MariaDB-Specific Features

How the dump and load utilities carry sequences, Oracle-mode packages, CHECK constraints, roles and DENY, system-versioned tables, MariaDB data types, and GTIDs, and which vendors they accept.

MariaDB features that have no MySQL counterpart are dumped and restored with their definitions and data intact. The utilities also use MariaDB's own server mechanisms: the BACKUP STAGE lock for consistent dumps, MariaDB GTIDs for replica provisioning, and session-level CHECK enforcement for loads.

Each feature on this page is covered by an end-to-end test that creates it on a MariaDB server, dumps it, loads it into a second server, and compares definitions and data, including checksums.

Vendor Rules

A dump made from a MariaDB server can only be loaded into a MariaDB server, and a dump made from a MySQL server only into a MySQL server. The load refuses a dump from the other vendor before it runs any DDL, and the copy utilities refuse a source and a target of different vendors. The SQL dialects and object types differ too much for a partial translation, which would lose data without notice.

Source	Target	Result
MariaDB	MariaDB	Loads
MySQL	MySQL	Loads
MariaDB	MySQL	Refused
MySQL	MariaDB	Refused

The dump options ocimds and compatibility exist only for MySQL HeatWave Service and are refused for a MariaDB source. The same applies to other MySQL-only features listed in the built-in help, such as data masking policies, library objects, Lakehouse targets, and BULK LOAD: they have no effect on MariaDB.

Objects

Feature	What is preserved
Sequences	The definition and the current position, including how many times a cycling sequence has wrapped.
Oracle-mode packages	The package specification and body, also next to a standalone function of the same name, and GRANT EXECUTE on packages.
CHECK constraints	The constraints, and existing rows that violate them.

Sequences

A sequence is written to the DDL script of its schema as a CREATE SEQUENCE statement followed by DO SETVAL(...), which sets its position. The load creates sequences before any table, so a column DEFAULT NEXT VALUE FOR seq resolves when the table is created.

The restored position is next_not_cached_value of the source, which includes the values the sequence cache had reserved. The restored sequence may therefore skip some values, but never repeats one. This is also where the server itself resumes after a restart.

Sequences are selected with the table filters, includeTables and excludeTables; there is no separate sequence option. When you load a schema under a new name with schema, a column DEFAULT that draws from a sequence of the same schema refers to the renamed schema. If util.dump_tables() dumps a table whose default refers to a sequence that is not in the dump, the dump warns that the table can only be created where that sequence exists.

Oracle-Mode Packages

Packages are dumped with the routines of their schema, in this order: package specifications, functions, procedures, package bodies. The specification can then declare types that routines use, and a body can call those routines. Packages are selected with includeRoutines and excludeRoutines; excluding shop.billing excludes the package, its body, and a function named billing.

CHECK Constraints

MariaDB can hold rows that violate a table's own CHECK constraints, for example rows inserted before the constraint was added. To restore such rows as they are, the load sessions set check_constraint_checks = 0 on the target, as mariadb-import does. util.import_table() does the same.

Access Control

Accounts are carried by util.dump_instance() and util.copy_instance(), and loaded only when you set loadUsers on the load.

Feature	What is preserved
Roles	MariaDB's hostless roles, roles granted to roles, default roles, and WITH ADMIN OPTION.
Roles of dumped accounts	When includeUsers selects an account, the roles granted to it are dumped too, transitively, and the dump lists them in a note. A role named in excludeUsers stays excluded.
The PUBLIC role	Its grants, merged into the grants PUBLIC already has on the target. They are never removed from the target, even with dropExistingObjects.
DENY	At every level: global, schema, table, column, routine, and package. Requires MariaDB 13.1.1 or later.
Authentication	Password hashes and the authentication plugins of each account, including IDENTIFIED VIA plugin1 OR plugin2. Tested with ed25519, unix_socket, and mysql_native_password.

If an account uses a loadable authentication plugin, such as ed25519, gssapi, pam, or parsec, the plugin must be installed on the target. See Limitations.

Tables and Data Types

Feature	What is preserved
System-versioned tables	The definition, including PARTITION BY SYSTEM_TIME, and the current rows. The history is not carried; the dump warns about each such table, and the loaded rows start a new history.
Application-time periods and UNIQUE ... WITHOUT OVERLAPS keys	Definition and data. Chunks of such tables load one at a time. See How Chunks Are Scheduled.
UUID, INET4, INET6, XMLTYPE	Data, exactly, in the printable form the server sends and accepts.
JSON	Definition and data. MariaDB stores JSON as LONGTEXT with a json_valid() check, and the dump recognizes such columns as JSON.
VECTOR columns and vector indexes	Definition and data.
Dynamic columns	Data, byte for byte.
Invisible, compressed, virtual, and persistent columns; ignored indexes	Definition and data.
Aria tables, PAGE_COMPRESSED tables, encrypted tables	Table options. Encrypted tables need key management on the target, and a PAGE_COMPRESSED table uses the target's innodb_compression_algorithm.

A system-versioned table is always dumped whole. Selecting some of its partitions with the partitions option is refused, because MariaDB does not allow partition selection on such a table.

A column type that MariaDB Shell does not know, for example mysql_json in a table upgraded from MySQL 5.7, stops the dump with an error that names the column and table. Guessing how to carry an unknown type could corrupt data without notice. Exclude the table with excludeTables to dump the rest.

Server Integration

Feature	Used for
BACKUP STAGE	MariaDB's backup lock. BACKUP STAGE BLOCK_DDL blocks schema changes for the length of a consistent dump. Requires the RELOAD privilege. See Consistency on MariaDB.
MariaDB GTIDs	The dump records gtid_current_pos; a load with updateGtidSet writes it to gtid_slave_pos to provision a replica.
check_constraint_checks	Turned off in load sessions so that rows violating a CHECK constraint can be restored.
BINLOG MONITOR	The privilege the dump uses to read the binary log position, in place of MySQL's REPLICATION CLIENT.

MariaDB GTIDs and updateGtidSet

A MariaDB GTID has the form domain-server-sequence, and a GTID position lists the last applied sequence for each replication domain. The dump records the source's gtid_current_pos, which combines what the server wrote to its binary log and what it applied as a replica. This is the same position mariadb-backup records. GTIDs on MariaDB come with the binary log, so a position is recorded whenever log_bin is on.

The load option updateGtidSet writes the dumped position to the target's gtid_slave_pos, which is where CHANGE MASTER TO ... MASTER_USE_GTID = slave_pos resumes replication. The target's binary log state is never changed.

Value	Effect on MariaDB	Condition
off (default)	Nothing
replace	Sets gtid_slave_pos to the dumped position	The dumped position must cover the target's current gtid_slave_pos, so that nothing already replicated is forgotten.
append	Adds the dumped position to the target's gtid_slave_pos	The two positions must not share a replication domain.

Both values are refused while any replica connection is running on the target. Stop replication first. See Provision a Replica for a complete example.

On a Galera cluster, gtid_slave_pos is local to each node. A load with updateGtidSet sets the position only on the node it is connected to, while Galera replicates the data to every node. Start asynchronous replication on that same node.