Fastest way to move a database from one server to another I'm moving a single MySQL database (~10GB uncompressed) from one server to another on the same network. The current MySQL version is 5.1.41 and the new version is 5.5.24. The database contains both MyISAM and InnoDB tables. Is it possible to use this method:


Shut down MySQL on both servers
Copy the /data directory from old server to new server
Start new server


I realize this basic question has probably been asked 1000 times before but most of the ones I've seen don't mention changing versions &amp; supporting both MyISAM and InnoDB.
If you are changing versions, DO NOT MOVE THE mysql SCHEMA.

Why should you not move the mysql folder? It has to do with the authentication privileges.

The number of columns in mysql.user is different from version to version

If you run desc mysql.user


You will see 31 rows for MySQL 4.1
You will see 37 rows for MySQL 5.0
You will see 39 rows for MySQL 5.1
You will see 42 rows for MySQL 5.5


I wrote about this before


Cannot GRANT privileges as root
Mysql users deleted


It is OK to move everything else. On the new machine that has MySQL 5.5.24, do this:

mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql/mysql55
mkdir /var/lib/mysql
&lt;scp or rsync /var/lib/mysql of MySQL 5.1.41 over to /var/lib.mysql of MySQL 5.5.24&gt;
rm -f /var/lib/mysql/mysql/*
cp /var/lib/mysql/mysql55/* /var/lib/mysql/mysql/*
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
service mysql start


So, the question remains:

How do you move the User Privileges in the old MySQL 5.1.41 to MySQL 5.5.24 ???

There are two ways to do this starting on the MySQL 5.1.41 machine:

METHOD #1 : Use pt-show-grants

This Percona Toolkit program move print out the User Permission in Pure SQL. You could run the result output into a Text File. Then, execute the Text File in MySQL 5.5.24. End of Story.

pt-show-grants ... &gt; MySQLUserGrants.sql


METHOD #2 : Emulate pt-show-grants

I made my own technique for pt-show-grants

mysql -hhostaddr -umyuserid -pmypassword --skip-column-names -A -e"SELECT CONCAT('SHOW GRANTS FOR ''',user,'''@''',host,''';') FROM mysql.user WHERE user&lt;&gt;''" | mysql -hhostaddr -umyuserid -pmypassword --skip-column-names -A | sed 's/$/;/g' &gt; MySQLUserGrants.sql


Either way, move MySQLUserGrants.sql over to the MySQL 5.5.24 machine and execute the script

I wrote about this before : importing myisam 5.0 database into a 5.5 innodb server