How to Install MySQL 5.6 on CentOS 6.4 Without Compiling

Step 1: Extract the tar package

Upload the downloaded mysql-5.6.21-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz to /software (or any preferred directory) and run:

cd /software
 tar -xzvf mysql-5.6.21-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz
 mv mysql-5.6.21-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64 mysql-5.6.21

Step 2: Create MySQL user and group

groupadd mysql
 useradd -r -g mysql mysql
 chown -R mysql:mysql mysql-5.6.21

Step 3: Initialise the data directory

su mysql
 cd mysql-5.6.21/scripts
 ./mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/software/mysql-5.6.21 --datadir=/software/mysql-5.6.21/data
 exit

Step 4: Configure MySQL

Copy the default configuration and init script, then edit the paths if MySQL is not installed under /software:

cd /software/mysql-5.6.21/support-files
 cp my-default.cnf /etc/my.cnf
 cp mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
 # optional: edit /etc/init.d/mysql if installation directory differs

Modify /etc/my.cnf so that:

basedir=/software/mysql-5.6.21
 datadir=/software/mysql-5.6.21/data

Step 5: Add environment variables

vim /etc/profile
 export MYSQL_HOME="/software/mysql-5.6.21"
 export PATH="$PATH:$MYSQL_HOME/bin"
 . /etc/profile

Step 6: Enable MySQL to start on boot

chkconfig --add mysql
 chkconfig mysql on

Step 7: Start MySQL service

service mysql start

Step 8: Secure the installation

mysqladmin -u root password 'your_password'   # set root password
 mysql -u root -p                                 # log in
 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password' WITH GRANT OPTION;
 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

If the root account cannot log in because the user table is empty, start MySQL with --skip-grant-tables, import a valid user table, and then reset the password as shown below.

Recovering a lost root password

cd $MYSQL_HOME
 ./bin/mysqld_safe --basedir=/data/mysql-5.6.21 --datadir=/data/mysql-5.6.21/data --skip-grant-tables &
 mysql -u root mysql
 UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD("new_password") WHERE user='root';
 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;