Migration of a subscription fails in Plesk: Unable to add database user: The user john_doe already exists

Symptoms

Migration of a subscription fails with the following error:

PLESK_ERROR: Unable to create database user ‘john_doe’ in subscription ‘example.com’: Command execution failed on the local server with non-zero exit code.
command: /opt/psa/bin/database –create-dbuser john_doe -passwd ” -domain example.com -database example -type mysql -server localhost:3306 -ignore-nonexistent-options
exit code: 1
stdout:
stderr: Unable to add database user: The user john_doe already exists.

Cause

The database user from the error message already exists on the target server.

Database users must have unique names.

Resolution

Solution I

Remove the user john_doe on the destination server using following steps:

1. 1. Connect to the destination Plesk server via SSH.

   2. For security reasons, create a backup of the Plesk database:

      # plesk db dump mysql > /root/mysql.sql

   3. Connect to the Plesk database:

      # plesk db

   4. Open the mysql database:

      MYSQL_LIN: > use mysql;

   5. Remove the duplicate user:

      MYSQL_LIN: > delete from user where user=’john_doe’;

   6. Migrate the subscription again.

 

Solution II

If it is needed to keep the user john_doe on the destination server, rename the database user on the source server and restart the migration.

Note: If the database username is used inside website code, change the username in the code as well.