diff --git a/elements/mariadb/README.md b/elements/mariadb/README.md
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/elements/mariadb/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Installs MariaDB with galera
+
+Mysql and mariadb elements are very similar so both depend on mysql-common
+element which contains shared logic. See mysql-common for more details about
+mysql setup.
diff --git a/elements/mariadb/element-deps b/elements/mariadb/element-deps
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+++ b/elements/mariadb/element-deps
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+mariadb-dev
+mysql-common
diff --git a/elements/mariadb/element-provides b/elements/mariadb/element-provides
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+++ b/elements/mariadb/element-provides
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+mysql
diff --git a/elements/mariadb/install.d/10-mariadb b/elements/mariadb/install.d/10-mariadb
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..19e613aa2
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+++ b/elements/mariadb/install.d/10-mariadb
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+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Install controller base requiered packages
+
+set -e
+set -o xtrace
+
+if [ "$(dib-init-system)" = "upstart" ] ; then
+    install $(dirname $0)/mysql-set-server-id.upstart /etc/init/mysql-set-server-id.conf
+else
+    echo WARNING: server-id will not be set on systems that boot this image!
+fi
+
+install-packages sysstat mytop python-mysqldb mariadb-galera-server mariadb-client galera
+
+# Templates write the configs into /mnt/state. However, MySQL makes it very
+# difficult not to use this as the directory for configs.
+rm -rf /etc/mysql
+ln -s /mnt/state/etc/mysql /etc/mysql
+if [ -e /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld ] ; then
+    sed -i -e 's,/var/lib/mysql/,/mnt/state/var/lib/mysql/,g' /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld
+    sed -i -e 's,/var/log/mysql/,/mnt/state/var/log/mysql/,g' /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld
+    sed -i -e 's,/etc/mysql/,/mnt/state/etc/mysql/,g' /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld
+fi
+if [ -e /etc/init/mysql.conf ]; then
+    sed -i -e 's,/var/lib/mysql/,/mnt/state/var/lib/mysql/,g' /etc/init/mysql.conf
+fi
+# Fedora/RHEL install /etc/my.cnf but we do not want any unmanaged configs
+rm -f /etc/my.cnf
+# On openSUSE /var/lib/mysql is not part of the mariadb packages.
+[ -d /var/lib/mysql ] || install -d -o mysql -g root -m 0700 /var/lib/mysql
+register-state-path /var/lib/mysql
+# We need to setup the directory with appropriate permissions and then
+# the first time we boot a particular state partition we rsync this in.
+[ -d /var/log/mysql ] || install -d -o root -g mysql -m 0775 /var/log/mysql
+register-state-path /var/log/mysql
diff --git a/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/post-configure.d/40-mariadb b/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/post-configure.d/40-mariadb
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..948bc2646
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/post-configure.d/40-mariadb
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+os-svc-restart -n mysql
diff --git a/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/pre-configure.d/50-mariadb-socket b/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/pre-configure.d/50-mariadb-socket
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..f6b800cbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/mariadb/os-refresh-config/pre-configure.d/50-mariadb-socket
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+# mariadb clients (from mariadb.org) expect the socket at
+# /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
+#
+# mysql server is started from 51-init-openstack (reset-db script) - we need to
+# create symlink to make sure reset-db will not fail
+[ -d /var/lib/mysql ] || mkdir -p /var/lib/mysql
+ln -sf /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock