Galera Cluster
Overview
Software Version
Diagram
Features
Enterprise Server 10.4
Enterprise Server 10.5
Enterprise Server 10.6
Enterprise Server 11.4
Multi-Primary Cluster Powered by Galera for Transactional/OLTP Workloads
InnoDB Storage Engine
Highly available
Virtually synchronous, certification-based replication
Automated provisioning of new nodes (IST/SST)
Scales reads via MaxScale
Enterprise Server 10.3+, MariaDB Enterprise Cluster (powered by Galera), MaxScale 2.5+
This procedure describes the deployment of the Galera Cluster topology with MariaDB Enterprise Server 11.4 and MariaDB MaxScale 25.01.
MariaDB Enterprise Cluster is powered by Galera.
MariaDB Enterprise Cluster provides read scalability and fault tolerance through virtually synchronous multi-primary certification-based write-set replication (wsrep).
This procedure has 6 steps, which are executed in sequence.
MariaDB products can be deployed in many different topologies to suit specific use cases. Enterprise Cluster can be deployed on its own, or integrated with MariaDB Replication to integrate with other clusters or topologies.
This procedure represents basic product capability with 3 Enterprise Cluster nodes and 1 MaxScale node.
This page provides an overview of the topology, requirements, and deployment procedures.
Please read and understand this procedure before executing.
Procedure Steps
Support
Customers can obtain support by submitting a support case.
Components
The following components are deployed during this procedure:
Modern SQL RDBMS with high availability, pluggable storage engines, hot online backups, and audit logging.
Database proxy that extends the availability, scalability, and security of MariaDB Enterprise Servers
MariaDB Enterprise Server Components
MariaDB Enterprise Server leverages the Galera Enterprise 4 wsrep provider plugin
Provides virtually synchronous multi-primary replication for MariaDB Enterprise Server
All nodes can handle both reads and writes
Replicates write-sets to all other nodes in the cluster
Supports data-at-rest encryption of the write-set cache
General purpose storage engine
ACID-compliant
Performance
Required for Enterprise Cluster
MariaDB MaxScale Components
Galera Monitor
Tracks changes in the state of MariaDB Enterprise Servers operating as Enterprise Cluster nodes.
Listener
Listens for client connections to MaxScale, then passes them to the router service associated with the listener
Read Connection Router
Routes connections from the listener to any available Enterprise Cluster node
Read/Write Split Router
Routes read operations from the listener to any available Enterprise Cluster node, and routes write operations from the listener to a specific server that MaxScale uses as the primary server
Server Module
Connection configuration in MaxScale to an Enterprise Cluster node
Topology

MariaDB Enterprise Cluster topology provides read scalability through certification-based write-set replication (wsrep) that is multi-primary and virtually synchronous.
The Enterprise Cluster topology consists of:
1 or more MaxScale nodes
3 or more MariaDB Enterprise Servers (ES) configured as Enterprise Cluster nodes
The MaxScale nodes:
Monitor the health and availability of each Enterprise Cluster node using the Galera Monitor (galeramon)
Accept client and application connections
Route queries to the Enterprise Cluster nodes using the Read Connection (readconnroute) or the Read/Write Split (readwritesplit) routers.
The Enterprise Cluster nodes:
Receive queries from MaxScale
Store data locally using the InnoDB storage engine
Perform certification-based virtually synchronous replication to other Enterprise Cluster nodes
Provide State Snapshot Transfers (SST) to bring MariaDB Enterprise Server nodes into sync with the cluster
Requirements
These requirements are for the Galera Cluster topology when deployed with MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB MaxScale 25.01.
Node Count
MaxScale nodes, 1 or more are required.
Enterprise Cluster nodes, 3 or more are required.
To avoid problems in establishing a quorum in the event of a network partition or outage, MariaDB recommends deploying an odd number of Enterprise Cluster nodes. When using multiple network switches, deploy across an odd number of switches, each with an odd number of nodes. When using multiple data centers, deploy across an odd number of data centers, each with an odd number of switches.
Operating System
In alignment to the enterprise lifecycle, the Galera Cluster topology with MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB MaxScale 25.01 is provided for:
AlmaLinux 8 (x86_64, ARM64)
AlmaLinux 9 (x86_64, ARM64)
Debian 11 (x86_64, ARM64)
Debian 12 (x86_64, ARM64)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (x86_64, ARM64)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (x86_64, PPC64LE, ARM64)
Red Hat UBI 8 (x86_64, ARM64)
Rocky Linux 8 (x86_64, ARM64)
Rocky Linux 9 (x86_64, ARM64)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (x86_64, ARM64)
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (x86_64, ARM64)
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (x86_64, ARM64)
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64, ARM64)
Quick Reference
MariaDB Enterprise Server Configuration Management
Configuration File
Configuration files (such as /etc/my.cnf
) can be used to set system-variables and options. The server must be restarted to apply changes made to configuration files.
Command-line
The server can be started with command-line options that set system-variables and options.
SQL
Users can set system-variables that support dynamic changes on-the-fly using the SET statement.
MariaDB Enterprise Server packages are configured to read configuration files from different paths, depending on the operating system. Making custom changes to Enterprise Server default configuration files is not recommended because custom changes may be overwritten by other default configuration files that are loaded later.
To ensure that your custom changes will be read last, create a custom configuration file with the z-
prefix in one of the include directories.
CentOS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
/etc/my.cnf.d/z-custom-mariadb.cnf
Debian
Ubuntu
/etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/z-custom-mariadb.cnf
MariaDB Enterprise Server Service Management
The systemctl
command is used to start and stop the MariaDB Enterprise Server service. The galera_new_cluster and galera_recovery
scripts are used for Enterprise Cluster-specific operations.
Start
sudo systemctl start mariadb
Stop
sudo systemctl stop mariadb
Restart
sudo systemctl restart mariadb
Enable during startup
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Disable during startup
sudo systemctl disable mariadb
Status
sudo systemctl status mariadb
Bootstrap a cluster node
sudo galera_new_cluster
Recover a cluster node's position
sudo galera_recovery
For additional information, see "Starting and Stopping MariaDB".
MariaDB Enterprise Server Logs
MariaDB Enterprise Server produces log data that can be helpful in problem diagnosis.
Log filenames and locations may be overridden in the server configuration. The default location of logs is the data directory. The data directory is specified by the datadir system variable.
MaxScale Configuration Management
MaxScale can be configured using several methods. These methods make use of MaxScale's REST API.
Command-line utility to perform administrative tasks through the REST API. See MaxCtrl Commands.
MaxGUI is a graphical utility that can perform administrative tasks through the REST API.
The REST API can be used directly. For example, the curl utility could be used to make REST API calls from the command-line. Many programming languages also have libraries to interact with REST APIs.
The procedure on these pages configures MaxScale using MaxCtrl.
MaxScale Service Management
The systemctl command is used to start and stop the MaxScale service.>
Start
sudo systemctl start maxscale
Stop
sudo systemctl stop maxscale
Restart
sudo systemctl restart maxscale
Enable during startup
sudo systemctl enable maxscale
Disable during startup
sudo systemctl disable maxscale
Status
sudo systemctl status maxscale
For additional information, see "Starting and Stopping MariaDB".
Next Step
Navigation in the procedure "Deploy Galera Cluster Topology":
Next: Step 1: Install MariaDB Enterprise Server
This page is: Copyright © 2025 MariaDB. All rights reserved.
Last updated
Was this helpful?