How to deploy MySQL server repeatedly From fifty-thousand feet, how are, for example, multiple MySQL containers handled?
In the context of my limited experience, simply running the container is insufficient, with additional configuration required.  It just seems not quite so repeatable if, after running the container, it must be further tinkered with before any CRUD operations.  Or is that just the process?
I think it depends on the context.
I feel your pain with regard to needing to tinker and tweak a MySQL/MariaDB instance. It's not extremely difficult to get an instance up and running and THEN populate the DB from, say, a mysqldump by attaching volumes to the MySQL instance either using a Dockerfile for the instance or by &quot;manually&quot; bash-ing into it and loading your tables, tweaking your network config, setting up complex user permissions, etc.
But it's usually a STRUGGLE to deploy a &quot;ready to go&quot; mysql instance from a docker-compose.yml in my initial experience using Docker Composer for a MySQL container in an app deployment, but it IS doable.
What kind of scale are you trying to achieve? Do you NEED Kubernetes or Docker Swarm? I think in the case of most apps, the answer is honestly no. You can almost always come up with a crafty workaround with ba(sh) scripts or RUN/CMD (Dockerfile) or command: (docker-compose).
Are you trying to support an automated deployment? or just get an app up and running? or trying to increase resilience? Increase capacity at scale?