How to Install MySQL on Ubuntu – Step-by-Step Guide

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system, commonly installed as part of the popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack. It uses Structured Query Language (SQL) to manage data.

This tutorial covers installing MySQL on Ubuntu. By completing it, you’ll have a working relational database ready for your website or application.

• Quick installation: Install MySQL on Ubuntu with sudo apt install mysql-server. The default Ubuntu repository provides MySQL 8.x, compatible with Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and later versions. After installation, MySQL starts automatically and is ready for configuration.

• Secure your installation: Run sudo mysql_secure_installation to remove insecure defaults, disable remote root access, and set up password validation policies. On Ubuntu, you may need to adjust the root authentication method first using ALTER USER to avoid the recursive loop issue that occurs with MySQL 8.0+ installations.

• Create dedicated users: Avoid using the root account for daily operations. Create dedicated MySQL users with CREATE USER and grant only the necessary privileges using GRANT statements. This follows the principle of least privilege and improves database security.

• Authentication plugins matter: Choose the right authentication plugin based on your use case. Use caching_sha2_password (MySQL 8.0 default) for modern applications, or mysql_native_password for compatibility with older PHP applications like phpMyAdmin.

• Troubleshooting essentials: Common issues include service startup failures, authentication plugin mismatches, and port conflicts. Check logs with sudo grep -i 'error' /var/log/mysql/error.log, verify service status with sudo systemctl status mysql, and check port usage with sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3306.

To follow this tutorial, you will need:

• One Ubuntu server with a non-root administrative user and a firewall configured with UFW. To set this up, follow our initial server setup guide for Ubuntu.

On Ubuntu, you can install MySQL using the APT package repository. The default Ubuntu repository provides MySQL 8.x series. To check the exact version available, run apt-cache policy mysql-server after updating your package index. This guide is compatible with Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and later versions.

To install it, update the package index on your server if you’ve not done so recently:

sudo apt update

Then install the mysql-server package:

sudo apt install mysql-server

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

sudo systemctl start mysql.service

These commands will install and start MySQL, but will not prompt you to set a password or make any other configuration changes. On Ubuntu, the default root MySQL account typically authenticates using the auth_socket plugin. This means any operating system user with sudo privileges can access MySQL as root without a database password, which can be a security concern on multi-user systems. We will address this in the next step.

For fresh installations of MySQL, run the DBMS’s included security script. This script changes some of the less secure default options, such as disabling remote root logins and removing sample users.

 ... Failed! Error: SET PASSWORD has no significance for user 'root'@'localhost' as the authentication method used doesn't store authentication data in the MySQL server. Please consider using ALTER USER instead if you want to change authentication parameters.

New password:

sudo mysql

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

exit

mysql -u root -p

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

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. The strongest policy level — which you can select by entering 2 — will require passwords to be at least eight characters long and include a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numeric, and special characters:

Securing the MySQL server deployment.

Connecting to MySQL using a blank password.

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: `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: `2`

Regardless of whether you choose to set up the Validate Password Plugin, the next prompt will be to set a password for the MySQL root user. Enter and confirm a secure password:

Please set the password for root here.


New password:

Re-enter new password:

If you used the Validate Password Plugin, you’ll receive feedback on the strength of your new password. Then the script will ask if you want to continue with the password you just entered or enter a new one. If satisfied with the password strength, enter Y to 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) : `Y`

Press Y and then ENTER to accept the defaults for all subsequent questions. This removes anonymous users and the test database, disables remote root logins, and applies the changes immediately.

Once the script completes, your MySQL installation is secured. You can now create a dedicated database user.

Upon installation, MySQL creates a root user account with full privileges over the MySQL server, including complete control over every database, table, and user. Avoid using this account outside of administrative functions. This step shows how to use the root MySQL user to create a new user account and grant it privileges.

On Ubuntu, the root MySQL user authenticates using the auth_socket plugin by default rather than with a password. This plugin requires the operating system user name to match the MySQL user name, so you must invoke mysql with sudo privileges to access the root MySQL user:

sudo mysql

mysql -u root -p

Once you have access to the MySQL prompt, create a new user with a CREATE USER statement. The general syntax is:

CREATE USER 'username'@'host' IDENTIFIED WITH authentication_plugin BY 'password';

After CREATE USER, specify a username followed by an @ sign and the hostname from which this user will connect. For local access only, specify localhost. Wrapping the username and host in single quotes prevents SQL syntax errors.

You have several authentication plugin options. The auth_socket plugin provides strong security without requiring a password but prevents remote connections. As an alternative, omit the WITH authentication_plugin portion to use MySQL’s default plugin, caching_sha2_password. The MySQL documentation recommends this plugin for password-based authentication due to its strong security features.

Run the following command to create a user that authenticates with caching_sha2_password. Replace sammy with your preferred username and password with a strong password:

CREATE USER 'sammy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_strong_password';

CREATE USER 'sammy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'your_strong_password';

ALTER USER 'sammy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'your_strong_password';

After creating your new user, you can grant them the appropriate privileges. The general syntax for granting user privileges is as follows:

GRANT PRIVILEGE ON database.table TO 'username'@'host';

The PRIVILEGE value defines what actions the user can perform on the specified database and table. Grant multiple privileges in one command by separating each with a comma. Grant privileges globally by using asterisks (*) in place of database and table names, which represent “all” databases or tables in SQL. Use global privileges (*.*) only when necessary, as they grant access to all databases on the server.

The following command grants a user global privileges to CREATE, ALTER, and DROP databases, tables, and users, as well as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE data from any table. It also grants SELECT for querying data, REFERENCES for creating foreign keys, and RELOAD for FLUSH operations. Only grant users the permissions they need; adjust privileges as necessary.

You can find the full list of available privileges in the official MySQL documentation.

Run this GRANT statement, replacing sammy with your MySQL user’s name:

GRANT CREATE, ALTER, DROP, INSERT, UPDATE, INDEX, DELETE, SELECT, REFERENCES, RELOAD on *.* TO 'sammy'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Note that this statement includes WITH GRANT OPTION, which allows your MySQL user to grant any permissions it has to other users on the system.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'sammy'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Run the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command to apply the changes:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Then you can exit the MySQL client:

exit

To log in as your new MySQL user, use:

mysql -u sammy -p

The -p flag prompts for your MySQL user’s password.

Finally, test MySQL to verify the installation.

MySQL should start automatically after installation. Check its status:

sudo systemctl status mysql.service

You’ll see output similar to the following:

● mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-04-21 12:56:48 UTC; 6min ago
   Main PID: 10382 (mysqld)
     Status: "Server is operational"
      Tasks: 39 (limit: 1137)
     Memory: 370.0M
     CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
             └─10382 /usr/sbin/mysqld

If MySQL isn’t running, start it with sudo systemctl start mysql. Common reasons MySQL might not be running include: the service was stopped manually, system reboot without auto-start enabled, or configuration errors preventing startup.

For an additional check, connect to the database using the mysqladmin tool. This command connects as a MySQL user (-u sammy), prompts for a password (-p), and returns the version. Replace sammy with your dedicated MySQL user’s name:

sudo mysqladmin -u sammy -p version

You should see output similar to this:

mysqladmin  Ver 8.0.19-0ubuntu5 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))
Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Server version        8.0.19-0ubuntu5
Protocol version    10
Connection        Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket        /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:            10 min 44 sec

Threads: 2  Questions: 25  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 149  Flush tables: 3  Open tables: 69  Queries per second avg: 0.038

This confirms MySQL is running.

MySQL and MariaDB are two of the most popular open-source relational database management systems (RDBMS) used for storing and managing structured data. Both are widely used in web applications and are known for their high performance, scalability, and reliability.

Here’s a comparison of MySQL and MariaDB installations on Ubuntu:

MySQL Service Not Starting

If the MySQL service fails to start, you can try the following steps to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:

1. Check the MySQL error log: Run sudo grep -i 'error' /var/log/mysql/error.log to identify errors or warnings (the -i flag makes the search case-insensitive).
2. Verify MySQL configuration: Check the configuration files. On modern Ubuntu installations, MySQL configuration is typically split across multiple files. Check the main config with sudo cat /etc/mysql/my.cnf and the server-specific config with sudo cat /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf to ensure they’re correctly set up with no syntax errors.
3. Check for port conflicts: Run sudo ss -tlnp | grep 3306 to check if any process is using the default MySQL port (3306). The ss command is the modern replacement for netstat.
4. Manually start the MySQL service: Start MySQL manually with sudo systemctl start mysql or sudo service mysql start.

Authentication Plugin Errors

Authentication plugin errors can occur due to compatibility issues between the MySQL client and server versions. To resolve this issue:

1. Verify version compatibility: Check MySQL server version with sudo mysql -V and client version with mysql -V to ensure compatibility.
2. Check authentication plugin configuration: Run SELECT @@default_authentication_plugin; in your MySQL client to verify the authentication plugin configuration.
3. Update or change authentication plugin: Use a different authentication plugin or update the MySQL client to a compatible version with sudo apt update && sudo apt install mysql-client.

MySQL Installation Failed: Missing Dependencies

If the MySQL installation fails due to missing dependencies, you can try the following steps to resolve the issue:

1. Check installation logs: Run sudo apt update && sudo apt install mysql-server and check the output for error messages indicating missing dependencies.
2. Install missing dependencies: Install missing dependencies using the package manager. Check the error message for the specific package name. On Ubuntu 22.04 and later, you may need libssl3 instead of older versions. Run sudo apt install <package-name> where <package-name> is the specific dependency mentioned in the error.
3. Retry MySQL installation: After installing dependencies, retry the MySQL installation with sudo apt update && sudo apt install mysql-server.
4. Update package manager: Run sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade to ensure the package manager and all packages are up to date.

Before installing MySQL, ensure your system meets the following requirements:

• Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, or later (64-bit). This guide has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 LTS versions.
• CPU: 2 GHz dual-core processor
• Memory: 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
• Storage: 2 GB free disk space (more recommended for larger databases)
• Software: Ubuntu Server or Ubuntu Desktop with a compatible Linux kernel

To install MySQL using Docker on Ubuntu, follow these steps:

1. Install Docker: sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io

2. Pull the MySQL image: sudo docker pull mysql

3. Run the MySQL container: sudo docker run --name mysql -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_secure_password mysql:8.0

   Security Warning: Replace your_secure_password with a strong password. Never use password or other weak passwords in production environments.

4. Verify the installation: sudo docker exec -it mysql mysql -uroot -p (you’ll be prompted for the password)

After installing MySQL, consider the following performance tuning steps:

1. Optimize the MySQL configuration file: Adjust settings in /etc/mysql/my.cnf to optimize performance based on your system’s resources.
2. Use a suitable storage engine: Choose the most appropriate storage engine for your database, such as InnoDB for transactional workloads.
3. Index your tables: Create indexes on frequently queried columns to improve query performance.
4. Regularly update statistics: Run ANALYZE TABLE to update table statistics and improve query optimization.
5. Monitor performance: Use tools like mysqladmin for basic monitoring, or free tools like htop, iostat, and MySQL’s built-in Performance Schema to monitor MySQL performance and identify bottlenecks.

How to install MySQL Workbench in Ubuntu using terminal?

To install MySQL Workbench on Ubuntu, run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mysql-workbench

This installs MySQL Workbench, a graphical tool for managing MySQL databases, on your Ubuntu system.

How do I start and stop MySQL on Ubuntu?

To start MySQL, run:

sudo systemctl start mysql

To stop MySQL, run:

sudo systemctl stop mysql

To check the service status, use sudo systemctl status mysql. For more details on service management and troubleshooting, see Step 4 — Testing MySQL.

Can I install multiple MySQL versions on Ubuntu?

Yes, you can run multiple MySQL versions simultaneously using Docker. Each container runs on a different port to avoid conflicts. For example:

sudo docker run --name mysql57 -p 3307:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_secure_password mysql:5.7
sudo docker run --name mysql80 -p 3308:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_secure_password mysql:8.0

This installs and runs MySQL 5.7 and MySQL 8.0 in separate containers. For more details on Docker installation, see Installing MySQL with Docker on Ubuntu.

How do I completely uninstall MySQL from Ubuntu?

To completely uninstall MySQL from Ubuntu, run:

sudo apt purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

This will remove MySQL server, client, and common files from your system.

What’s the difference between MariaDB and MySQL on Ubuntu?

MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and both are relational database management systems. MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement for MySQL, offering improved performance and new features. On Ubuntu, install MariaDB instead of MySQL with:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mariadb-server

MariaDB is compatible with MySQL, and most MySQL applications work with MariaDB without modification.

With your basic MySQL setup now installed on your server, you’re ready to take your database management to the next level. Here are a few examples of next steps you can take to further enhance your MySQL experience and learn more about it:

• Set up a LAMP stack or a LEMP stack.
• Practice running queries with SQL
• Manage your MySQL installation with phpMyAdmin.
• Optimize site performance with a remote database setup.
• Explore more MySQL installation tutorials.