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How to upgrade MySQL 5.5 to 5.6/5.7 or MariaDB 5.5 to 10.x on Linux?

Question

How to upgrade MySQL 5.5 to 5.6/5.7 or MariaDB 5.5 to 10.X on Linux?

Answer

This article provides instructions for upgrading MySQL 5.5 to 5.6/5.7 and MariaDB 5.5 to 10.0/10.1/10.2/10.3/10.4/10.5/10.6 on Linux.

Note: Upgrade can be performed in a command-line interface with the instructions below at your own risk. This task is supposed to be performed by a system administrator.
If you are not familiar with Linux system administering and would like our professionals to handle this task on your behalf, contact Professional Services team at https://www.plesk.com/professional-services/.

To find out your Linux distribution, run:

# plesk version | grep "OS version"

Or:

# cat /etc/*-release

Warning: MariaDB 10.11 is supported starting from Plesk Obsidian 18.0.52. MariaDB 10.4 and later versions are supported starting from Plesk Obsidian 18.0.30. Previous versions (Onyx and older) do not support MariaDB starting from 10.3 and there are no plans to implement it currently.

Warning:
Direct upgrade from MySQL 5.1 to MySQL 5.6/5.7 will break tables structure. The instructions for upgrading MySQL from 5.1 to 5.5 on Linux are available here: How to upgrade MySQL from 5.1 to 5.5 on Linux

Warning:
Direct upgrade from MariaDB 5.5 or 5.7 to MariaDB 10.6 or later versions is not possible.
You should first upgrade MariaDB 5.5. or 5.7 to any MariaDB from 10.3 to 10.5, and then perform an update to MariaDB 10.6 or later

It is strongly recommended to create a server snapshot (full backup) before upgrading. Perform MySQL upgrade at your own risk.

Before starting a MySQL upgrade, stop the WatchDog service if it is used on a server. Check its status with the service watchdog status command.

Note: MySQL will not be upgraded on CentOS/RHEL-based operating systems if it was installed from the Webtatic Yum repository:

# rpm -qa | grep -i mysql
mysql55w-server-5.5.57-1.w6.x86_64

To start an upgrade of MySQL/MariaDB, connect to a server via SSH as root/superuser and follow the instructions for your operating system:

Plesk on CentOS 8

By default, CentOS 8 is shipped with MariaDB 10.3.

For security reasons, create a database dump of all databases with the following command:

# MYSQL_PWD=`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow` mysqldump -u admin --verbose --all-databases --routines --triggers > /tmp/all-databases.sql
Stop MariaDB:

# service mariadb stop
Remove additional package conflicting with 10.4 version:

# yum remove mariadb-gssapi-server
For security reasons, copy the database directory in a separate folder:

# cp -v -a /var/lib/mysql/ /var/lib/mysql_backup
Configure MariaDB repository: open the Setting MariaDB repositories page, select your OS distro, release, and desired MariaDB version. Once done, the configuration that should be added to the /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo file will appear.

Warning: MariaDB 10.4 and later versions are supported since 18.0.30, make sure the latest Plesk version is installed.

Here is an example for MariaDB 10.4:

5.1. Open/create the MariaDB.repo file in any text editor. In this example, we are using the vi editor:

# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo

5.2. Add the content below to the file:

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.4/centos8-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
priority=1
module_hotfixes=1

The configuration item module_hotfixes=1 is a workaround for what MariaDB told…