Upgrading to MySQL 5.7 on YUM - mysql

Question

I would really appreciate help. I'm new to Linux and Yum. I recently purchased a VPS and it only has MySQL 5.6. I want to update to 5.7 and I'm stuck. pulling hair out over here. I've gotten to the point where i enter command createrepo but there doesn't seem to be any directory created by it as i read there should be. The server is running CentOS 6.9. Here are the steps i followed:
Downloaded Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 / Oracle Linux 6 (Architecture Independent), RPM Package from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/repo/yum/ .
Used FTP client to upload the file to my server in a directory called downloads.
in PuTTy went to the downloads folder and typed 'ls', i can see the file is there. it appears in red as "mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch.rpm"
typed createrepo /downloads while in the downloads directory and I get:
Spawning worker 0 with 1 pkgs Workers Finished Gathering worker
results
Saving Primary metadata Saving file lists metadata Saving other
metadata Generating sqlite DBs Sqlite DBs complete
ACCORDING to the documentation i read it's supposed to create another directory at this point but when i type ls there is still just the file there. when i run the command again as createrepo /downloads -v i get:
Spawning worker 0 with 1 pkgs
Worker 0: reading mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch.rpm
Workers Finished
Gathering worker results
Saving Primary metadata
Saving file lists metadata
Saving other metadata
Generating sqlite DBs
Starting other db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Ending other db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Starting filelists db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Ending filelists db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Starting primary db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Ending primary db creation: Wed Mar 21 06:30:38 2018
Sqlite DBs complete
I've also tried localinstall command on the file in the directory with "yum localinstall mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch.rpm and i get:
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Loading "universal-hooks" plugin
Config time: 0.033
Yum Version: 3.2.29
Setting up Local Package Process
rpmdb time: 0.000
Examining mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch.rpm: mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch
Excluding mysql57-community-release-el6-11.noarch
Nothing to do
I think the file may have been installed already kind of inadvertently as i have been struggling with this for hours but then when i call createrepo shouldn't it create the repository using the RPM file?
Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

It may be easier to delete the file you created and use the steps below (Taken from a production box)
The repo uses the name mysql-community-* That's why you couldn't find the package mysql-server via yum
Create a new file /etc/yum.repos.d/mysql-community.repo and add the following;
[mysql-connectors-community]
name=MySQL Connectors Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-connectors-community/el/6/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-mysql
[mysql-tools-community]
name=MySQL Tools Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-tools-community/el/6/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-mysql
[mysql57-community]
name=MySQL 5.7 Community Server
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-5.7-community/el/6/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-mysql
Then do;
yum clean all
yum upgrade mysql-community-server
Which should install & upgrade you to 5.7 - Remember to run mysql_upgrade after MySQL has restarted.