MySQL

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system. To install the latest version of MySQL & to configure it, please follow the steps mentioned below:

Ubuntu

MySQL Installation

On Ubuntu, you can install MySQL using the APT package repository. To install it, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Update the package index on your server if you’ve not done so recently

sudo apt update

2. Then install the mysql-server package:

sudo apt install mysql-server

3. Ensure that the server is running using the systemctl start command:

sudo systemctl start mysql.service

MySQL Configuration

For fresh installations of MySQL, you’ll want to run the database management system’s included security script. This script changes some of the less secure default options for things like disallowing remote root logins and removing sample users.

info

Warning: As of July 2022, an error will occur when you run the mysql_secure_installation script without some further configuration. The reason is that this script will attempt to set a password for the installation’s root MySQL account but, by default on Ubuntu installations, this account is not configured to connect using a password.

This will lead the script into a recursive loop which you can only get out of by closing your terminal window. To avoid entering this recursive loop, though, you’ll need to first adjust how your root MySQL user authenticates.

First, open up the MySQL prompt:

sudo mysql

Then run the following ALTER USER command to change the root user’s authentication method to one that uses a password. The following example changes the authentication method to mysql_native_password:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';

After making this change, exit the MySQL prompt:

mysql> exit

Run the security script with sudo:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

This will take you through a series of prompts where you can make some changes to your MySQL installation’s security options. The first prompt will ask whether you’d like to set up the Validate Password Plugin, which can be used to test the password strength of new MySQL users before deeming them valid.

If you elect to set up the Validate Password Plugin, any MySQL user you create that authenticates with a password will be required to have a password that satisfies the policy you select:

Securing the MySQL server deployment.

Enter password for user root:

Type password and press enter.

After that, you may find several prompts likt this

VALIDATE PASSWORD COMPONENT can be used to test passwords
and improve security. It checks the strength of password
and allows the users to set only those passwords which are
secure enough. Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD component?

Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No:

Value: Y

There are three levels of password validation policy:

LOW    Length >= 8
MEDIUM Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, and special characters
STRONG Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, special characters and dictionary
file

Please enter 0 = LOW, 1 = MEDIUM and 2 = STRONG:

Value: 2

Using existing password for root.

Estimated strength of the password: 50
Change the password for root ? ((Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y

New password:

Re-enter new password:

Choose a strong password and continue.

Estimated strength of the password: 100
Do you wish to continue with the password provided?(Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : 

Value: Y

By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user,
allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have
a user account created for them. This is intended only for
testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother.
You should remove them before moving into a production
environment.

Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : 

Value: Y

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from
'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at
the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) :

Value: Y

By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that
anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing,
and should be removed before moving into a production
environment.

Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : 

Value: Y

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes
made so far will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) :

Value: Y

All done!

tip

Once the security script completes, you can then reopen MySQL and change the root user’s authentication method back to the default, auth_socket. To authenticate as the root MySQL user using a password, run this command:

mysql -u root -p

Then go back to using the default authentication method using this command:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH auth_socket;

This will mean that you can once again connect to MySQL as your root user using the sudo mysql command.

Testing MySQL

Regardless of how you installed it, MySQL should have started running automatically. To test this, check its status.

systemctl status mysql.service

The output will be similar to the following:

Output

● mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-11-18 08:39:53 UTC; 1h 58min ago
    Process: 26403 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/mysql/mysql-systemd-start pre (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 26411 (mysqld)
     Status: "Server is operational"
      Tasks: 38 (limit: 2309)
     Memory: 366.3M
        CPU: 22.160s
     CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
             └─26411 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Start MySQL

If MySQL isn’t running, you can start it with:

sudo systemctl start mysql