Step-by-Step Guide: Installing MySQL via RPM on Rocky, AlmaLinux, CentOS and More

Downloading MySQL RPM packages

Visit the official MySQL website, select the desired version (e.g., 8.0.43 or 8.4.6), choose the operating system "Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Oracle Linux" with the appropriate OS version, and click the "RPM Bundle" download button.

Preparing the system

Install missing utilities (wget, tar) and required dependencies (perl, net‑tools, libaio) with yum install -y wget tar perl net-tools libaio before proceeding.

Installation using rpm

# rpm --import https://mirrors.nju.edu.cn/mysql/RPM-GPG-KEY-mysql-2023
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-client-plugins-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-common-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-libs-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-client-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-icu-data-files-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh mysql-community-server-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

Installation using yum

# yum install -y mysql-community-{server,client,client-plugins,icu-data-files,common,libs}-8.0.43-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

Starting MySQL and retrieving the temporary password

# systemctl enable --now mysqld
# grep password /var/log/mysqld.log

The log entry contains a line such as "A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: temporary_password ". Use this password to log in.

Changing the root password

# mysqladmin -uroot -p'temporary_password' password NewStrongPassword123!
# mysql -uroot -p'NewStrongPassword123!'

Ensure the new password satisfies MySQL's password policy (minimum length, mixed character types).

Verification

# mysql -V
# mysql -uroot -p'NewStrongPassword123!' -e "SHOW DATABASES;"

The output should list the default schemas (information_schema, mysql, performance_schema, sys), confirming a successful installation. The same sequence—download, install dependencies, run rpm or yum, start the service, retrieve and change the password—applies to Rocky 8, AlmaLinux 8, CentOS 7, Rocky 10, and other listed distributions, with only the OS version string in the download URL differing accordingly.