Upgrading from MariaDB 10.2 to MariaDB 10.3

How to Upgrade

For Windows, see Upgrading MariaDB on Windows instead.

For MariaDB Galera Cluster, see Upgrading from MariaDB 10.2 to MariaDB 10.3 with Galera Cluster instead.

Before you upgrade, it would be best to take a backup of your database. This is always a good idea to do before an upgrade. We would recommend Mariabackup.

The suggested upgrade procedure is:

Modify the repository configuration, so the system's package manager installs MariaDB 10.3. For example,
- On Debian, Ubuntu, and other similar Linux distributions, see Updating the MariaDB APT repository to a New Major Release for more information.
- On RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, and other similar Linux distributions, see Updating the MariaDB YUM repository to a New Major Release for more information.
- On SLES, OpenSUSE, and other similar Linux distributions, see Updating the MariaDB ZYpp repository to a New Major Release for more information.
Stop MariaDB. The server should be cleanly shut down, with no incomplete transactions remaining. innodb_fast_shutdown must be set to 0 or 1 and innodb_force_recovery must be less than 3.
Uninstall the old version of MariaDB.
- On Debian, Ubuntu, and other similar Linux distributions, execute the following:
  sudo apt-get remove mariadb-server
- On RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, and other similar Linux distributions, execute the following:
  sudo yum remove MariaDB-server
- On SLES, OpenSUSE, and other similar Linux distributions, execute the following:
  sudo zypper remove MariaDB-server
Install the new version of MariaDB.
- On Debian, Ubuntu, and other similar Linux distributions, see Installing MariaDB Packages with APT for more information.
- On RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, and other similar Linux distributions, see Installing MariaDB Packages with YUM for more information.
- On SLES, OpenSUSE, and other similar Linux distributions, see Installing MariaDB Packages with ZYpp for more information.
Make any desired changes to configuration options in option files, such as my.cnf. This includes removing any options that are no longer supported.
Start MariaDB.
Run mysql_upgrade.
- mysql_upgrade does two things:
  1. Ensures that the system tables in the mysql database are fully compatible with the new version.
  2. Does a very quick check of all tables and marks them as compatible with the new version of MariaDB .

Incompatible Changes Between 10.2 and 10.3

On most servers upgrading from 10.2 should be painless. However, there are some things that have changed which could affect an upgrade:

Options That Have Changed Default Values

Option	Old default value	New default value
innodb_flush_method	(empty)	fsync
innodb_spin_wait_delay	6	4
performance_schema_max_stage_classes	150	160
plugin_maturity	unknown	One less than the server maturity

Options That Have Been Removed or Renamed

The following options should be removed or renamed if you use them in your option files:

Option	Reason
innodb_buffer_pool_populate	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_cleaner_lsn_age_factor	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_corrupt_table_action	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_empty_free_list_algorithm	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_fake_changes	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_file_format	The InnoDB file format is now Barracuda, and the old Antelope file format is no longer supported.
innodb_file_format_check	No longer necessary as the Antelope InnoDB file format is no longer supported.
innodb_file_format_max	No longer necessary as the Antelope InnoDB file format is no longer supported.
innodb_foreground_preflush	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_instrument_semaphores
innodb_kill_idle_transaction	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_large_prefix	Large index key prefixes were made default from MariaDB 10.2, and limiting tables to small prefixes is no longer permitted in MariaDB 10.3.
innodb_locking_fake_changes	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_log_arch_dir	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_log_arch_expire_sec	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_log_archive	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_log_block_size	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_log_checksum_algorithm	Translated to innodb_log_checksums (NONE to OFF, everything else to ON); only existed to allow easier upgrade from earlier XtraDB versions.
innodb_mtflush_threads	Replaced by the innodb_page_cleaners system variable.
innodb_sched_priority_cleaner	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_show_locks_held	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_show_verbose_locks	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_support_xa	XA transactions are always supported.
innodb_use_fallocate
innodb_use_global_flush_log_at_trx_commit	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_use_mtflush	Replaced by the innodb_page_cleaners system variable.
innodb_use_stacktrace	Used in XtraDB-only
innodb_use_trim

Reserved Words

New reserved words: EXCEPT and INTERSECT. These can no longer be used as identifiers without being quoted.

SQL_MODE=ORACLE

MariaDB 10.3 has introduced major new Oracle compatibility features. If you upgrade and are using this setting, please check the changes carefully.

Functions

As a result of implementing Table Value Constructors, the VALUES function has been renamed to VALUE().
Functions that used to only return 64-bit now can return 32-bit results (MDEV-12619). This could cause incompatibilities with strongly-typed clients.

mysqldump

mysqldump in MariaDB 10.3 includes logic to cater for the mysql.transaction_registry table. mysqldump from an earlier MariaDB release cannot be used on MariaDB 10.3 and beyond.

MariaDB Backup and Percona XtraBackup

Percona XtraBackup is not compatible with MariaDB 10.3. Installations currently using XtraBackup should upgrade to MariaDB Backup before upgrading to MariaDB 10.3.

Privileges

If a user has the SUPER privilege but not the DELETE HISTORY privilege, running mysql_upgrade will grant DELETE HISTORY as well.

Major New Features To Consider

You might consider using the following major new features in MariaDB 10.3:

System-versioned tables
Sequences
See also System Variables Added in MariaDB 10.3.