One‑Click Deployment of MySQL, Redis, and PostgreSQL on WSL

Why run databases in WSL?

Traditional solutions problems:
❌ Install MySQL on Windows → path/permissions/service issues
❌ Docker for Windows (old) → poor performance, slow startup
❌ Cloud development databases → network latency, cost, data security

WSL solution advantages:
✅ Native Linux performance, matches production servers
✅ localhost direct connection, zero latency
✅ systemd management, start on boot
✅ Data persistence, no loss on reboot
✅ Multiple versions coexist, switch anytime

1. MySQL / MariaDB

Install MariaDB (MySQL fully open‑source alternative)

# Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y mariadb-server

# Start service
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb   # start on boot

# Secure initialization
sudo mysql_secure_installation
# Prompts:
# 1. Set root password? Y → enter password
# 2. Remove anonymous users? Y
# 3. Disallow root login remotely? N (needed for development)
# 4. Remove test database? Y
# 5. Reload privilege tables? Y

# Verify status
sudo systemctl status mariadb   # should show: active (running) ✅

Create user and database

# Login to MariaDB
sudo mysql -u root -p

-- Create database
CREATE DATABASE myapp
    DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4
    COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

-- Create user and grant privileges ("%" allows any host)
CREATE USER 'devuser'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'dev_password_123';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myapp.* TO 'devuser'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

-- Verify connection
SHOW DATABASES;
SELECT User, Host FROM mysql.user;

-- Exit
EXIT;

Allow remote connections

# Edit configuration file
sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
# Change the following lines:
# bind-address = 0.0.0.0
# Ensure port = 3306 (default)

# Restart to apply
sudo systemctl restart mariadb

# Test local connection
mysql -u devuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 myapp   # should connect ✅

Common operation cheat sheet

-- List all databases
SHOW DATABASES;

-- List tables in current database
SHOW TABLES;

-- Describe table structure
DESCRIBE tablename;
-- or
SHOW COLUMNS FROM tablename;

-- Import SQL file
source /path/to/dump.sql   # or: mysql -u user -p dbname < dump.sql

-- Export database
mysqldump -u devuser -p myapp > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

2. Redis – In‑memory database king

Install and start

# Install
sudo apt install -y redis-server

# Start
sudo systemctl start redis-server
sudo systemctl enable redis-server   # start on boot

# Verify (should return PONG)
redis-cli ping   # PONG

Common operations

# Connect to Redis
redis-cli

# Basic operations
SET mykey "Hello WSL"
GET mykey   # "Hello WSL"
DEL mykey

# Data type examples
## Hash (object storage)
HSET user:1001 name "Zhang San" age 28 city "Beijing"
HGETALL user:1001   # 1) name 2) "Zhang San" 3) age 4) "28"

## List (queue)
LPUSH tasks "deploy code"
LPUSH tasks "write tests"
LPUSH tasks "fix bug"
LRANGE tasks 0 -1   # 1) "fix bug" 2) "write tests" 3) "deploy code"

## Set (deduplication / tags)
SADD tags python linux wsl
SMEMBERS tags

## Sorted Set (leaderboard)
ZADD leaderboard 2500 "Alice"
ZADD leaderboard 3000 "Bob"
ZADD leaderboard 2800 "Charlie"
ZREVRANGE leaderboard 0 -1 WITHSCORES

# Useful commands
KEYS *               # list all keys (use with caution in production)
DBSIZE                # number of keys
INFO server           # server information
FLUSHALL              # clear all data ⚠️
EXIT

Redis configuration optimization

# Backup original config
sudo cp /etc/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf.bak

# Edit config (development‑friendly settings)
sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf

Key configuration items:

# Bind address (allow remote access)
bind 0.0.0.0

# Set password (required in production, optional for dev)
requirepass your_dev_password

# Persistence: RDB snapshots
save 900 1    # at least 1 write within 900 s
save 300 10   # at least 10 writes within 300 s
save 60 10000 # at least 10000 writes within 60 s
dbfilename dump.rdb
dir /var/lib/redis

# Max memory limit (adjust to your system)
maxmemory 512mb
maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

# Restart to apply new config
sudo systemctl restart redis-server

# Verify new config
redis-cli CONFIG GET maxmemory
redis-cli INFO server | grep redis_version

3. PostgreSQL – Most feature‑rich open‑source database

Install

# Ubuntu 24.04 can install directly
sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

# Start
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

# Verify
sudo systemctl status postgresql   # active (running) ✅

# Check version
psql --version   # psql (PostgreSQL) 16.x

Create user and database

PostgreSQL uses the system user postgres for administration.

