MariaDB fails to start: Aria engine is not enabled or did not start

Symptoms

• Plesk update fails with the following error message:

  CONFIG_TEXT: ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)
  ...
  Trying to start service mysql... failed
  ...
  server.example.com systemd[1]: mariadb.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
  server.example.com systemd[1]: Failed to start MariaDB 10.2.13 database server.
  server.example.com systemd[1]: Unit mariadb.service entered failed state.
  server.example.com systemd[1]: mariadb.service failed.

• MariaDB service fails to start. One of the following error messages is logged in /var/log/messages(RHEL-based OS) or /var/log/syslog (Debian-based OS):

  CONFIG_TEXT: [ERROR] Aria engine is not enabled or did not start. The Aria engine must be enabled to continue as mysqld was configured with --with-aria-tmp-tables

  CONFIG_TEXT: [Note] mysqld: Aria engine: starting recovery
  recovered pages: 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%201210 16:07:56 [ERROR] mysqld got signal 11 ;

  CONFIG_TEXT: [ERROR] Could not open mysql.plugin table: "Unknown storage engine 'Aria'"

  CONFIG_TEXT: [ERROR] mariadbd: Can't lock aria control file '/var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control' for exclusive use, error: 11. Will retry for 30 seconds

  CONFIG_TEXT: [ERROR] mariadbd: Got error 'Could not get an exclusive lock; file is probably in use by another process' when trying to use aria control file '/var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control'

Cause

This error usually appears when MariaDB can't lock aria control file /var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control for exclusive use. This behavior is confirmed to be a bug in MariaDB:

• [MDEV-24788] Can't lock aria control file '/var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control' for exclusive use, error: 11 - Jira

Resolution

1. Connect to your Plesk server via SSH.

2. Shut down MariaDB database server:

   # mysqladmin -uadmin -p`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow` -h127.0.0.1 --protocol=tcp shutdown

3. Rename the aria_log_control file:

   # mv /var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control /var/lib/mysql/aria_log_control.orig

4. Restart MariaDB service:

   # systemctl restart mariadb

5. Run Plesk Update:

   # plesk installer update