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

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