Issue Adding another Database Server without knowing the admin password

[fab5freddie]

Server operating system version

AlmaLinux 8.10 (Cerulean Leopard)

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian 18.0.68 Update #2 Web Host Edition

Hello everyone,

I was supposed to install a forum on my server and during the installation I saw that therefore I need at least MariaDB 10.5 or higher, but my Plesk server only runs version 10.3.39. Since I host many websites on the server, I wanted to avoid an upgrade to prevent many websites from not running anymore.

I therefore wanted to install an additional database server (e.g. under port 3307) and assign new projects to it. When I wanted to add a new database server, I was asked for the password, which I don't know. Under Tools & Settings - Database Server there is also no option to change the password so that I could then use the new password to add a new server.

Reading the password in plain text with

mysql -uadmin -p`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow`

was also not possible. What are the possibilities in this case? Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with databases.

Many thanks in advance
Greetings

 

[Kaspar]

Did you manage to successful install MariaDB 10.5 on port 3307? By default MariaDB can be accessed with the root user without a password, however it's (highly) recommended to set a password for the root user. MariaDB provides this additional script to improve security after installation, including setting a password for the root user.

As for adding your MariaDB 10.5 as an additional database server to Plesk, you can remove the current additional database server from Plesk and re-add it again after you've set a password for the root user.

Hope this helps.

 

[fab5freddie]

Did you manage to successful install MariaDB 10.5 on port 3307? By default MariaDB can be accessed with the root user without a password, however it's (highly) recommended to set a password for the root user. MariaDB provides this additional script to improve security after installation, including setting a password for the root user.

As for adding your MariaDB 10.5 as an additional database server to Plesk, you can remove the current additional database server from Plesk and re-add it again after you've set a password for the root user.

Hope this helps.

No, that didn't work because I don't know the password. I received the server preconfigured years ago and only know the Plesk login password.
And when I try to add a new database server via the Plesk interface, I get the following error messages

Adding database server without password:
The test connection to this server has failed because no valid administrator's username and password were specified.

Adding database server with Plesk login password:
The test connection to the database server has failed because of network problems: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection refused

 

[scsa20]

The password to the SQL Database is stored in an encrypted HASH in /etc/psa/.psa.shadow. It should use whatever admin password for logging into Plesk. In fact when going through the upgrade steps it shows what it looks like when going through it (see https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...-5-to-5-6-5-7-or-MariaDB-5-5-to-10-x-on-Linux for instructions how).

You can refer to the following help articles if needing to reset the admin password to plesk and/or resetting and updating the hash for the 'admin'@'localhost' database admin account:

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377862129047-How-to-use-token-login-or-reset-lost-Plesk-Administrator-password

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377966359319-Unable-to-access-Plesk-GUI-Access-denied-for-user-admin-localhost-using-password-YES

 

[Kaspar]

I suspect there might be some confusion on your end about what adding an additional database server to Plesk entails. Or perhaps I misunderstand your question, that's entirely possible too.

To clear any confusion it's good to realize that adding an additional database server to Plesk does not actually install any additional database server for you. Rather, it's a way for you to connect another existing database server to Plesk. This requires that the additional database server you want to add is already installed and running somewhere. That could be on a remote server, a docker image or on the same server (using a different port). However I do not recommend installing and running two database servers from the same product type (like MariaDB and MySQL) on a single server unless you enough confidence in your own system administrator skills to make it work. It's very easy to mess things up.

If you need MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) for a project and do not want to upgrade the current MariaDB server on your server, the easiest method to still use MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) on the same server would be to spin up a docker container with MariaDB 10.5 (or higher). After that you could add the MariaDB server you're running in the Docker container as an additional database server to Plesk for use with any domains in Plesk.

 

[fab5freddie]

I suspect there might be some confusion on your end about what the adding an additional database server to Plesk entails. Or perhaps I misunderstand your question, that's entirely possible too.

To clear any confusion it's good to realize that adding an additional database server to Plesk does not actually install any additional database server for you. Rather, it's a way for you to connect another existing database server to Plesk. This requires that the additional database server you want to add is already installed and running somewhere. That could be on a remote server, a docker image or on the same server (using a different port). However I do not recommend installing and running two database servers from the same product type (like MariaDB and MySQL) on a single server unless you enough confidence in your own system administrator skills to make it work. It's very easy to mess things up.

If you need MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) for a project and do not want to upgrade the current MariaDB server on your server, the easiest method to still use MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) on the same server would be to spin up a docker container with MariaDB 10.5 (or higher). After that you could add the MariaDB server you're running in the Docker container as an additional database server to Plesk for use with any domains in Plesk.

Okay, then that was probably a comprehension problem on my part. I thought that you can add another database server, just like you can install several php versions and select a php version depending on the domain.

So I thought that I could add an additional MariaDB 10.5 database server to which I could then assign a domain.

 

[fab5freddie]

Am I wrong?

 

[Kaspar]

Am I wrong?

I am afraid so, yes.

 

[fab5freddie]

I am afraid so, yes.

so there is no other option than to update mariadb?

 

[Kaspar]

so there is no other option than to update mariadb?

No, you could use a remote server or docker container:

If you need MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) for a project and do not want to upgrade the current MariaDB server on your server, the easiest method to still use MariaDB 10.5 (or higher) on the same server would be to spin up a docker container with MariaDB 10.5 (or higher). After that you could add the MariaDB server you're running in the Docker container as an additional database server to Plesk for use with any domains in Plesk.

 

[fab5freddie]

No, you could use a remote server or docker container:

can an upgrade lead to incompatibilities so that many wordpress sites no longer work?

 

[Kaspar]

WordPress works fine with any MariaDB version, so it's highly unlikely you run into issues with Wordpress sites. If you run into any issue during the upgrade process itself, most issues are usually easy to solve with help of the support articles from Plesk or with help from Plesk support. Who are an amazing help in solving any technical issues.