Knowledge Base

Unable to start MariaDB service in a Plesk server: Can’t read dir of ‘/etc/my.cnf.’ (Errcode: 2)

Symptoms

MariaDB fails to start. This can be checked with the below command:

# systemctl status mariadb.service
 mariadb.service - MariaDB database server 
[...] 
Jan 19 11:58:17 server_name mysqld_safe[3568]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted 
Jan 19 11:58:17 server_name mysqld_safe[3568]: [74B blob data] 
Jan 19 11:58:17 server_name mysqld_safe[3568]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted 
Jan 19 11:58:17 server_name mysqld_safe[3568]: 170119 11:58:17 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/lib/mysql/server_name.err'.

The following error can be found in /var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log:

170119 11:52:41 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
/usr/libexec/mysqld: Can't read dir of '/etc/my.cnf.' (Errcode: 2)
Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted 
170119 11:52:41 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/lib/mysql/server_name.pid ended

Cause

Misconfiguration of MySQL configuration file.

Resolution:

For Centos

Connect to the server via SSH
Create a backup of the initial configuration file:

# cp -a /etc/my.cnf{,.bak}
Execute the commands below to add an empty line to the end of the file:

# echo “” >> /etc/my.cnf
Start MySQL service:

# service mariadb restart

For Debian/Ubuntu

Connect to the server via SSH
Create a backup of the initial configuration file:

# cp -a /etc/mysql/my.cnf{,.bak}
Execute the commands below to add an empty line to the end of the file:

# echo “” >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Start MySQL service:

# service mysql restart