2.3.2 Choosing an Installation Package
For MySQL 5.7, there are multiple installation package formats to choose from when installing MySQL on Windows. The package formats described in this section are:
Program Database (PDB) files (with file name extension pdb
) provide information for debugging your MySQL installation in the event of a problem. These files are included in ZIP Archive distributions (but not MSI distributions) of MySQL.
This package has a file name similar to mysql-installer-community-5.7.32.0.msi
or mysql-installer-commercial-5.7.32.0.msi
, and utilizes MSIs to automatically install MySQL server and other products. MySQL Installer will download and apply updates to itself, and for each of the installed products. It also configures the installed MySQL server (including a sandbox InnoDB cluster test setup) and MySQL Router. MySQL Installer is recommended for most users.
MySQL Installer can install and manage (add, modify, upgrade, and remove) many other MySQL products, including:
Applications – MySQL Workbench, MySQL for Visual Studio, MySQL Notifier, MySQL for Excel, MySQL Utilities, MySQL Shell, MySQL Router
Connectors – MySQL Connector/C++, MySQL Connector/NET, Connector/ODBC, MySQL Connector/Python, MySQL Connector/J, MySQL Connector/Node.js
Documentation – MySQL Manual (PDF format), samples and examples
MySQL Installer operates on all MySQL supported versions of Windows (see https://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html ).
Because MySQL Installer is not a native component of Microsoft Windows and depends on .NET, it will not work on minimal installation options like the Server Core version of Windows Server.
For instructions on how to install MySQL using MySQL Installer, see Section 2.3.3, “MySQL Installer for Windows”.
These packages contain the files found in the complete MySQL Server installation package, with the exception of the GUI. This format does not include an automated installer, and must be manually installed and configured.
The noinstall
ZIP archives are split into two separate compressed files. The main package is named mysql-
for 64-bit and VERSION
-winx64.zipmysql-
for 32-bit. This contains the components needed to use MySQL on your system. The optional MySQL test suite, MySQL benchmark suite, and debugging binaries/information components (including PDB files) are in a separate compressed file named VERSION
-win32.zipmysql-
for 64-bit and VERSION
-winx64-debug-test.zipmysql-
for 32-bit. VERSION
-win32-debug-test.zip
If you choose to install a noinstall
ZIP archive, see Section 2.3.4, “Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows Using a noinstall
ZIP Archive”.
For information on using the MySQL Docker images provided by Oracle on Windows platform, see Section 2.5.7.3, “Deploying MySQL on Windows and Other Non-Linux Platforms with Docker”.
The MySQL Docker images provided by Oracle are built specifically for Linux platforms. Other platforms are not supported, and users running the MySQL Docker images from Oracle on them are doing so at their own risk.