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 17 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
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
<scp or rsync /var/lib/mysql of MySQL 5.1.41 over to /var/lib.mysql of MySQL 5.5.24>
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 ... > 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<>''" | mysql -hhostaddr -umyuserid -pmypassword --skip-column-names -A | sed 's/$/;/g' > MySQLUserGrants.sql
Either way, move MySQLUserGrants.sql over to MySQL 5.5.24 maqchine and execute the script
I wrote about this before : importing myisam 5.0 database into a 5.5 innodb server