Resetting your mysql root password

It is quite frequent that an administrator simply forgets his mysql’s root password.

Luckily, it is quiet easy to reset it, here are the steps:

  1. SSH as root to your machine
  2. Turn off the mysqld daemon if running
    • RedHat/Fedora users can do so by executing:  service mysqld stop
  3. Run safe_mysqld by executing:
    • safe_mysqld –skip-grant-tables
      (this will run allow you to connect without a password)
  4. Open a second shell / SSH again and execute:
    • mysql mysql
      (to directly connect and select the mysql database which contains the user authentication data)
  5. On the mysql prompt, execute:
    • update user set password=password(‘newpassword’) where user=’root’;
      where newpassword is your newly chosen password.
  6. That’s it! close everything and start your mysql daemon again:
    • service mysqld start

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