Resolving MySQL Startup Failure by Adjusting InnoDB Buffer Pool Size
The article details a MySQL server startup failure caused by insufficient memory, shows command outputs and error logs, and explains how reducing the innodb_buffer_pool_size to 64 MB in the my.cnf configuration resolves the issue on a 2 GB Alibaba Cloud instance.
The MySQL service fails to start, reporting "MySQL server PID file could not be found" and "The server quit without updating PID file". The failure is observed after executing service mysqld restart on a Linux host.
Inspection of the MySQL data directory reveals large InnoDB files, including ibdata1 (512 MB), ib_logfile0 and ib_logfile1 (256 MB each), and other tablespace files, indicating substantial memory usage.
The error log ( /data/mysql/logs/mysql-error.log) contains warnings such as "innodb_open_files should not be greater than the open_files_limit" and a deprecation notice for INNODB_UNDO_TABLESPACES, followed by a generated temporary root password and a message that the server initialization completed.
Because the Alibaba Cloud instance provides only 2 GB of RAM, the default InnoDB buffer pool size exceeds available memory, preventing MySQL from starting. Editing the configuration file /etc/my.cnf to set innodb_buffer_pool_size=64M reduces memory consumption, after which MySQL starts normally.
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