To investigate database page corruption, you might dump your tables from the database with SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE
. Usually, most of the data obtained in this way is intact. Serious corruption might cause SELECT * FROM
statements or tbl_name
InnoDB
background operations to unexpectedly exit or assert, or even cause InnoDB
roll-forward recovery to crash. In such cases, you can use the innodb_force_recovery
option to force the InnoDB
storage engine to start up while preventing background operations from running, so that you can dump your tables. For example, you can add the following line to the [mysqld]
section of your option file before restarting the server:
[mysqld]
innodb_force_recovery = 1
For information about using option files, see Section 6.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”.
Only set innodb_force_recovery
to a value greater than 0 in an emergency situation, so that you can start InnoDB
and dump your tables. Before doing so, ensure that you have a backup copy of your database in case you need to recreate it. Values of 4 or greater can permanently corrupt data files. Only use an innodb_force_recovery
setting of 4 or greater on a production server instance after you have successfully tested the setting on a separate physical copy of your database. When forcing InnoDB
recovery, you should always start with innodb_force_recovery=1
and only increase the value incrementally, as necessary.
innodb_force_recovery
is 0 by default (normal startup without forced recovery). The permissible nonzero values for innodb_force_recovery
are 1 to 6. A larger value includes the functionality of lesser values. For example, a value of 3 includes all of the functionality of values 1 and 2.
If you are able to dump your tables with an innodb_force_recovery
value of 3 or less, then you are relatively safe that only some data on corrupt individual pages is lost. A value of 4 or greater is considered dangerous because data files can be permanently corrupted. A value of 6 is considered drastic because database pages are left in an obsolete state, which in turn may introduce more corruption into B-trees and other database structures.
As a safety measure, InnoDB
prevents INSERT
, UPDATE
, or DELETE
operations when innodb_force_recovery
is greater than 0. An innodb_force_recovery
setting of 4 or greater places InnoDB
in read-only mode.
-
1
(SRV_FORCE_IGNORE_CORRUPT
)Lets the server run even if it detects a corrupt page. Tries to make
SELECT * FROM
jump over corrupt index records and pages, which helps in dumping tables.tbl_name
-
2
(SRV_FORCE_NO_BACKGROUND
)Prevents the master thread and any purge threads from running. If an unexpected exit would occur during the purge operation, this recovery value prevents it.
-
3
(SRV_FORCE_NO_TRX_UNDO
)Does not run transaction rollbacks after crash recovery.
-
4
(SRV_FORCE_NO_IBUF_MERGE
)Prevents insert buffer merge operations. If they would cause a crash, does not do them. Does not calculate table statistics. This value can permanently corrupt data files. After using this value, be prepared to drop and recreate all secondary indexes. Sets
InnoDB
to read-only. -
5
(SRV_FORCE_NO_UNDO_LOG_SCAN
)Does not look at undo logs when starting the database:
InnoDB
treats even incomplete transactions as committed. This value can permanently corrupt data files. SetsInnoDB
to read-only. -
6
(SRV_FORCE_NO_LOG_REDO
)Does not do the redo log roll-forward in connection with recovery. This value can permanently corrupt data files. Leaves database pages in an obsolete state, which in turn may introduce more corruption into B-trees and other database structures. Sets
InnoDB
to read-only.
You can SELECT
from tables to dump them. With an innodb_force_recovery
value of 3 or less you can DROP
or CREATE
tables. DROP TABLE
is also supported with an innodb_force_recovery
value greater than 3. DROP TABLE
is not permitted with an innodb_force_recovery
value greater than 4.
If you know that a given table is causing an unexpected exit on rollback, you can drop it. If you encounter a runaway rollback caused by a failing mass import or ALTER TABLE
, you can kill the mysqld process and set innodb_force_recovery
to 3
to bring the database up without the rollback, and then DROP
the table that is causing the runaway rollback.
If corruption within the table data prevents you from dumping the entire table contents, a query with an ORDER BY
clause might be able to dump the portion of the table after the corrupted part.primary_key
DESC
If a high innodb_force_recovery
value is required to start InnoDB
, there may be corrupted data structures that could cause complex queries (queries containing WHERE
, ORDER BY
, or other clauses) to fail. In this case, you may only be able to run basic SELECT * FROM t
queries.