New to KubeDB? Please start here.
Initialization MariaDB from a Git Repository
This guide demonstrates how to use KubeDB to initialize a MariaDB database with initialization scripts (.sql, .sh, and/or .sql.gz) stored in a public or private Git repository.
To fetch the repository contents, KubeDB uses a sidecar container called git-sync.
In this example, we will initialize MariaDB using a .sql script from the GitHub repository kubedb/mysql-init-scripts.
Before You Begin
At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the
kubectlcommand-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.Now, install KubeDB operator in your cluster by following the steps here.
To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
From Public Git Repository
KubeDB implements a MariaDB Custom Resource Definition (CRD) to define the specification of a MariaDB database.
To initialize the database from a public Git repository, you need to specify the required arguments for the git-sync sidecar container within the MariaDB resource specification.
The following YAML manifest shows an example MariaDB object configured with git-sync:
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
name: sample-mariadb
namespace: demo
spec:
init:
script:
scriptPath: "current"
git:
args:
- --repo=https://github.com/kubedb/mysql-init-scripts
- --link=current
- --root=/root
# terminate after one successful sync
- --one-time
version: "10.5.23"
storage:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.8.31/docs/examples/mariadb/initialization/git-sync-public.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/sample-mariadb created
The git-sync container has two required flags:
--repo– specifies the remote Git repository to sync.--root– specifies the working directory where the repository will be cloned.
Here, the value of the --link argument must match the value of spec.init.script.scriptPath.
The --link argument creates a symlink that always points to the latest synced data.
To know more about
git-syncconfiguration visit this link.
Now, wait until sample-mariadb has status Ready. i.e,
$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
sample-mariadb 10.5.23 Ready 5m
Next, we will connect to the MariaDB database and verify the data inserted from the *.sql script stored in the Git repository.
kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0 -- bash
Defaulted container "mariadb" out of: mariadb, mariadb-init (init), git-sync (init)
mysql@sample-mariadb-0:/$ mysql -uroot -p$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 6
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~ubu2004 mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> use mysql;
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A
Database changed
MariaDB [mysql]> select * from kubedb_table;
+----+-------+
| id | name |
+----+-------+
| 1 | name1 |
| 2 | name2 |
| 3 | name3 |
+----+-------+
3 rows in set (0.000 sec)
MariaDB [mysql]> select * from demo_table;
+----+-------+
| id | name |
+----+-------+
| 1 | name1 |
| 2 | name2 |
| 3 | name3 |
+----+-------+
3 rows in set (0.000 sec)
From Private Git Repository
1. Using SSH Key
Git-sync supports using SSH protocol for pulling git content.
First, Obtain the host keys for your git server:
$ ssh-keyscan $YOUR_GIT_HOST > /tmp/known_hosts
$YOUR_GIT_HOSTrefers to the hostname of your Git server.
For example, if you are using GitHub, set the variable as follows:export YOUR_GIT_HOST=github.com
Use the kubectl create secret command to create a secret from your local SSH key and known hosts file.
This secret will be used by git-sync to authenticate with the Git repository.
$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo git-creds \
--from-file=ssh=$HOME/.ssh/id_rsa \
--from-file=known_hosts=/tmp/known_hosts
The following YAML manifest provides an example of a MariaDB resource configured to use git-sync with a private Git repository:
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
name: sample-mariadb
namespace: demo
spec:
init:
script:
scriptPath: "current"
git:
args:
# update with your private repository
- [email protected]:refat75/mysql-init-scripts.git
- --link=current
- --root=/root
# terminate after one successful sync
- --one-time
authSecret:
name: git-creds
# run as git sync user
securityContext:
runAsUser: 65533
version: "10.5.23"
storage:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.8.31/docs/examples/mariadb/initialization/git-sync-ssh.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/sample-mariadb created
Here,
.spec.init.git.securityContext.runAsUser: 65533ensure the container runs as the dedicated non-rootgit-syncuser..spec.init.git.authSecretspecifies the secret containing theSSHkey.
Once the database reaches the Ready state, you can verify the data using the method described above.
2. Using Username and Personal Access Token(PAT)
First, create a Personal Access Token (PAT) on your Git host server with the required permissions to access the repository.
Then create a Kubernetes secret using the Personal Access Token (PAT):
$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo git-pat \
--from-literal=github-pat=<ghp_yourpersonalaccesstoken>
Now, create a MariaDB resource that references the secret created above.
The following YAML manifest shows an example:
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
name: sample-mariadb
namespace: demo
spec:
init:
script:
scriptPath: "current"
git:
args:
# update with your private repository
- --repo=https://github.com/refat75/mysql-init-scripts.git
- --link=current
- --root=/root
- --credential={"url":"https://github.com","username":"refat75","password-file":"/etc/git-secret/github-pat"}
# terminate after one successful sync
- --one-time
authSecret:
name: git-pat
# run as git sync user
securityContext:
runAsUser: 65533
version: "10.5.23"
storage:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.8.31/docs/examples/mariadb/initialization/git-sync-pat.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/sample-mariadb created
Once the database reaches the Ready state, you can verify the data using the method described above.
CleanUp
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
$ kubectl delete mariadb -n demo sample-mariadb
$ kubectl delete ns demo