This add-on is operated by Stackhero

MariaDB on dedicated instances, up-to-date versions and super attractive prices.

Last updated October 31, 2023

Stackhero for MariaDB provides a managed MariaDB instance running on a fully dedicated instance.

With your Stackhero for MariaDB add-on you will get:

• A private instance (dedicated VM) for high performances and security
• A dedicated public IP (v4)
• TLS encryption (aka SSL)
• A full access to PhpMyAdmin
• An automatic backup every 24 hours
• One click to update to new MariaDB versions

All MariaDB/MySQL clients can connect to Stackhero for MariaDB and there is a MariaDB/MySQL client library for almost every language out there, including Ruby, Node.js, Java, Python, Clojure and Erlang.

Provisioning the add-on

Stackhero for MariaDB can be attached to a Heroku application via the CLI:

$ heroku addons:create ah-mariadb-stackhero --app <your app name>
-----> Adding ah-mariadb-stackhero to sharp-mountain-4005... done

After you provision Stackhero for MariaDB, you’ll have 4 new config variables available: - STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST: the add-on host domain - STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: the password for the root user - STACKHERO_MARIADB_DATABASE_URL: the MySQL compatiable URL (mysql://...) - STACKHERO_MARIADB_DATABASE_URL_RUBY: the Ruby Mysql compatiable URL (mysql2://...)

You can see the content of those variables via the heroku config:get command:

$ heroku config | grep STACKHERO_MARIADB_

After you install Stackhero for MariaDB, your application should be configured to fully integrate with the add-on.

Local setup

After you provision the add-on, it’s necessary to locally replicate its config variables so your development environment can operate against the service.

Use the Heroku Local command-line tool to configure, run and manage process types specified in your app’s Procfile. Heroku Local reads configuration variables from a .env file. To view all of your app’s config variables, type heroku config. Use the following command for each value that you want to add to your .env file:

$ heroku config:get STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST -s  >> .env

For more information, see the Heroku Local article.

Connect MariaDB with your favorite language

You can use almost any client library available for your language that is able to connect to a MariaDB or a MySQL server.

We recommend to create a dedicated user (see sections below). If you don’t want to, you can connect to MariaDB using the “root” user and the following environment variables:

• STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST
• STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD

Or you can use the MySQL compatibles URLs:

• STACKHERO_MYSQL_DATABASE_URL
• STACKHERO_MYSQL_DATABASE_URL_RUBY

Connect MariaDB with Ruby on Rails

The easiest way to connect MariaDB with Ruby on Rails is to use the DATABASE_URL environment variable. This variable is read automatically by Ruby on Rails and you have nothing to configure in your code then.

Use this command to set the DATABASE_URL variable:

heroku config:set DATABASE_URL=`heroku config:get STACKHERO_MARIADB_DATABASE_URL_RUBY -s`

Connect MariaDB with PHP

Connect MariaDB with PHP using MySQLi (object-oriented style)

<?php

$mysqli = mysqli_init();
$mysqliConnected = $mysqli->real_connect(
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  NULL,
  NULL,
  MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL
);
if (!$mysqliConnected) {
  die("Connect Error: " . $mysqli->connect_error());
}

echo 'Success... ' . $mysqli->host_info . "\n";

$mysqli->close();

?>

Connect MariaDB with PHP using MySQLi (procedural style)

<?php

$mysqli = mysqli_init();
$mysqliConnected = mysqli_real_connect(
  $mysqli,
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  NULL,
  NULL,
  MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL
);
if (!$mysqliConnected) {
  die("Connect Error: " . mysqli_connect_error($mysqli));
}

echo 'Success... ' . mysqli_get_host_info($mysqli) . "\n";

mysqli_close($mysqli);

