MySQL/MariaDB Upgrade

Dave Yong

Modified on: Sun, 27 Sep, 2020 at 8:56 AM

You might notice the message on WHM as per shown in the screenshot below as the following databases will reach End of Life status within the next year:

MariaDB® 10.1 on October 17 2020.

MySQL® 5.6 on February 5, 2021.

cPanel, L.L.C. will no longer provide support for systems running MariaDB 10.1 or MySQL 5.6 after they reach End of Life status. System administrators who do not upgrade their servers to newer supported versions of those databases are at risk of not receiving essential patches to security vulnerabilities and running into compatibility issues with other software components. Your servers will also miss out on added features and security updates in the newer supported cPanel & WHM versions.

This article is to guide you on how to upgrade your MySQL with just a few clicks WHM interface. While you can still use command line (SSH) to upgrade your MySQL, it is more involved than using the graphical interface of WHM and EasyApache

How to Upgrade Your MySQL

Log into WHM, go to “SQL Services“, and click on “MySQL/MariaDB Upgrade“.
Select the version of MySQL or MariaDB that you wish to upgrade. As per our current article, we are going to upgrade MySQL from 5.6 to 5.7.
Click Next. A new interface will appear with warning messages about the upgrade process. The warning is varied for different servers and may check the boxes for each warning to acknowledge that you are aware of the potential consequences of the upgrade, then click “Continue“.
Select the type of upgrade that you wish to perform:
- Unattended Upgrade — This option automatically rebuilds Apache and PHP with the last saved defaults. It also automatically updates Ruby Gems and rebuilds Apache and PHP.
- Interactive Upgrade — This option steps you through the upgrade process. This process includes the Ruby Gems update, the MySQL or MariaDB upgrade, and the Apache and PHP rebuild.
The upgrade will begin and the upgrade process interface appears. when it is finished the green bar at the top will stay green and the function below will indicate that the upgrade is complete.