I’m using Rocky Linux 9.6 and I need to update MariaDB to version 10.11, which is necessary for Joomla 6, the latest release of this CMS I use.
Rocky uses MariaDB 10.5 by default, but it has a module for version 10.11. When I enable this module:
$ dnf module enable mariadb:10.11
Webmin now indicates that I can update:
An update to mariadb from 10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2 to 10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a is available
My question is whether I can update from Webmin without any problems while keeping the current databases as they are, since I’ve read some tutorials that say several additional steps are required.
Personally I don’t use Webmin, I’ve been bitted before because if it’s peculiarities and it breaking things. That is why Rocky comes with cockpit. Also it’s better to learn to do things properly than rely on tools that try to be clever like webmin.
root@rocky9:~# rpm -qa | grep -i mariadb-server
mariadb-server-utils-10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64
mariadb-server-10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64
root@rocky9:~# dnf module enable mariadb:10.11
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:58 ago on Sat 01 Nov 2025 08:52:37 PM CET.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
========================================================================================================================
Enabling module streams:
mariadb 10.11
Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Complete!
root@rocky9:~# dnf update -y
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:17 ago on Sat 01 Nov 2025 08:52:37 PM CET.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
========================================================================================================================
Upgrading:
mariadb x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 1.7 M
mariadb-backup x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 6.8 M
mariadb-common x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 27 k
mariadb-errmsg x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 254 k
mariadb-gssapi-server x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 15 k
mariadb-server x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 10 M
mariadb-server-utils x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream 261 k
Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================
Upgrade 7 Packages
Total download size: 19 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/7): mariadb-common-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 141 kB/s | 27 kB 00:00
(2/7): mariadb-gssapi-server-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 73 kB/s | 15 kB 00:00
(3/7): mariadb-server-utils-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 2.4 MB/s | 261 kB 00:00
(4/7): mariadb-errmsg-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 4.5 MB/s | 254 kB 00:00
(5/7): mariadb-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 5.8 MB/s | 1.7 MB 00:00
(6/7): mariadb-backup-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 7.0 MB/s | 6.8 MB 00:00
(7/7): mariadb-server-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64.rpm 7.8 MB/s | 10 MB 00:01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 12 MB/s | 19 MB 00:01
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Upgrading : mariadb-common-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 1/14
Upgrading : mariadb-errmsg-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 2/14
Upgrading : mariadb-gssapi-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 3/14
Upgrading : mariadb-backup-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 4/14
Upgrading : mariadb-server-utils-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 5/14
Upgrading : mariadb-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 6/14
Running scriptlet: mariadb-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 7/14
Upgrading : mariadb-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 7/14
Running scriptlet: mariadb-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 7/14
Running scriptlet: mariadb-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 8/14
Cleanup : mariadb-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 8/14
Running scriptlet: mariadb-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 8/14
Cleanup : mariadb-errmsg-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 9/14
Cleanup : mariadb-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 10/14
Cleanup : mariadb-common-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 11/14
Cleanup : mariadb-backup-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 12/14
Cleanup : mariadb-gssapi-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 13/14
Cleanup : mariadb-server-utils-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 14/14
Running scriptlet: mariadb-server-utils-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 14/14
Verifying : mariadb-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 1/14
Verifying : mariadb-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 2/14
Verifying : mariadb-common-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 3/14
Verifying : mariadb-common-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 4/14
Verifying : mariadb-gssapi-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 5/14
Verifying : mariadb-gssapi-server-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 6/14
Verifying : mariadb-backup-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 7/14
Verifying : mariadb-backup-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 8/14
Verifying : mariadb-server-utils-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 9/14
Verifying : mariadb-server-utils-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 10/14
Verifying : mariadb-errmsg-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 11/14
Verifying : mariadb-errmsg-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 12/14
Verifying : mariadb-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64 13/14
Verifying : mariadb-3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2.x86_64 14/14
Upgraded:
mariadb-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-backup-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-common-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-errmsg-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-gssapi-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-server-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-server-utils-3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
Complete!
root@rocky9:~# systemctl restart mariadb
root@rocky9:~# rpm -qa | grep mariadb-server
mariadb-server-utils-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
mariadb-server-10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a.x86_64
root@rocky9:~# mysql
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 3
Server version: 10.11.10-MariaDB MariaDB Server
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql |
| performance_schema |
+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.001 sec)
as you can clearly see, I was on MariaDB 10.5, then I switched modules, and then I did dnf update. Then I restarted MariaDB, and you can clearly see MariaDB running and the default databases.
No, the process should not cause problems for your databases. But obviously, you should make sure you have backups of your system before you do anything that might break something.
I normally stop the old service, backup, uninstall using dnf, then enable the stream, then install the new packages, then start the new version. Plus I also run the mysql upgrade tool after checking that it’s going to do what I expect it to do, e.g. fixing system tables where there have been schema changes.
This was something I was also under the impression of as well, that deb/rpm package upgrades would take care of it. Although I’ve not checked the pre/post scripts to verify if that is the case or not. So definitely good advice to run the mysql_pgrade anyway, just in case to be sure. Not something I’ve done personally and never had any issues when I was using MariaDB when I didn’t run it.
Steps 2-5 are handled during dnf update by the package pre/post scripts of the rpm package.
Step 6 needs to run manually. However the mariadb.service runs a script after any startup which checks for an outdated data directory and prints a warning in the journal. That script is located at /usr/libexec/mariadb-check-upgrade The warning (if it exists) can be seen by running journalctl -u mariadb.service
The overarching point is that “a database” is many things:
Packages for the binaries, etc. These one can “dnf”
System tables (schema and data). Initialized on very first service start, but separate from packages from then-on. The ‘mariadb-upgrade’ (or equivalents) may be required
Schemas of the user databases. Tables, etc
Data within the user databases
Furthermore, “backup” of database is not file copy of files in /var/lib/… (when service is running).
Rather, one uses mysql-dump or similar tool to fetch consistent set of data.
Thanks jlehtone, I’m reviewing all the documentation you mentioned before running the update, and of course, I have backups of the databases in .sql format. When I finish the update, I’ll report here the result (successful or not) and the steps I followed.
$ MariaDB 10.11 RedHatEnterpriseLinux repository list - created 2025-11-01 10:04 UTC $ [mariadb] name = MariaDB $ ``rpm.mariadb.org`` is a dynamic mirror if your preferred mirror goes offline. See ``https://mariadb.org/mirrorbits/`` for details. $ baseurl = ``https://rpm.mariadb.org/10.11/rhel/$releasever/$basearch baseurl = ``https://mirror.raiolanetworks.com/mariadb/yum/10.11/rhel/$releasever/$basearch $ gpgkey = ``https://rpm.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB gpgkey = ``https://mirror.raiolanetworks.com/mariadb/yum/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB gpgcheck = 1
Both MariaDB version 10.5 and 10.11 are from the Rocky Linux repository, as appstream modules.
$ dnf list MariaDB
Last metadata expiration check: 3:25:05 ago on Sat 01 Nov 2025 08:15:42 AM CET.
Installed Packages
mariadb.x86_64 3:10.5.27-1.el9_5.0.2 @appstream
Available Packages
mariadb.x86_64 3:10.11.10-1.module+el9.6.0+31841+9417776a appstream