Skip navigation links
4.6.10.6 Connecting to MySQL Instance Manager »
Section Navigation      [Toggle]

4.6.10.5. MySQL Server Instance Status Monitoring

Important

MySQL Instance Manager has been deprecated and is removed in MySQL 5.4.

To monitor the status of each guarded server instance, the MySQL Instance Manager attempts to connect to the instance at regular intervals using the MySQL_Instance_Manager@localhost user account with a password of check_connection.

You are not required to create this account for MySQL Server; in fact, it is expected that it will not exist. Instance Manager can tell that a server is operational if the server accepts the connection attempt but refuses access for the account by returning a login error. However, these failed connection attempts are logged by the server to its general query log (see Section 5.2.3, “The General Query Log”).

Instance Manager also attempts a connection to nonguarded server instances when you use the SHOW INSTANCES or SHOW INSTANCE STATUS command. This is the only status monitoring done for nonguarded instances.

Instance Manager knows if a server instance fails at startup because it receives a status from the attempt. For an instance that starts but later crashes, Instance Manager receives a signal because it is the parent process of the instance.

Beginning with MySQL 5.1.12, Instance Manager tracks instance states so that it can determine which commands are allowed for each instance. For example, commands that modify an instance's configuration are allowed only while the instance is offline.

Each instance is in one of the states described in the following table. Guarded instances can be in any of the states. Nonguarded instances can only be offline or online. Instance state information is displayed in the status column of the SHOW INSTANCES and SHOW INSTANCE STATUS commands.

State Meaning
offline The instance has not been started and is not running.
starting The instance is starting (initializing). Nonguarded instances cannot be in this state. A nonguarded instance goes directly from offline to online.
stopping The instance is stopping. Nonguarded instances cannot be in this state. A nonguarded instance goes directly from online to offline, or stays offline if startup fails.
online The instance has started and is running.
failed The instance was online but it crashed and is being restarted by Instance Manager, or else the instance failed to start at all and Instance Manager is again attempting to start it. Nonguarded instances cannot be in this state.
crashed Instance Manager failed to start the instance after several attempts. (Instance Manager will try again later.) Nonguarded instances cannot be in this state.
abandoned Instance Manager was not able to start the instance, has given up, and will make no further attempts until instructed otherwise. To tell Instance Manager to try again, you must first use STOP INSTANCE to put the instance in offline state, and then use START INSTANCE to start the instance. If it is necessary to make configuration changes for the instance, you must do so after putting the instance offline and before starting it. (Instance Manager accepts configuration-changing commands only for offline instances.) Nonguarded instances cannot be in this state.