Not sure if this is possible yet or not.
But instead of setting the welcome email individually there should be a option to set it gobally for each module. and also a override from within the Actual Product configuration. It would make it a lot easier to manage Blesta.
This will mark all tickets in all departments closed.
UPDATE `support_tickets` SET `status` = 'closed'
Are you wanting to close them in a single department only? If so then you'll need to find the department ID in the 'support_departments' table and use the following. Where the number 1 is you'll need to change it to the department ID of choice:
UPDATE `support_tickets` SET `status` = 'closed' WHERE `department_id` = '1'
MariaDB definitely looks promising, time will tell how close they stay with MySQL compatibility-wise. But, if anyone finds an issue with it we'll do our best to correct it.