Oracle to MariaDB Migration Guide

Last updated: 2026-06-04

Why MariaDB for Oracle Migration

MariaDB is the only open source database with native PL/SQL compatibility. MySQL has no equivalent Oracle compatibility mode. PostgreSQL requires a complete PL/SQL rewrite. MariaDB's sql_mode=ORACLE enables approximately 80% of Oracle code to run without modification — stored procedures, packages, cursors, exception handling, and Oracle-style functions included.

Additional advantages over other open source alternatives:

• Connect Storage Engine — federate live Oracle data via ODBC during migration, without full cutover
• System-versioned tables — match Oracle Flashback Archive for temporal data; unique among open source databases
• ColumnStore — columnar analytics engine, comparable to Oracle's In-Memory ColumnStore
• Cost: organizations typically achieve 70–90% cost reduction vs Oracle licensing

Requires: MariaDB Community Server 10.3+ for Oracle compatibility mode. 10.6+ for ROWNUM, TO_CHAR(), ADD_MONTHS(), SYS_GUID(). Current LTS is 11.8 (May 2025).

The First Step: Enable Oracle Compatibility Mode