Plesk upgrade fails or Plesk is inaccessible: PleskSQLServer: Access is denied. (Error code 5)

Symptoms

• Plesk Obsidian running on Windows Server

• A Plesk upgrade or update fails with one of the following error messages:

  PLESK_ERROR: Upgrading Plesk SQL server... MSI: Error! Critical action 'Upgrade data of MySQL Server...' failed: Command "C:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin\mysqlmng_adm.exe" --upgrade-server-data "--initial-ver=5.5" "--target-ver=5.5.54" failed with code 1. Output: Stop service... Removing InnoDB log files... Start service... Access is denied. (Error code 5) at StartService 'PleskSQLServer' at (service::startService line 211) at startService(PleskSQLServer)(service::startService line 274) at execute console command --upgrade-server-data(vconsoleapp::start line 122) at execute "C:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin\mysqlmng_adm.exe" --upgrade-server-data "--initial-ver=5.5" "--target-ver=5.5.54"(vconsoleapp::run line 139)
  at (CmdAction::Commit line 393) at Execute action Upgrade data of MySQL Server...(executeList line 271) Failed to install 'C:\ParallelsInstaller\parallels\PANEL-WIN_17.5.3\dist-msi-Microsoft-2003-i386\mysql-admin.msi': Fatal error during installation. (Error code 1603) Error: The installation of the package 'mysql' failed with code 1603. (upgrade: Upgrading Plesk SQL server...)

  PLESK_ERROR: Failed to install 'C:\ProgramData\Plesk\Installer\cache\pool\release\PLESK-WIN_18.0.39_7267\dist-windows\mariadb-admin.msi': Fatal error during installation. (Error code 1603) Sub-action 'InstallMsiPackage' failed with error code: 1603(0x00000643) Launching component and product checkers... Downloading file pool/release/PLESK-WIN_18.0.39_7267/reportupdate.exe: 0% Downloading file pool/release/PLESK-WIN_18.0.39_7267/reportupdate.exe: 100% was finished. ERROR: The installation of the package 'mariadb-admin' failed with code 1603. (upgrade: Upgrading Plesk SQL server...) Not all packages were installed. Visit https://support.plesk.com/ to search for a solution.

• Plesk SQL (MySQL) Server service may fail to be started with the following error:

  CONFIG_TEXT: Access is denied. (Error code 5)
  ERROR] mysqld.exe: File 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plesk\MySQL\Data\aria_log_control' not found (Errcode: 13 "Permission denied")
  [ERROR] mysqld.exe: Got error 'Can't open file' when trying to use aria control file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plesk\MySQL\Data\aria_log_control'

Cause

Incorrect permissions on the %plesk_dir%MySQL folder and its files and subfolders.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via RDP

2. Open Plesk Reconfigurator from Windows Start menu > All Programs > Plesk.

3. Click the Repair Plesk installation button:

   

4. Mark Plesk File Security and Plesk Services checkboxes and click the Check button:

   

5. If it was not started automatically on the previous step, start the Plesk SQL Server service via Plesk Services Monitor under Windows Start menu > All Programs > Plesk:

   

6. Retry Plesk upgrade or update via Plesk  > Tools & Settings > Updates
   

Additional information

Repairing Plesk Installation | Troubleshooting | Plesk Obsidian documentation