Move mysql to home directory

Open the terminal

Stop MySQL with the command

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

Move existing data directory (which is located in /var/lib/mysql) to new dir /usr/new_datadir using the command

mv /var/lib/mysql /home/iben/mysql

Create symlink from new dir to old one

ln -s /home/iben/mysql /var/lib/mysql

Don't chnage /etc/mysql/my.cnf =)))

Ubuntu uses some security software called AppArmor that specifies the areas of your filesystem applications are allowed to access. Unless you modify the AppArmor profile for MySQL, you'll never be able to restart MySQL with the new datadir location.

In the terminal, enter the command

vim /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld

Duplicate the lines beginning with /var/lib/mysql and replace duplicated strings with /usr/new_datadir
In my case it was:

.........
/var/lib/mysql/ r,
/var/lib/mysql/** rwk,
/var/log/mysql/ r,
/var/log/mysql/* rw,
#
/home/iben/mysql r,
/home/iben/mysql** rwk,
/home/iben/mysql r,
/home/iben/mysql* rw,
........

Restart the AppArmor profiles with the command

/etc/init.d/apparmor restart

Restart MySQL with the command

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

MySQL should now start without any errors, have fun! 

Posted in: LINUX, MYSQL