Mostly MySQL uses /var/lib/mysql directory as default data directory for Linux based systems. But if you wanted to change your data folder to another location,Follow the below steps to make all the changes:
Note: Use all the command as per you system settings.
1. Stop MySQL
Before making any changes, first make sure to stop mysql service
service mysqld stop
2. Create New MYSQL directory where you want to move your data.
mkdir /home/mysql
3. Change Data Directory
Now move default MySQL data directory (/var/lib/mysql) to other location as per your requirement. Also set the required MySQL ownership on new directory location.
mv /var/lib/mysql /home/mysql chown mysql.mysql /home/mysql
Now edit MySQL default configuration file /etc/my.cnf and update values of datadir and socket variable.
Change From: datadir=/var/lib/mysql socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock Change To: datadir=/home/mysql socket=/home/mysql/mysql.sock
4. Start MySQL
After making all above changes. finally start MySQL service. Now it will use new data directory path.
Change From: datadir=/var/lib/mysql socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock Change To: datadir=/data/mysql socket=/data/mysql/mysql.sock
After making all above changes. Start MySQL service. Now it will use new data directory path.
service mysqld start
Once this is done check your websites and make sure that everything is working fine. Just in case If you face any issue during MySQL startup check mysql log file /var/log/mysqld.log for any errors.