Mysql Job failed to start

UBUNTU SOLUTION If you are using AWS (Amazon Hosting), I could probably facing a cloud problem. I had a Zpanel Server installed on the "free tier" plan, and my MySQL became very unstable.

Sometimes the best solution could be install all over again. (usually I try to make a snapshop, as soon as I have the server up and running)

Well, the other solution, could be only reinstall the MySQL. Usually this problem appear when you try to change something in the /etc/mysql/my.cnf.

To fix it (works most of time), you will need to follow some steps (these step will try to normalize the MySQL instance)

• First, try to reboot the server (if it doesn't work, follow to the next steps):

  • sudo reboot

• Other steps:

  • First, create a backup from you MySQL folder var/lib/mysql/, just to make sure your data will be safe:
  • sudo -i
  • cp -R /var/lib/mysql/ ~/mysql

• After that, remove/purge MySQL (this will remove: php5-mysql, phpmyadmin and other libraries, so after the procedure, you will have to reinstall again.

  • sudo apt-get purge mysql-server-5.1 mysql-common

• Remove the folder /etc/mysql/ and its content:

  • sudo rm /etc/mysql/ -R

• Later on, check if the database files are still in the folder /var/lib/mysql/ and if they are not, then copy it back:

  • mkdir /var/lib/mysql/
    chown root:root /var/lib/mysql/ -R
    cd ~/mysql/
    cp * /var/lib/mysql/ -R
    

• Okay, then install o mysql server again

  • apt-get install mysql-server

• And finally install phpmyadmin and php5-mysql:

  • apt-get install php5-mysql
    apt-get install phpmyadmin
    

• At last, restart the services and check if the status are okay now:

  • service apache2 restart
    service mysql restart
    

That's it! It should work. I hope it works for you! (don't worry about the old data.That's why we have backup it first)

In my case the problem turned out to be that I had no hard disk space left available. A log file had grown to epic proportions and I couldn't start MySQL due to lack of available space. Once I cleaned up the file and restarted, it worked fine.