Relational database like MariaDB is one of the required components to setup a web server as well as other less common uses such as when configuring a shared Kodi database. On Arch Linux MySQL has been replaced by a practically functionally identical community fork called MariaDB.
A centralized MySQL or MariaDB database allows any number of Kodi clients to share the same media library and to be constantly in sync with each other. This also has potential to greatly improve scraping performance since only a single database needs to be updated. Most useful feature is probably the synced watch and resume counter which allows resuming of paused media from any client.
Relational database like MariaDB is one of the required components to setup a web server as well as other less common uses such as when configuring a shared Kodi database. On Arch Linux MySQL has been replaced by a functionally identical community fork called MariaDB. The installation is also practically identical and as simple as can be expected.
