Question

How do you configure MySQL to use block storage on Ubuntu 14.04?

Within /etc/mysql/my.conf, you can easily set datadir=/mnt/your_block/mysql, but there are some deeper issues with apparmor. How do I reconfigure apparmor to acknowledge my new datadir?

I’ve followed directions at [this] (http://askubuntu.com/questions/137424/moving-mysql-datadir) StackOverflow post, but upon completion I get ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/mnt/volume-nyc1-01/mysql/mysqld.sock'

I can’t find mysqld.sock.


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Melissa Anderson
DigitalOcean Employee
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July 21, 2016
Accepted Answer

I’m having no luck on Ubuntu 14.04. I followed the StackOverflow commands above and when I attempt to restart mysql I get:

2016-08-25 15:54:08 1909 [ERROR] Fatal error: Can’t open and lock privilege tables: Table ‘mysql.user’ doesn’t exist

in the error log.

Is there an official DigitalOcean tutorial for 14.04?

Melissa Anderson
DigitalOcean Employee
DigitalOcean Employee badge
July 14, 2016

After you’ve undone the stackexchange suggestions, try looking at /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld and updating the following stanza with the path to your mount:

# Allow data dir access
  /var/lib/mysql/ r,
  /var/lib/mysql/** rwk,

You’ll also need to restart apparmor:

sudo /etc/init.d/apparmor restart

If systemd still squawks about not being able to find /var/lib/mysql when you try to restart mysql you might try creating a symlink between the mount point and the default location as follows (with the appropriate path to your new volume.)

sudo ln -s /volume-nyc1-01/mysql /var/lib/mysql

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