Learn how to fix the “Unspecified GSS failure” error in InnoDB. Our MySQL Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to fix Unspecified GSS failure error in InnoDB

InnoDB is a well-known storage engine used by MySQL. In other words, it is a popular relational database management system. GSS, short for Generic Security Service is a standard authentication mechanism used in many systems.

The “Unspecified GSS failure” error message often indicates an issue with the authentication process. This error message often pops up when we try to establish a connection to a MySQL server via Kerberos authentication, which in turn relies on GSS.

Some of the commonly seen symptoms of this error include:

• The following error messages may appear in the /var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log file after the server reboot:

  [Warning] mysqld: GSSAPI plugin : default principal ‘mariadb/plesk.example.com@’ not found in keytab

  [ERROR] mysqld: Server GSSAPI error (major 851968, minor 2529639093) : gss_acquire_cred failed -Unspecified GSS failure. Minor code may provide more information. Keytab FILE:/etc/krb5.keytab is nonexistent or empty.

  [ERROR] Plugin ‘gssapi’ init function returned error.
• We are not able to view database table content through phpMyAdmin.
• We cannot generate a Plesk login link:

  DB query failed: SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1932 Table ‘psa.sessions’ doesn’t exist in engine, query was: DESCRIBE `sessions`

According to our experts, this error is due to MariaDB bug MDEV-18298 or its consequences.

How to resolve Unspecified GSS failure error in InnoDB

If the InnoDB engine has been corrupted and resulting in the Unspecified GSS failure error, follow these steps:

1. First, log in to the Plesk server via SSH.
2. Then, create a Plesk database backup.
3. After that, we have to list the available Plesk daily database dumps sorted by the date as seen below:

   ls -lt /var/lib/psa/dumps/mysql.daily.*
4. Next, we must head to directory /var/lib/psa/dumps/ directory and restore the psa database from the most recent daily dump:

   cd /var/lib/psa/dumps/
zcat mysql.daily.dump.0.gz | sed -n '/-- Current Database: psa/,/-- Current Database:*/p' | MYSQL_PWD=cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow mysql -uadmin

   Remember to replace mysql.daily.dump.0.gz with the most recent daily dump file.
5. Then, we must disable the GSSAPI plugin by commenting it out in /etc/my.cnf.d/auth_gssapi.cnf.
6. Finally, restart MariaDBL.

   service mariadb restart

Alternatively, if the InnoDB is not corrupted, follow these steps:

1. First, log in to the Plesk server via SSH.
2. Then, we have to disable GSSAPI plugin. This is done by commenting it out in /etc/my.cnf.d/auth_gssapi.cnf.
3. Finally, restart MariaDBL

   service mariadb restart

If you need further help with the Unspecified GSS failure error, drop us a line in the comments.

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Conclusion

In summary, our Support Techs demonstrated how to resolve the “Unspecified GSS failure” error in InnoDB