Initializing the Data Directory 4. If you want to deploy the server with automatic support for secure connections, use the mysql_ssl_rsa_setup  utility to create default SSL and RSA files: 5. In the absence of any option files, the server starts with its default settings. (See Section 5.1.2, “Server Configuration Defaults” .) To explicitly specify options that the MySQL server should use at startup, put them in an option file such as  /etc/my.cnf  or  /etc/mysql/my.cnf . (See Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files” .) For example, you can use an option file to set the  secure_file_priv  system variable. 6. To arrange for MySQL to start without manual intervention at system boot time, see Section 2.10.5, “Starting and Stopping MySQL Automatically” . 7. Data directory initialization creates time zone tables in the  mysql  schema but does not populate them. To do so, use the instructions in Section 5.1.15, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support” . bin/mysql_ssl_rsa_setup For more information, see Section 4.4.3, “mysql_ssl_rsa_setup — Create SSL/RSA Files” . Change location to the top-level directory of your MySQL installation, which is typically  /usr/local/ mysql  (adjust the path name for your system as necessary): To initialize the data directory, invoke  mysqld  with the  --initialize  or  --initialize-insecure option, depending on whether you want the server to generate a random initial password for the ’root’@’localhost’  account, or to create that account with no password: For instructions on assigning a new  ’root’@’localhost’  password, see Post-Initialization root Password Assignment. The server writes any messages (including any initial password) to its standard error output. This may be redirected to the error log, so look there if you do not see the messages on your screen. For information about the error log, including where it is located, see Section 5.4.2, “The Error Log” . On Windows, use the  --console  option to direct messages to the console. On Unix and Unix-like systems, it is important for the database directories and files to be owned by the mysql  login account so that the server has read and write access to them when you run it later. To ensure this, start  mysqld  from the system  root  account and include the  --user  option as shown here: Alternatively, execute  mysqld  while logged in as  mysql , in which case you can omit the  --user  option from the command. On Windows, use one of these commands: bin/mysqld --initialize --user=mysql bin/mysqld --initialize-insecure --user=mysql cd /usr/local/mysql •Use  --initialize  for “secure by default”  installation (that is, including generation of a random initial root  password). In this case, the password is marked as expired and you must choose a new one. •With  --initialize-insecure , no  root  password is generated. This is insecure; it is assumed that you intend to assign a password to the account in a timely fashion before putting the server into production use. Data Directory Initialization Procedure Note 250