Install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 Linux

Are you looking for a guide to help you install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 Linux server / Workstation?. The CentOS / RHEL 8 AppStream repository only contain MySQL 8.0 packages. Not all applications have support for MySQL 8, e.g Jira as of this writing require MySQL 5.7 and below. How then can you install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8?.

MySQL is a very popular open-source relational database management system. It is being developed by Oracle Corporation – Company behind Oracle Database. With its proven reliability, performance, and ease-of-use, MySQL has become the leading database choice for web-based applications.

Follow the next steps to have a running MySQL 5.7 Server on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 system.

Step 1: Add MySQL repository

Disable MySQL default AppStream repository:

sudo dnf remove @mysql
sudo dnf module reset mysql && sudo dnf module disable mysql

There is no MySQL repository for EL 8, so we’ll use EL 7 repository instead. Create a new repository file.

sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mysql-community.repo

Paste below data into the file.

[mysql57-community]
name=MySQL 5.7 Community Server
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-5.7-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

[mysql-connectors-community]
name=MySQL Connectors Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-connectors-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

[mysql-tools-community]
name=MySQL Tools Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-tools-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Step 2: Install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8

Once the repository has been added, now install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8.

Disable MySQL 8 repository:

sudo dnf config-manager --disable mysql80-community

Then enable channel for MySQL 5.7.

sudo dnf config-manager --enable mysql57-community

Then install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8:

sudo dnf install mysql-community-server

Press y to start the installation.

Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:41 ago on Mon 06 Jan 2020 08:54:52 PM EAT.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                   Arch                      Version                                 Repository                            Size
========================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 mysql-community-server                    x86_64                    5.7.28-1.el7                            mysql57-community                    199 M
Installing dependencies:
 ncurses-compat-libs                       x86_64                    6.1-7.20180224.el8                      BaseOS                               331 k
 mysql-community-client                    x86_64                    5.7.28-1.el7                            mysql57-community                     43 M
 mysql-community-common                    x86_64                    5.7.28-1.el7                            mysql57-community                    311 k
 mysql-community-libs                      x86_64                    5.7.28-1.el7                            mysql57-community                    4.2 M

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================
Install  5 Packages

Total download size: 247 M
Installed size: 1.0 G
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Check package rpm details to confirm it is 5.7.

$ rpm -qi mysql-community-server 
Name        : mysql-community-server
Version     : 5.7.28
Release     : 1.el7
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Mon 06 Jan 2020 08:58:52 PM EAT
Group       : Applications/Databases
Size        : 910635041
License     : Copyright (c) 2000, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Under GPLv2 license as shown in the Description field.
Signature   : DSA/SHA1, Mon 30 Sep 2019 11:05:08 AM EAT, Key ID 8c718d3b5072e1f5
Source RPM  : mysql-community-5.7.28-1.el7.src.rpm
Build Date  : Fri 27 Sep 2019 11:11:06 AM EAT
Build Host  : loki02.no.oracle.com
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager    : MySQL Release Engineering <[email protected]>
Vendor      : Oracle and/or its affiliates
URL         : http://www.mysql.com/
Summary     : A very fast and reliable SQL database server

Step 3: Configure MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8

2.1 – After the installation, start mysqld service.

sudo systemctl enable --now mysqld.service

2.2 – Copy the generated random password for the root user

sudo grep 'A temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log |tail -1

Take note of the printed password:

2020-01-06T18:06:19.947403Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: AS*5Rx%YY5+c

2.3 – Start MySQL Secure Installation to change the root password, Disallow root login remotely, remove anonymous users and remove test database.

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation
Securing the MySQL server deployment.
Enter password for user root:

Authenticate with your generated temporary password. This will ask you to set a new password for the root user.

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

New password: 
Re-enter new password: 

Estimated strength of the password: 100 
Do you wish to continue with the password provided?: Yes

Remove anonymous users?: Yes
Success.

Disallow root login remotely? : Yes
Success.

Remove test database and access to it? : Yes
 - Dropping test database...
Success.
 - Removing privileges on test database...
Success.

Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes) : Yes
Success.

All done!

You can use online password generator to get a complex password.

2.4 – Connect to MySQL Database as root user and create a test database.

$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: <Enter Root Password>
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 15
Server version: 5.7.28 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2019, 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.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> SELECT VERSION();
+-----------+
| VERSION() |
+-----------+
| 5.7.28    |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> QUIT
Bye

2.5 – Create a test database and user:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE test_db;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.09 sec)

mysql> CREATE USER 'test_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY "Strong34S;#";
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.04 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON test_db.* TO 'test_user'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

This test database and user can be dropped by running:

mysql> DROP DATABASE test_db;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> DROP USER 'test_user'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.11 sec)

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> QUIT
Bye

Step 4: Configure Firewall – ( Only for remote connections)

To allow for remote connections, allow port 3306 on the firewall

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=mysql --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

You can also limit access from trusted networks:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule 'rule family="ipv4" \
service name="mysql" source address="10.10.10.0/24" accept'

Thanks for using our guide to install MySQL 5.7 on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8.

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