?>

Connect MariaDB with PHP using PDO

<?php

$pdo = new PDO(
  "mysql:host=" + getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST') + ";dbname=" + getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD'),
  array(
    // See below if you have an error like "Uncaught PDOException: PDO::__construct(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages: error:0A000086:SSL routines::certificate verify failed".
    PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CAPATH => '/etc/ssl/certs/',
    // PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => 'isrgrootx1.pem',
    PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT => true,
  )
);

$stm = $pdo->query("SELECT VERSION()");
$version = $stm->fetch();

echo "You are connected to a database running version " . $version[0] . "\n";

?>

Handle error “SSL operation failed with code 1”

If you get an error like Uncaught PDOException: PDO::__construct(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages: error:0A000086:SSL routines::certificate verify failed, this is probably because the /etc/ssl/certs/ directory doesn’t contain CA certificates.

If you have access to the system that is running your PHP code, you can install these certificates like this:

• On Ubuntu, run apt-get install ca-certificates

• On Alpine Linux, run apk add ca-certificates

If you don’t have a direct access to the system running your PHP code, you can install the certificate manually:

1. Download this certificate on your computer: https://letsencrypt.org/certs/isrgrootx1.pem
2. Add this isrgrootx1.pem file to your PHP project files.
3. Comment the code PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CAPATH => '/etc/ssl/certs/'
4. Uncomment the code PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => 'isrgrootx1.pem'

Connect MariaDB with Wordpress

Connecting Wordpress to Stackhero MariaDB add-on is easy. You just have to edit the Wordpress wp-config.php file and configure the database like this:

define('DB_HOST', '<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com');
define('DB_NAME', 'root');
define('DB_USER', 'root');
define('DB_PASSWORD', '<yourPassword>');

// Use TLS encryption (aka SSL)
define('MYSQL_CLIENT_FLAGS', MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL);

Connect MariaDB with Laravel

Edit the file config/database.php and replace the mysql with the following configuration:

'mysql' => [
  'driver' => 'mysql',
  'host' => env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST'),
  'port' => 3306,
  'username' => env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  'password' => env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD'),
  'database' => env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
  'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
  'prefix' => '',
  'prefix_indexes' => true,
  'strict' => true,
  'engine' => null,
  'sslmode' => 'require',
  'options' => extension_loaded('pdo_mysql') ? array_filter([
      PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => env('MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA'),
  ]) : [],
],

Connect MariaDB with PHP Codeigniter

In your database.php, put this code:

$db['default'] = array(
  'hostname' => getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST'),
  'username' => getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  'password' => getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD'),
  'database' => getenv('STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER'),
  'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
  'dbprefix' => '',
  'pconnect' => TRUE,
  'char_set' => 'utf8',
  'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
  'encrypt' => array() // Important: activate TLS encryption
);

Connect MariaDB with Node.js

In this example we will use mysql2 package with promises support. To install it simply run this command: npm install --save mysql2

const mysql = require('mysql2/promise');

(async () => {
  const db = await mysql.createConnection({
    host: process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST,
    user: 'root',
    password: process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD,
  });

  // Create database stackherotest if not exists yet
  await db.query('CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS stackherotest');


  // Create table users if not exists yet
  await db.query('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `stackherotest`.`users` '
    + '('
    + '`userId` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,'
    + '`name` VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,'
    + '`address` TEXT NOT NULL,'
    + '`email` VARCHAR(265) NOT NULL'
    + ') '
    + 'ENGINE = InnoDB;');


  // Insert a fake user
  await db.query(
    'INSERT INTO `stackherotest`.`users` (`userId`, `name`, `address`, `email`) VALUES ?',
    [
      [
        Math.round(Math.random() * 100000), // Generate a fake userId
        'User name', // column 'name'
        'User address', // column 'address'
        'user@email.com' // column 'email'
      ]
    ]
  );


  // Count number of rows in table users
  const [ usersCount ] = await db.query('SELECT COUNT(*) AS `cpt` FROM `stackherotest`.`users`');
  console.log(`There is now ${usersCount[0].cpt} in table "users"`);


  // Close the connection to MariaDB
  await db.end();

})().catch(error => {
  console.error('');
  console.error('🐞 An error occurred!');
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
});

Connect MariaDB with Node.js/NestJS/TypeORM

To connect from Node.js/NestJS/TypeORM, you have to add the ssl option like in this example:

TypeOrmModule.forRoot({
  type: 'mysql',
  host: process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST,
  port: 3306,
  username: 'root',
  password: process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD,
  database: 'root',
  entities: [],
  synchronize: true,
  ssl: {}
})

Connect MariaDB with Prisma

To connect from Prisma, you have to add the sslaccept=strict option so the SSL encryption will be enabled. Here is an example using the user “root” and connect to the database “root”:

datasource db {
  provider = "mysql"
  url = `mysql://root:${process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD}@${process.env.STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST}/root?sslaccept=strict`
}

Connect MariaDB with Django

If not yet installed, install the mysqlclient module which will be used to connect to MariaDB:

pip install mysqlclient

Then open your settings.py and put this:

import environ
env = environ.Env()
environ.Env.read_env()

DATABASES = {
  'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
    'HOST': env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST'),
    'OPTIONS': {
      'ssl_mode': 'REQUIRED',
    },
    'NAME': 'root',
    'USER': 'root',
    'PASSWORD': env('STACKHERO_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD')
  }
}

Connect to Stackhero dashboard

Stackhero dashboard allows you to see your instance usage, restart it, and apply updates. It also gives you the ability to access the PhpMyAdmin UI to consult your MariaDB data directly in a graphical way.

You can access the dashboard via the CLI:

$ heroku addons:open ah-mariadb-stackhero
Opening ah-mariadb-stackhero for sharp-mountain-4005

or by visiting the Heroku Dashboard and selecting the application in question. Select Stackhero for MariaDB from the Add-ons menu.

Connect to PhpMyAdmin

PhpMyAdmin is a web UI that gives you access to your MariaDB in a graphical way.

To connect to it, simply open your browser and connect to the hostname of your service (STACKHERO_MARIADB_HOST), like https://XXXXXX.stackhero-network.com. Then log in with the root user or with any other user you have created.

Create a user on MariaDB

A best practice is to create a user for your application other than the default “root”.

The easiest way to do that is to use PhpMyAdmin.

1. In PhpMyAdmin, click on User accounts on top.

2. Click on Add user account.

3. Fill the user creation form:

   • Define an account name (generally your application name)
   • Click on “Generate password” to get a secured password (copy it to your clipboard)
   • Check the “Create database with same name and grant all privileges”

Once validated, the user will be created as its database which will get the same name as the username.

Add your user to environment variables

You can now define your environment variables as follow:

$ heroku config:set STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER=<yourUserName>
$ heroku config:set STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD=<yourUserPassword>

And if you need to access them locally, for development purporse for example, you can save them to you .env file:

$ heroku config:get STACKHERO_MARIADB_USER -s  >> .env
$ heroku config:get STACKHERO_MARIADB_PASSWORD -s  >> .env

Upgrading your plan

Use the heroku addons:upgrade command to migrate to a new plan.

$ heroku addons:upgrade ah-mariadb-stackhero:newplan
-----> Upgrading ah-mariadb-stackhero:newplan to sharp-mountain-4005... done
       Your plan has been updated to: ah-mariadb-stackhero:newplan

Removing the add-on

You can remove Stackhero for MariaDB via the CLI:

$ heroku addons:destroy ah-mariadb-stackhero
-----> Removing ah-mariadb-stackhero from sharp-mountain-4005... done

Support

Stackhero for MariaDB support and runtime issues should be submitted via one of the Heroku Support channels. We recommend adding support@stackhero.io in copy for urgent issues.

Additional resources

• Stackhero for MariaDB documentation
• MariaDB managed cloud