This very simple script will allow you to grant any linux user the avility of create databases without giving him any additional privilege (just sudo for the script).

• Create a Mysql user with the following grants:

GRANT CREATE, RELOAD, SHOW DATABASES, CREATE USER ON *.* TO 'database_creator'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_PASSWORD' ;
GRANT INSERT ON `mysql`.`db` TO 'database_creator'@'localhost' ;

• That will allow us to create databases, users, make some checks and reload privs, while we don't create a new “root”…

database_creator.sh

#!/bin/bash
CREATORUSER="database_creator"
CREATORPASS="YOUR_PASSWORD"
 
MYSQLCONN="mysql -u ${CREATORUSER} -p${CREATORPASS}"
 
 
usage()
{
        echo "$0 <NEW_DATABASE_NAME>"
        echo "<NEW_DATABASE_NAME> must not have spaces and punctuation symbols excepting _ (underscore)"
        exit 1
}
check_dbname()
{
        local RESTRICTEDNAMES="information_schema test mysql information-schema"
        if [[ "${NEWDB}" =~ ^${RESTRICTEDNAMES// /|}$ ]] ; then
                echo "Name not allowed"
                exit 2
        fi
        ACTUALDDBB="$(echo "SHOW DATABASES ;" | ${MYSQLCONN} | egrep -v "^(Database|${RESTRICTEDNAMES// /|})$")"
        if [[ "${ACTUALDDBB}" =~ ^${NEWDB}$ ]] ; then
                echo "Database exists: ${BASH_REMATCH[0]}"
                exit 3
        fi
 
}
 
create_database()
{
        local let RES=1
        echo "CREATE DATABASE ${NEWDB} ;" | ${MYSQLCONN}
        RES=$?
        echo $RES
        if [ $RES -eq 0 ] ; then
                echo "Creation successful"
        else
                echo "Some error creating ddbb, please report"
                exit 1
        fi
}
 
create_user()
{
        local let RES=1
        local CLEANPASSWORD="$(cat /dev/urandom|tr -dc "a-zA-Z0-9-_"|fold -w 25|head -1)"
        echo "CREATE USER ${NEWDB::13}@localhost identified by '${CLEANPASSWORD}' ;" | ${MYSQLCONN}
        echo "INSERT INTO db VALUES ('localhost','${NEWDB}','${NEWDB::13}','Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'N', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y');" |  ${MYSQLCONN} mysql
        echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES ;"  |  ${MYSQLCONN}
        echo "##################################################################"
        echo "User created for database: ${NEWDB}"
        echo " Username: ${NEWDB::13}"
        echo " Password: ${CLEANPASSWORD}"
        echo "##################################################################"
        echo "Press enter to finish"
        read
}
 
 
[ $g{#@} -ne 1 ] && usage
NEWDB="$@"
 
 
check_dbname
create_database
create_user

To install it, I just recommend to move it wherever the user can't read it, change the permissions and create the sudoers line:

mkdir -p /home/apps/scripts/
mv database_creator.sh /home/apps/scripts/
chmod 700 /home/apps/scripts/database_creator.sh
chown root:root /home/apps/scripts/database_creator.sh
echo "username         ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: /home/apps/scripts/new_database.sh" >> /etc/sudoers