How to Monitor MariaDB Database

Overview

MariaDB is a popular open-source relational database and a community-driven fork of MySQL. Xitoring's MariaDB integration monitors query performance, connection states, replication health, and resource usage — helping you keep your databases running at peak performance.

Since MariaDB is wire-compatible with MySQL, the integration follows a similar setup process using performance_schema and a dedicated monitoring user.

What Can It Monitor?

CPU Usage — Database server CPU utilization
Memory Usage — RAM consumed by MariaDB processes
Connections — Active and total connection counts
Queries per Second — Rate of SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE operations
Slow Queries — Queries exceeding the slow query threshold
Replication Lag — Seconds behind primary in replica setups
InnoDB Buffer Pool — Hit ratio and usage statistics
Table Locks — Lock wait times and deadlock detection
Uptime — How long the MariaDB server has been running

Prerequisites

1. Enable Performance Schema

Add the following to your MariaDB configuration under the [mysqld] block:

[mysqld]
performance_schema=ON

Restart MariaDB:

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Verify it is enabled:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema';

2. Create a Monitoring User

Create a dedicated user for Xitogent (do not use root):

CREATE USER 'xitoring'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '{your_password}';

3. Grant Required Privileges

GRANT REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'xitoring'@'%';
GRANT PROCESS ON *.* TO 'xitoring'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.* TO 'xitoring'@'%';

Verify the user can connect:

mysql -u xitoring --password={your_password} -e "show status" | \
grep Uptime && echo "MariaDB user - OK" || echo "Cannot connect to MariaDB"

How to Activate the Integration

Prefer the panel? You don't need the CLI for this step. In Xitoring, open the server, go to Integrations, choose MySQL/MariaDB, fill in the same details, and click Enable. See enabling integrations from the Xitoring panel. The CLI steps below still work if you script your setup.

Run the Xitogent CLI:

xitogent integrate

Select MySQL/MariaDB from the list. When prompted, provide:

Host (typically 127.0.0.1)
Port (default: 3306)
Username and password for the monitoring user

The config file is created at /etc/xitogent/integrations/mysql_integration.conf.

Setting Up Triggers

Available trigger parameters:

CPU Usage / Memory Usage
Connections / Queries per Second
Slow Queries / Replication Lag
InnoDB Buffer Pool metrics
Table Locks / Uptime

Navigate to Triggers on your server page, select the database integration, choose a metric, set your threshold, and configure notification channels.

Tips

MariaDB uses the same integration path as MySQL in Xitogent
Always create a dedicated monitoring user with minimal privileges
Enable performance_schema for comprehensive metrics
Monitor Slow Queries to catch inefficient queries early
Use Replication Lag alerts in primary-replica setups
Works on both Linux and Windows servers