How to Install MySQL on CentOS 7

Knowledgebase

MySQL is a popular database management system used for web and server applications. However, MySQL is no longer in CentOS’s repositories and MariaDB has become the default database system offered. MariaDB is considered a drop-in replacement for MySQL and would be sufficient if you just need a database system in general.

Before You Begin

Ensure that you have followed the Getting Started and Securing Your Server guides, and the Linode’s hostname is set.

To check your hostname run:
```
hostname
hostname -f
```
The first command should show your short hostname, and the second should show your fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
Update your system:
```
sudo yum update
```
You will need wget to complete this guide. It can be installed as follows:
```
yum install wget
```

Install MySQL

MySQL must be installed from the community repository.

Download and add the repository, then update.

wget http://repo.mysql.com/mysql-community-release-el7-5.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh mysql-community-release-el7-5.noarch.rpm
yum update

Install MySQL as usual and start the service. During installation, you will be asked if you want to accept the results from the .rpm file’s GPG verification. If no error or mismatch occurs, enter y.
```
sudo yum install mysql-server
sudo systemctl start mysqld
```

MySQL will bind to localhost (127.0.0.1) by default.

Harden MySQL Server

Run the mysql_secure_installation script to address several security concerns in a default MySQL installation.
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```

You will be given the choice to change the MySQL root password, remove anonymous user accounts, disable root logins outside of localhost, and remove test databases. It is recommended that you answer yes to these options. You can read more about the script in the MySQL Reference Manual.