How to replace MySQL with MariaDB in cpanel.

MariaDB is an enhanced drop-in replacement for MySQL. MySQL 5.1 is compatible with MariaDB 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3. MySQL 5.5 is compatible with MariaDB 5.5. 

• Make sure to save all existing data just in case there are any issues.     

cp -Rf /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql-old 

mv /etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf-old  

• Disable all the targets so cPanel no longer handles MySQL updates. The following will mark the versions of MySQL we distribute as uninstalled so they are no longer maintained by cPanel/WHM:
  
  /scripts/update_local_rpm_versions –edit target_settings.MySQL50 uninstalled 

/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions –edit target_settings.MySQL51 uninstalled 

/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions –edit target_settings.MySQL55 uninstalled 

• Remove existing MySQL RPM’s so there's a clean slate for MariaDB. The below command will uninstall the MySQL RPM’s    

/scripts/check_cpanel_rpms –fix –targets=MySQL50,MySQL51,MySQL55 

• Create a yum repository for MariaDB     

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo  

Place the following inside of it depending on the DISTRO (https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/):     

[mariadb]      

name = MariaDB 

baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/5.5.29/centos6-amd64/ 

gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB

gpgcheck=1 

• Remove php from the /etc/yum.conf file then run the following commands     

yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client MariaDB-devel      

/etc/init.d/mysql start      

mysql_upgrade      

/etc/init.d/mysql restart 

• Add php back to the /etc/yum.conf file to ensure future php updates don’t get clobbered 
• Rebuild easyapache/php to ensure modules are intact/working     

/scripts/easyapache –build