Percona Server

What is Percona Server?

Percona Server is a free, open-source, performance-focused fork of MySQL, drop-in compatible with MySQL's protocol and SQL syntax but with additional enterprise-grade features (extra performance metrics, XtraDB storage engine improvements) built in. Laradock runs it pinned to Percona 8.0.

Start Percona

docker compose up -d percona

It runs as its own container with no depends_on in compose.yml.

Stop Percona

docker compose stop percona

This stops the container without deleting its data. To remove the container (data on disk is untouched, it lives under DATA_PATH_HOST): docker compose rm -f percona.

Configuration

All settings live in percona/defaults.env:

Variable	Default	What it does
PERCONA_DATABASE	homestead	Database created automatically on first boot.
PERCONA_USER	homestead	Non-root user created automatically.
PERCONA_PASSWORD	secret	Password for PERCONA_USER.
PERCONA_ROOT_PASSWORD	root	Password for the root user.
PERCONA_PORT	3306	Host-side port Percona is published on (host:container).
PERCONA_ENTRYPOINT_INITDB	./percona/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d	Folder of .sql/.sh files auto-run on first boot.

Unlike Laradock's other MySQL-family services, percona/Dockerfile pins the image to percona:8.0 directly rather than exposing a version build arg, so there's no PERCONA_VERSION variable to override.

Root access

Default root credentials are root / root (PERCONA_ROOT_PASSWORD).

docker compose exec percona bash
mysql -uroot -proot

For the non-root app user instead: mysql -uhomestead -psecret (or your own PERCONA_USER/PERCONA_PASSWORD).

Create multiple databases

Copy percona/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/createdb.sql.example to createdb.sql in the same folder, then uncomment/add your statements, following the same pattern MySQL uses:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `your_db_1` COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci';
GRANT ALL ON `your_db_1`.* TO 'homestead'@'%';

This file only auto-runs the first time the container initializes its data folder (when DATA_PATH_HOST/percona doesn't exist yet). If your data folder already exists, run it manually instead:

docker compose exec percona bash
mysql -uroot -proot < /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/createdb.sql

Tune server settings

percona/my.cnf is mounted into the container as /etc/mysql/conf.d/my.cnf. It ships with a strict sql-mode (STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION); add any other [mysqld] directives there and rebuild.

Connect from your host machine

Inside Laradock, other containers reach Percona by container name: DB_HOST=percona. From your own machine (TablePlus, DBeaver, Sequel Ace), connect to localhost on PERCONA_PORT (3306 by default) with the credentials above.

Common issues

• "Access denied" right after first boot. The container needs a few seconds to initialize on a truly fresh DATA_PATH_HOST. Check docker compose logs percona for a ready message before connecting.
• Credential/database changes don't take effect. PERCONA_DATABASE, PERCONA_USER, and PERCONA_PASSWORD are only applied when the data folder is created for the first time. Change them afterward and either drop DATA_PATH_HOST/percona (data loss) or create the new user/database manually.
• Running alongside mysql or mariadb. They all default to host port 3306; give each a distinct PERCONA_PORT/MYSQL_PORT/MARIADB_PORT if you need more than one up simultaneously.
• App can't connect but the container is running. Confirm the app's .env uses DB_HOST=percona (the container name), not localhost, which only works from your host machine.

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Need the community MySQL build instead? See MySQL. For the full list of services, see Getting Started.