Upgrading MySQL

Making sure that your server software is up to date is one of the best ways to protect yourself from malicious attacks. This includes updating your database software, like MySQL. MySQL upgrades involve a number of steps, including planning, backups, upgrading binaries, upgrading tables, and cleanup.

Note:

cPanel does not support MySQL downgrades and downgrades are not recommended.

MySQL upgrades consist of the below steps – you do not need to recompile on non-cPanel servers.

Plan around problems/gotchas
Dump DBs and prep for upgrade
Upgrade the binaries
Upgrade the tables/reimport if required
Cleanup

Each step is outlined below.

Upgrade Path

The MySQL Upgrade path is:

MySQL 4.0 (MySQL AB)
MySQL 4.1 (MySQL AB)
MySQL 5.0 (Sun)
MySQL 5.1 (Sun)
MySQL 5.5 (Oracle)
MySQL 5.6 (Oracle)
MySQL 5.7 (Oracle) – Not yet available.

Migrations from MySQL to the matching version (or higher) of Maria are considered upgrades

Moving from any version of MariaDB to MySQL is a downgrade.

MariaDB 5.0 was forked from MySQL 5.5
MariaDB 10.0 kept pace with MySQL 5.6
MariaDB 10.1 kept pace with MySQL 5.7

Migrations from MySQL to the matching version (or higher) of Percona are considered upgrades.

Moving from any version of Percona to MySQL is a downgrade

Notice:

Migrations from MySQL to Percona or from Percona to MySQL are not fully supported on cPanel. If you do want to replace MySQL with Percona, please see the cPanel Documentation for instructions.

Below are the instructions to upgrade MySQL for both Managed and Unmanaged servers. Click the link to be directed to the instructions you need: