MySQL down but running as mysqld_safe can be resolved with this handy tip from Bobcares.

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Server Management Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team recently helped a customer when their MySQL was down but running as mysqld_safe.

Is MySQL down but running as mysqld_safe?

Has your cPanel & WHM software been reporting that your MySQL is down?

# /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_mysql --status
(XID l35tte) The “mysql” service is down.

However, when you verify, you notice that mysqld_safe is running.

# ps fauxww | grep mysq[l]
root 1030 0.0 0.1 113632 1593 ? S 12:31 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/host.hostname.tld.pid
mysql 1134 0.0 8.7 1305384 88427 ? Sl 12:31 0:01 \_ /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr/lib64/mysql/plugin --user=mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/host.hostname.tld.err --open-files-limit=10000 --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/$hostname.pid

mysqld_safe is a safe way to start a MySQL server after an error occurs. Moreover, it adds a few safety features while restarting the server after an error. In this particular scenario, MySQL safe mode is a clear indication that an error is present.

According to our Support Team, this often occurs in MariaDB versions ranging between 10.4.4 and 10.1.7 on EL7. Furthermore, it causes a race condition between the init script and systemd, resulting in this specific issue.

In other words, sometimes MySQL gets rebooted along with mysqld_safe when it actually should not.

Fortunately, our Support Team has a solution for this issue. First, we need to ensure that MariaDB is enabled with the following command:

systemctl enable mariadb

For instance,

# systemctl enable mariadb
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/mysqld.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.

Next, we will stop MySQL and restart it with the restartsrv script as seen below:

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_mysql --stop
/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_mysql –start

This workaround will help us have MySQL up and running without any trouble. Interestingly, two other upstream bug cases are also related to this particular issue.

[Looking for assistance with another query? We are just a click away.]

Conclusion

In short, the skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated how to enable quotas on UEFI systems without running into any further errors.