Documentation Home
MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual
Related Documentation Download this Manual
PDF (US Ltr) - 46.1Mb
PDF (A4) - 46.1Mb
PDF (RPM) - 41.5Mb
HTML Download (TGZ) - 10.6Mb
HTML Download (Zip) - 10.6Mb
HTML Download (RPM) - 9.1Mb
Man Pages (TGZ) - 220.4Kb
Man Pages (Zip) - 325.8Kb
Info (Gzip) - 4.1Mb
Info (Zip) - 4.1Mb
Excerpts from this Manual

MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual  /  Installing and Upgrading MySQL  /  Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows

2.3 Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows

Important

MySQL 8.0 Server requires the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Package to run on Windows platforms. Users should make sure the package has been installed on the system before installing the server. The package is available at the Microsoft Download Center. Additionally, MySQL debug binaries require Visual Studio 2015 to be installed.

MySQL is available for Microsoft Windows 64-bit operating systems only. For supported Windows platform information, see https://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html.

There are different methods to install MySQL on Microsoft Windows.

MySQL Installer Method

The simplest and recommended method is to download MySQL Installer (for Windows) and let it install and configure a specific version of MySQL Server as follows:

  1. Download MySQL Installer from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer/ and execute it.

    Note

    Unlike the standard MySQL Installer, the smaller "web-community" version does not bundle any MySQL applications but it will download the MySQL products you choose to install.

  2. Determine the setup type to use for the initial installation of MySQL products. For example:

    • Developer Default: Provides a setup type that includes the selected version of MySQL Server and other MySQL tools related to MySQL development, such as MySQL Workbench.

    • Server Only: Provides a setup for the selected version of MySQL Server without other products.

    • Custom: Enables you to select any version of MySQL Server and other MySQL products.

  3. Install the server instance (and products) and then begin the server configuration by first selecting one of the following levels of availability for the server instance:

    • Standalone MySQL Server / Classic MySQL Replication (default)

      Configures a server instance to run without high availability.

    • InnoDB cluster

      Provides two configuration options based on MySQL Group Replication to:

      • Configure multiple server instances in a sandbox InnoDB cluster on the local host (for testing only).

      • Create a new InnoDB cluster and configure one seed instance or add a new server instance to an existing InnoDB cluster.

  4. Complete the configuration process by following the onscreen instructions. For more information about each individual step, see Section 2.3.3.3.1, “MySQL Server Configuration with MySQL Installer”.

MySQL is now installed. If you configured MySQL as a service, then Windows will automatically start MySQL server every time you restart your system. Also, this process installs the MySQL Installer application on the local host, which you can use later to upgrade or reconfigure MySQL server.

Note

If you installed MySQL Workbench on your system, consider using it to check your new MySQL server connection. By default, the program automatically start after installing MySQL.

Additional Installation Information

It is possible to run MySQL as a standard application or as a Windows service. By using a service, you can monitor and control the operation of the server through the standard Windows service management tools. For more information, see Section 2.3.5.8, “Starting MySQL as a Windows Service”.

To accommodate the RESTART statement, the MySQL server forks when run as a service or standalone, to enable a monitor process to supervise the server process. In this case, you will observe two mysqld processes. If RESTART capability is not required, the server can be started with the --no-monitor option. See Section 13.7.7.8, “RESTART Syntax”.

Generally, you should install MySQL on Windows using an account that has administrator rights. Otherwise, you may encounter problems with certain operations such as editing the PATH environment variable or accessing the Service Control Manager. When installed, MySQL does not need to be executed using a user with Administrator privileges.

For a list of limitations on the use of MySQL on the Windows platform, see Section C.10.5, “Windows Platform Limitations”.

In addition to the MySQL Server package, you may need or want additional components to use MySQL with your application or development environment. These include, but are not limited to:

  • To connect to the MySQL server using ODBC, you must have a Connector/ODBC driver. For more information, including installation and configuration instructions, see MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide.

    Note

    MySQL Installer will install and configure Connector/ODBC for you.

  • To use MySQL server with .NET applications, you must have the Connector/NET driver. For more information, including installation and configuration instructions, see MySQL Connector/NET Developer Guide.

    Note

    MySQL Installer will install and configure MySQL Connector/NET for you.

MySQL distributions for Windows can be downloaded from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/. See Section 2.1.2, “How to Get MySQL”.

MySQL for Windows is available in several distribution formats, detailed here. Generally speaking, you should use MySQL Installer. It contains more features and MySQL products than the older MSI, is simpler to use than the compressed file, and you need no additional tools to get MySQL up and running. MySQL Installer automatically installs MySQL Server and additional MySQL products, creates an options file, starts the server, and enables you to create default user accounts. For more information on choosing a package, see Section 2.3.2, “Choosing an Installation Package”.

MySQL on Windows Considerations

  • Large Table Support

    If you need tables with a size larger than 4GB, install MySQL on an NTFS or newer file system. Do not forget to use MAX_ROWS and AVG_ROW_LENGTH when you create tables. See Section 13.1.20, “CREATE TABLE Syntax”.

  • MySQL and Virus Checking Software

    Virus-scanning software such as Norton/Symantec Anti-Virus on directories containing MySQL data and temporary tables can cause issues, both in terms of the performance of MySQL and the virus-scanning software misidentifying the contents of the files as containing spam. This is due to the fingerprinting mechanism used by the virus-scanning software, and the way in which MySQL rapidly updates different files, which may be identified as a potential security risk.

    After installing MySQL Server, it is recommended that you disable virus scanning on the main directory (datadir) used to store your MySQL table data. There is usually a system built into the virus-scanning software to enable specific directories to be ignored.

    In addition, by default, MySQL creates temporary files in the standard Windows temporary directory. To prevent the temporary files also being scanned, configure a separate temporary directory for MySQL temporary files and add this directory to the virus scanning exclusion list. To do this, add a configuration option for the tmpdir parameter to your my.ini configuration file. For more information, see Section 2.3.5.2, “Creating an Option File”.