Stuck with the MySQL Error 1038? We can help you.

When Mysql memory is insufficient to perform a query, we may come across this error.

As part of our Server Management Services, we assist our customers with several MySQL queries.

Today, let us see how our Support Techs fix the MySQL error for our customers.

MySQL Error 1038

Moving ahead, let us see the cause of this error and eventually the fix.

Most commonly, users may notice the error as shown below:

SQLSTATE[HY001]: Memory allocation error: 1038 Out of sort memory, consider increasing server sort buffer size.

This situation indicates that the Mysql memory is insufficient to perform a query.

For every session that is to perform, a sort allocates a buffer of this size.

The sort_buffer_size is not specific to any storage engine. In addition, it applies in a general manner for optimization.

At a minimum, this value must be large enough to accommodate fifteen tuples in the sort buffer.

Also, if we need to increase the value of max_sort_length we have to increase the value of sort_buffer_size.

How to fix this?

In order to fix this error, we can either optimize the query or increase the sort_buffer_size.

To increase the sort_buffer_size, we open the /etc.mysql/my.cnf and add the following lines:

sort_buffer_size = 256 k

After we modify the parameter, we restart the MySQL service:

systemctl restart mysqld

In addition, we raise it 4 M using the following command in MySQL:

mysql> SET GLOBAL sort_buffer_size = 1024 * 1024 * 4;

[Need help with the fix? We’d be happy to assist]

Conclusion

To conclude, we saw how our Support Techs fix the MySQL error for our customers.