# Switch to postgres user
sudo -u postgres psql

-- Create user with password
CREATE USER devuser WITH PASSWORD 'dev_pass_123';

-- Create database owned by the new user
CREATE DATABASE myapp OWNER devuser;

-- Grant privileges
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE myapp TO devuser;

-- Exit psql
\q

Connection test

# Connect with the new user
psql -h localhost -U devuser -d myapp   # enter password to connect

-- Test table creation
CREATE TABLE users (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Test', '[email protected]');
SELECT * FROM users;
\q

Remote connection configuration

# Edit pg_hba.conf (client authentication)
sudo nano /etc/postgresql/16/main/pg_hba.conf
# Add the following line under "IPv4 local connections":
host    all             all             0.0.0.0/0               scram-sha-256

# Edit postgresql.conf (listen addresses)
sudo nano /etc/postgresql/16/main/postgresql.conf
# Change:
# listen_addresses = 'localhost'
listen_addresses = '*'

# Restart PostgreSQL to apply
sudo systemctl restart postgresql

# Confirm port is listening
ss -tlnp | grep 5432   # LISTEN 0 128 0.0.0.0:5432

4. GUI client tool recommendations

DBeaver – Free, full‑featured, supports all major databases (Win/Linux/Mac) – Free

TablePlus – Attractive UI, lightweight, fast (Win/Mac/Linux) – Partially paid

DataGrip – Powerful, intelligent SQL (JetBrains family) – Paid (free tier available)

Beekeeper Studio – Open‑source, free, modern UI (cross‑platform) – Free

phpMyAdmin – Web‑based MySQL client, browser access (Web) – Free

DBeaver configuration steps (recommended)

1. Install DBeaver on Windows (exe installer)
2. Open DBeaver → New Database Connection
3. Choose database type (MySQL / PostgreSQL / Redis, etc.)

MySQL connection settings:
├── Host: localhost
├── Port: 3306
├── Database: myapp
├── Username: devuser
└── Password: dev_password_123

PostgreSQL connection settings:
├── Host: localhost
├── Port: 5432
├── Database: myapp
├── Username: devuser
└── Password: dev_pass_123

Redis connection (requires Redis plugin):
├── Host: localhost
├── Port: 6379
└── Password: (if set)

4. Click "Test Connection" → Save on success

GUI clients run on Windows and connect to the WSL databases via localhost; the mirrored network mode or automatic port forwarding makes the experience identical to a local database.

5. One‑click management script

Create a convenient management script:

#!/bin/bash
# Database management script
case "$1" in
    start)
        echo "🚀 Starting all databases..."
        sudo systemctl start mariadb
        sudo systemctl start redis-server
        sudo systemctl start postgresql
        echo "✅ All started"
        ;;
    stop)
        echo "⏹️ Stopping all databases..."
        sudo systemctl stop mariadb
        sudo systemctl stop redis-server
        sudo systemctl stop postgresql
        echo "✅ All stopped"
        ;;
    status)
        echo "=== MariaDB ==="
        systemctl is-active mariadb
        echo "=== Redis ==="
        systemctl is-active redis-server
        echo "=== PostgreSQL ==="
        systemctl is-active postgresql
        ;;
    ports)
        echo "=== Database ports in use ==="
        ss -tlnp | grep -E ':(3306|5432|6379)\s'
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|ports}"
        ;;
esac
SCRIPT
chmod +x ~/db-manager.sh
# Usage examples:
# ~/db-manager.sh start   # start all
# ~/db-manager.sh status  # check status
# ~/db-manager.sh ports   # view ports
# ~/db-manager.sh stop    # stop all

6. Data backup strategy

#!/bin/bash
# Save as ~/backup-db.sh
BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/d/db-backups/$(date +%Y%m%d)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

echo "📦 Starting backup to $BACKUP_DIR"

# Backup MySQL/MariaDB
mysqldump -u devuser -p'dev_password_123' myapp > "$BACKUP_DIR/mysqldb_$(date +%H%M%S).sql"

# Backup PostgreSQL
pg_dump -U devuser -h localhost myapp > "$BACKUP_DIR/pgdb_$(date +%H%M%S).sql"

# Backup Redis
redis-cli BGSAVE
cp /var/lib/redis/dump.rdb "$BACKUP_DIR/redis_$(date +%H%M%S).rdb"

echo "✅ Backup completed! Files located in $BACKUP_DIR"
ls -lh "$BACKUP_DIR"
SCRIPT

Next issue preview

Upcoming article: Advanced Optimization – "WSL 2 Performance Truth: Why It Can Be Slower Than Windows?"

📊 File I/O benchmark comparisons

🔍 Deep analysis of three major performance bottlenecks

⏱️ Performance tests for different scenarios

🛠️ Bottleneck identification and solutions

💡 Best practices for performance tuning

What database do you mainly use? Share your experience in the comments! UbuntuNews — Focused on Ubuntu/Linux tech sharing