MySQL 5.5.11 Tutorial - Step Two     April 27, 2011
April 21, 2011
Jonathon Byrd
Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and Format Fixes for Text by CW Cyrix

Original link
http://www.5twentystudios.com/blog/2011/04/21/installing-mysql-5-5-11-tutorial-
step-two/


If you haven’t backed up your system yet, then head back to step one: Backing
up MySQL

Alright, this second step assumes that you have a server thats not running
MySQL. I’m using Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and installing MySQL 5.5.11. If
you run into any problems, go ahead and post the problem in the comments along
with any solution that you find. I apologize but I probably willn’t be able to
provide support to help you with all of the problems that you guys will most
likely run into.


Download the binary

For the purposes of this tutorial I’ll be using the latest MySQL version,
5.5.11. I was able to finally locate the proper installation package from this
helpful directory: SoftAgency.net. FYI, this download from server to server
took me about thirty minutes.

$ cd /tmp/
$ chmod -R 777 .
$ wget http://download.softagency.net/MySQL/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/mysql-5.5.11-
  linux2.6-i686.tar.gz


Install the asynchronous I/O library

This is so that we can take advantage of the asynchronous I/O capability in the
new InnoDB plugin that ships with MySQL 5.5

$ apt-get install libaio-dev


Untar the archive

$ tar xzvf mysql-5.5.11-linux2.6-i686.tar.gz


Add the path to MySQL bin directory to the PATH variable

Your environment file may look different than this. The point here is to add
the /usr/local/mysql/bin to the paths.

$ vim /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:
/usr/local/mysql/bin"
$ source /etc/environment


Making sure that we have the proper users and groups

You can skip this step if you had MySQL previously installed on your system.

$ groupadd mysql
$ useradd -r -g mysql mysql


Create the socket directory

Here again, setting the correct permissions on the socket directory is very
important, otherwise MySQL would not run.

$ mkdir /var/run/mysqld/
$ chown -R mysql:mysql /var/run/mysqld/


Copy or move the untarred MySQL directory to the installation directory

It would make sense to do this prior to setting the environment paths, however,
this is the point at which I find myself restarting this process over and over
again until I get it right.

$ cp -R mysql-5.5.11-linux2.6-i686 /usr/local/
$ cd /usr/local/
$ ln -s mysql-5.5.11-linux2.6-i686 mysql

Consider this Checkpoint One.


Set the correct file and directory permissions on the MySQL installation
directory

Setting correct permissions is very important, and setting them in the proper
order is even more important. The first step is to set everything to mysql for
the installation and then we’ll set them back to root for security reasons.
Make certain that you’re in the /usr/local/mysql directory or you’re going to
cause some major issues.

$ cd /
$ chown -R mysql:mysql /usr/local/mysql
$ chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
$ chown -R mysql:mysql /var/run/mysql
$ chown -R mysql:mysql /var/run/mysqld


Copy the sample MySQL configuration file to the etc directory and setup the
paths

I actually had to look inside my support-files directory and see what .cnf
files were available to me. Depending on what you downloaded, yours may differ
from my-huge.cnf.

$ cp /usr/local/mysql/support-files/my-huge.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Now edit /etc/my.cnf so that it has the following values:

[client]
user = mysql
socket = /var/run/mysql/mysql.sock
port = 3306

[mysql.server]
user = mysql
basedir = /var/lib/mysql/mysql

[safe_mysqld]
err-log = /var/log/mysql/mysqld.log

[mysqld]
user = mysql
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port = 3306
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
basedir = /usr/local/mysql
#/path/to/datadir/mysql
datadir = /var/lib/mysql/mysql
tmpdir = /tmp
log_error = /var/log/mysql/error.log
#You need to update this to your servers IP address
bind-address = 0.0.0.0


Run the Installation Script

The official installation guide suggests that you run this command prior to
moving or adjusting the my.cnf file, however, I’ve found it more beneficial to
use the my.cnf file as the defaults when running this installation script.

$ cd /usr/local/mysql
$ /usr/local/mysql/scripts/mysql_install_db --defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf
  --user=mysql


Copy the MySQL server startup script to the startup directory

The MySQL startup script has to be placed in the directory where all the
startup scripts reside, so that MySQL starts on system startup. Make sure that
you make the startup script executable, and update the rc.d database to notify
the system about the presence of a new startup script.

$ cd /usr/local/mysql/support-files/
$ cp mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
$ chmod +x /etc/init.d/mysql
$ update-rc.d mysql defaults

I ran into a lot of problems with mysqld not being installed as well, so I
peered inside my support-files directory again and located the mysqld server
file and repeated these steps.

$ cp mysqld_multi.server /etc/init.d/mysqld
$ chmod +x /etc/init.d/mysqld
$ update-rc.d mysqld defaults


Starting MySQL in safe mode

When starting the MySQL server for the first time after the new installation,
it has to be started without the grants table, for two reasons. Firstly,
because we want to retain the users and privileges data from the previous
install of MySQL and secondly, because the schema of the grants table in MySQL
5.5 has changed.

So what we will do is start MySQL without the grants table, import the users
and privileges data we backed up earlier in this guide and run the
mysql_upgrade script that modifies the schema of the grants table to be in sync
with that in MySQL 5.5. After that we will be able to run MySQL normally and
have all the users and privileges same as in the previous version we had.

$ /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql


Let’s check to see if we can call mysql

If you’re system throws any errors, well then, something went wrong and you
need to start over from the last checkpoint. Otherwise, PHEW *wipe your brow*
and proceed with the restoration of your backups.

$ mysql

If starting MySQL failed, have no fear, a lot of people are having the same
problems that you’re having. Your next step is to open step three along side
step two and work yourself through this process, Step Three – Debugging.

Consider this Checkpoint Two.


Loading your backups

Navigate to your backup directory and run the sql dump file. I actually ran
into a problem at this step and had to finish configuring the security/
passwords before I could finish restoring my old databases. Have a look here:
Setting MySQL Passwords and Security.

$ cd /root/mysql-5.1-dump
$ mysql < mysql.sql


Run the upgrade script so that everything gets upgraded to the version 5.5

$ mysql_upgrade


Stop the server and start it normally

$ /etc/init.d/mysql stop
$ /etc/init.d/mysql start

There you go, you have a MySQL 5.5 server up and running in no time! Do share
your problems and your fixes with the rest of us. For those of you that are
moving on to the next phase, I suggest that you head to the next step of
setting up your passwords and securing your MySQL server installation: MySQL
Security.