service mysql reload results 'Access denied', but service mysql start works

Question

Using Debian 10.10.

I have a MySQL problem.

service mysql reload 

results 'Access denied'

service mysql start

executes correctly.

All databases are working correctly after starting mysql. Strange, that reloading results access denied error.

Connecting to mysql with

mysql -p -u root -h localhost

connects successfully.

Only mysqladmin has problems:

mysqladmin start
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'

mysqladmin reload
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'

Any idea what is the problem with mysqladmin? Maybe some permission problem?

Answer 1

There are two items to note here:

1. service {daemon} reload will reload their configuration files if they're already running. If the service is not running, then an error will be returned.

   One option would be to use reload-or-restart instead, as this will check if the service is running and take the appropriate action:

   sudo service mysqld reload-or-restart
   

   Alternatively, you could just use restart as this is faster to type and will almost always do the correct thing.

2. MySQLAdmin cannot use a SQL root account unless you connect via the Unix Socket plugin. A simpler method may be to create a separate administrator account, grant it full privileges, and connect via that user account.