Post-installation¶

Depending on the type of installation, you may need to do the following tasks:

Installed using binary files or compiling from source¶

Task
Initialize the data dictionary
Test the server
Set service to start at boot time

Initialize the data directory¶

The binary tarball install creates /var/lib/mysql, initializes it, and reads the temporary root password 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.

Test the server¶

After you have initialized the data directory and started the server, you can run tests on the server.

Use the mysqladmin client from the tarball. Enter the temporary root password when prompted.

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

Expected output

Enter password:
mysql Ver 8.4.11-11 for debian-linux-gnu on x86_64 (Percona Server (GPL), Release '10', Revision 'f446c04')
...
Server version      8.4.11-11
Protocol version    10
Connection          Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket         /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:             4 hours 58 min 10 section

Threads:    2 Questions:    16 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 139 Flush tables: 3
Open tables: 59  Queries per second avg: 0.0000

Use mysqlshow to display database and table information.

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

Expected output

Enter password:

+---------------------+
|      Databases      |
+=====================+
| information_schema  |
+---------------------+
| mysql               |
+---------------------+
| performance_schema  |
+---------------------+
| sys                 |
+---------------------+

Set service to run at boot time¶

The binary tarball install creates /etc/systemd/system/mysqld.service and starts the server.

The following commands start, check the status, and stop the server:

sudo systemctl start mysqld
sudo systemctl status mysqld
sudo systemctl stop mysqld

Run the following command to start the service at boot time:

sudo systemctl enable mysqld

Run the following command to prevent a service from starting at boot time:

sudo systemctl disable mysqld

All installations¶

Task
Update the root password
Secure the server
Populate the time zone tables

Update the root password¶

During an installation on Debian/Ubuntu, you are prompted to enter a root password. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives, you update the root password after installation.

Restart the server with the --skip-grant-tables option to allow access without a password. This option is insecure. This option also disables remote connections.

sudo systemctl stop mysql
sudo systemctl set-environment MYSQLD_OPTS="--skip-grant-tables"
sudo systemctl start mysql
mysql

Reload the grant tables to be able to run the ALTER USER statement. Enter a password that satisfies the current policy.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'rootPassword_12';
exit

If the command fails, with ERROR 1524 (HY000): Plugin [plugin name] is not loaded., then check if the plugin is available.

SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_STATUS
       FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS
       WHERE PLUGIN_NAME LIKE 'validate%';

If the result is empty or shows DISABLED, the plugin is not available. Switch the MySQL user to use the default authentication plugin, caching_sha2_password or mysql_native_password for your installation.

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password BY 'rootPassword_12';

If, when adding the password, MySQL returns ERROR 1819 (HY000) Your password does not satisfy the current policy, run the following command to see policy requirement.

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'validate_password%';

Redo your password to satisfy the requirements.

Stop the server, remove the --skip-grant-tables option, start the server, and log into the server with the updated password.

sudo systemctl stop mysql
sudo systemctl unset-environment MYSQLD_OPTS 
sudo systemctl start mysql
mysql -u root -p

Secure the server¶

The mysql_secure_installation script improves the security of the instance.

The script does the following:

Changes the root password
Disallows remote login for root accounts
Removes anonymous users
Removes the test database
Reloads the privilege tables

The following statement runs the script:

mysql_secure_installation

Populate the time zone tables¶

The time zone system tables are the following:

time_zone
time_zone_leap_second
time_zone_name
time_zone_transition
time_zone_transition_type

If you install the server using either the source distribution or the generic binary distribution files, the installation creates the time zone tables, but the tables are not populated.

The mysql_tzinfo_to_sql program populates the tables from the zoneinfo directory data available in Linux.

A common method to populate the tables is to add the zoneinfo directory path to mysql_tzinfo_to_sql and then send the output into the mysql system schema .

The example assumes you are running the command with the root account. The account must have the privileges for modifying the mysql system schema.

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p -D mysql