I wrote you that you should in the first place try to upgrade database. Noone has a crystal ball to see what os you have and what is your current situation.
What I can suggest to you, is to make a backup of your current database. You can do it by copying MySQL data directory (usually
/var/lib/mysql) or dumping the whole database content using
mysqldump with some set of arguments (you can google that). The second thing is to copy somewhere the whole MySQL configuration from
/etc/mysql. Both just to keep your data secure in case of an unsuccessful upgrade process.
When you have everything backed up, then you should turn off the database (notice apps that use the database won't work properly during the maintenance window). Then you should remove old mariadb, add related repositories and install new mariadb version.
Here you have some tutorial:
MariaDB is the leading enterprise open source database with features previously only available in costly proprietary databases. Enterprise grade, wallet friendly.
mariadb.com
Keep in mind that newer MySQL versions might come with some incompatibilities and some fixes might be needed to be applied to your apps or database configuration. It means that if there are already working apps and they have to be running properly then maybe you should try to perform all these steps on a different machine and prepare all necessary fixes before doing it in a production environment.
Also... Probably upgrading MariaDB the way that is presented in the above link would work properly keeping all your current data.
otland.net
