Installing MySQL

Introduction

Before you can write a single SQL query, you need MySQL actually installed and running on your machine. Thankfully, MySQL Community Server is free, and the official installers make setup fairly painless on every major operating system.

This lesson walks through downloading and installing MySQL Community Server on Windows, macOS, and Linux, setting a root password, and verifying everything works using the command-line client.

Downloading MySQL Community Server

MySQL Community Server is the free edition of MySQL, and it is exactly what this course uses. Always download it from the official MySQL website rather than a third-party mirror.

Installing on Windows

On Windows, MySQL provides a single tool called the MySQL Installer, which can install and manage the server, client tools, and even MySQL Workbench (covered in the next lesson) all in one place.

Once the wizard finishes, MySQL Server runs as a Windows service, meaning it can start automatically in the background whenever your computer boots.

Installing on macOS

On macOS, you can download a DMG package directly from the MySQL downloads page. Running it launches a standard macOS installer wizard.

# If you prefer Homebrew instead of the DMG installer:
brew install mysql

# Start the MySQL service:
brew services start mysql

Whichever method you choose, macOS also lets you set the root password either during the DMG installer's setup screen, or afterward using the mysql_secure_installation command-line tool.

Installing on Linux

On most Linux distributions, MySQL (or the MySQL APT/YUM repository) can be installed directly through the system package manager.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server

# Start and enable the service:
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl enable mysql

After installation, running the included security script helps lock down the default setup, including setting a root password.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Setting the Root Password

The "root" user is the default administrative account in MySQL, with full permission to do anything on the server. Whatever platform you install on, you will be asked to set a root password at some point during setup.

Verifying the Installation

Once installed, the best way to confirm everything is working is to connect using the MySQL command-line client. Open a terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows) and run the following.

mysql -u root -p

This tells MySQL to connect as the user "root" (-u root) and to prompt you for a password (-p). Type the root password you set during installation and press Enter.

Enter password: ********

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 12
Server version: 8.0.36 MySQL Community Server - GPL

mysql>

Seeing the mysql> prompt means the installation succeeded and you are now connected to your MySQL server. You can quickly check the version to confirm which one you installed.

SELECT VERSION();

+-----------+
| VERSION() |
+-----------+
| 8.0.36    |
+-----------+

XAMPP as an Alternative

If you have taken the PHP course on this platform, you may already have XAMPP installed. XAMPP bundles Apache, PHP, and either MySQL or MariaDB together in one simple installer, which makes it a convenient quick-start option for local development.

Common Mistakes

Best Practices

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

Summary

With MySQL Community Server installed and a root password set, you now have a working MySQL server on your own machine, ready to accept SQL commands.

In this lesson, you downloaded and installed MySQL, set a root password, and verified everything using the command-line client. Next, you will install MySQL Workbench, a graphical tool that makes working with MySQL much more visual and convenient.