MySQL 5.5 and 5.1 on CentOS

http://www.webtatic.com/blog/2010/12/mysql-5-1-and-5-5-on-centos/

MySQL 5.5 and 5.1 on CentOS

First, to set up the yum repository, install the webtatic-release RPM:

rpm -ivh http://repo.webtatic.com/yum/centos/5/`uname -i`/webtatic-release-5-1.noarch.rpm

MySQL client library is used with several CentOS packages, so to remove MySQL without them, I have a mysql client library which is independent of the client tools, which can be installed first to be used instead.

yum install libmysqlclient15 --enablerepo=webtatic

Then you can uninstall MySQL:

yum remove mysql mysql-*

Then install the new MySQL version (either mysql51 or mysql55 can be installed here):

yum install mysql55 mysql55-server --enablerepo=webtatic

You should upgrade existing tables before setting the server to become a production machine, which can be done by starting the server and running the mysql_upgrade script (this may take time depending on the size of the database).

service mysqld start
mysql_upgrade