Install Percona Server for MySQL 8.4 from a binary tarball

A binary tarball is one file that contains the server binaries and support files. The tar command bundles the files, and gzip compresses them.

Use a binary tarball in the following cases:

• You need to run more than one version of Percona Server for MySQL on the same host

• Percona does not provide a package for your Linux distribution

For all other cases, use APT or DNF packages.

This page installs the glibc 2.35 tarball on Ubuntu 26.04 (x86_64). For other operating systems, select a tarball on the binary tarball file names page. Package names for other libraries are on the Operating system libraries page.

Generic binary tarballs are built for x86_64. Percona publishes ARM64 (aarch64) builds as APT and DNF packages, as Docker images (use the 8.4.11-arm64 tag), and as source that you can compile on the target host.

Install on Ubuntu 26.04

1. Install the OpenSSL library the server needs to start:

   sudo apt install libssl3t64
   

   Expected output

   Upgrading:
     libssl3t64  openssl  openssl-provider-legacy
   
   Summary:
     Upgrading: 3, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 62
     Download size: 4031 kB
     Space needed: 2048 B / 99.6 GB available
   
   Continue? [Y/n] y
   

2. Create the mysql group and user. The account has no login shell:

   sudo groupadd mysql
   sudo useradd -r -g mysql -s /bin/false mysql
   

   Expected output

   No output
   

3. Download the tarball and its checksum file:

   wget https://downloads.percona.com/downloads/Percona-Server-8.4/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11/binary/tarball/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz
   wget https://downloads.percona.com/downloads/Percona-Server-8.4/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11/binary/tarball/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz.sha256sum
   

   Expected output

   --2026-10-28 05:14:03--  https://downloads.percona.com/downloads/Percona-Server-8.4/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11/binary/tarball/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz
   Resolving downloads.percona.com (downloads.percona.com)... 15.204.182.114
   Connecting to downloads.percona.com (downloads.percona.com)|15.204.182.114|:443... connected.
   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
   Length: 1463302946 (1.4G) [application/gzip]
   Saving to: ‘Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz’
   ...
   2026-10-28 05:15:21 (74.9 MB/s) - ‘Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz.sha256sum’ saved [121/121]
   

4. Verify the tarball:

   sha256sum -c Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz.sha256sum
   

   Expected output

   Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz: OK
   

5. Extract the tarball and create the /usr/local/mysql link:

   sudo tar -xzf Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35.tar.gz -C /usr/local
   sudo ln -s /usr/local/Percona-Server-8.4.11-11-Linux.x86_64.glibc2.35 /usr/local/mysql
   

   Expected output

   No output
   

   The files under /usr/local/mysql stay owned by root.

6. Create the data directory and give it to the mysql user:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/mysql
   sudo chown mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
   sudo chmod 750 /var/lib/mysql
   

   Expected output

   No output
   

7. Initialize the data directory:

   sudo -u mysql /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --initialize --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/error.log
   

   Expected output

   No output
   

8. Read the temporary password for root@localhost from the error log:

   sudo grep 'temporary password' /var/lib/mysql/error.log
   

   Expected output

   2026-10-28T12:38:09.636475Z 6 [Note] [MY-010454] [Server] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: <temporary password>
   

   Copy the password. You need it for the login step.

9. Open the systemd unit file:

   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mysqld.service
   

   Expected output

   No output
   

10. Paste the following configuration into the editor. Press Ctrl+O, then Enter, to save the file. Press Ctrl+X to close nano.

    [Unit]
    Description=Percona Server for MySQL
    After=network.target
    
    [Service]
    User=mysql
    Group=mysql
    ExecStart=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/error.log
    RuntimeDirectory=mysqld
    LimitNOFILE=65535
    Restart=on-failure
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    

    Expected output

    No output
    

11. Load the new unit file:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    

    Expected output

    No output
    

12. Start the server and enable it at boot:

    sudo systemctl enable --now mysqld
    

    Expected output

    Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mysqld.service → /etc/systemd/system/mysqld.service.
    

13. Log in with the temporary password:

    /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -u root -p -S /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
    

## Troubleshoot the installation

If systemctl enable --now mysqld fails or the login returns ERROR 2002, the server is not running. Check:

sudo systemctl status mysqld –no-pager sudo tail -30 /var/lib/mysql/error.log

Symptom	Cause
status=203/EXEC	ExecStart path is wrong, or the /usr/local/mysql link is missing
ERROR 2002 ... mysqld.sock (2)	The server is not running, or the client and server use different socket paths
--initialize fails on a non-empty directory	Remove the data directory contents and run step 7 again

For the next tasks, see Quickstart - First five minutes (security and stability).