Advice on 5.1-5.5 Windows upgrade

[Tom Aston]

Hi all,

I'm shortly about to upgrade MySQL for the first time. I've read the documentation but have a few questions.

Upgrading from 5.1.49 to 5.1.72 seems straight forward. I've succeeded a couple of times on a test system with no issue. The questions I have are relating to upgrading from 5.1.72 to 5.5.51

Chapter 2.11.1 'Upgrading MySQL' of the documentation recommends a logical upgrade procedure when upgrading from a previous release. However straight after that recommendation, it points Windows users in the direction of 2.3.10 'Upgrading MySQL on Windows'. There is no logical upgrade procedure outlined for Windows in 2.3.10.

Is the logical upgrade procedure recommended for Linux users only, or Windows users too? If so, would a logical upgrade procedure for Windows look something like this:

mysqldump of all databases
stop mysql service
install mysql 5.5.51 msi installer (leaving 5.1 intact)
run mysql server instance config wizard
remove MySQL service from 5.1 install
re-run mysql server instance config wizard again
create MySQL service for 5.5 install, same root password
import dump file
run mysql_upgrade
Update options file in Workbench to point to the new 5.5\my.ini

Or, do I strictly follow the procedure outlined in 2.3.10 'Upgrading MySQL on Windows'? This is more of an in-place upgrade. I could see it being annoying that a 5.5 install is located within a 'MySQL Server 5.1' directory but I could live with that.

Any help and guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom