How to start and stop MySQL on ubuntu

Starting MySQL:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

Stopping MySQL:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Restart MySQL:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Check MySQL status:

sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql

This is from a default installation of MySQL in Ubuntu Server 12.04.1 LTS on Amazon EC2

sudo apt-get install -y mysql-server