MySQL is a popular database management system used for web and server applications. However, MySQL is no longer in CentOS’s repositories and MariaDB has become the default database system offered. MariaDB is considered a drop-in replacement for MySQL and would be sufficient if you just need a database system in general. See our MariaDB in CentOS 7 guide for installation instructions. If you nonetheless prefer MySQL, this guide will introduce how to install, configure and manage it on a Linode running CentOS 7. Large MySQL databases can require a considerable amount of memory. For this reason, we recommend using a high memory Linode for such setups. This guide is written for a non-root user. Commands that require elevated privileges are prefixed with sudo . If you’re not familiar with the sudo command, you can check our Users and Groups guide. Before You Begin Ensure that you have followed the Getting Started and Securing Your Server guides...