuntu_xenlan_main’

Uncomment the newly added source line in the sources.list file.

Setting innodb_fast_shutdown to 0

After logging into MariaDB as the root user, execute the following command:

–innodb-fast-shutdown = 0;

Shutting down the current MariaDB 10.0

To stop the MariaDB service, use the following command:

service mysql stop

Backing up the current data

You can take a backup using the cp or rsync command.

Using cp command:

cp -r -p /var/lib/mysql backup_name

Example:

cp -r -p /var/lib/mysql mysql-backup

Using rsync command:

rsync -avHP /var/lib/mysql /backup_path/name

Example:

rsync -avHP /var/lib/mysql /backup/mysql-back

Uninstalling the current MariaDB 10.0

To remove MariaDB from the server, run the following command:

sudo apt remove mariadb-server-10.0

Once done, proceed with installing MariaDB 10.1

Installing MariaDB 10.1

Execute the following command to install MariaDB 10.1:

sudo apt install mariadb-server-10.1

The next prompt will appear as shown in the following screenshot:

Since Ubuntu is being used, there is no need to execute the mysql_upgrade command.

To confirm the version, run the following command:

mysql –version

Repeat the entire process until the required version of MariaDB 10.3 is successfully installed.