I don't understand this issue so I am posting this here. I noticed today that I had an issue with restarting MySQL on my server: 1. I verify MySQL is not running: Code: [root@ghost /]# ps -ef | grep -i "mysqld" root 1706 1216 0 16:45 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i mysqld 2. I start the 'mysqld' service: Code: [root@ghost /]# /etc/rc.d/mysqld start :: Starting MySQL Server [DONE] 3. I verify that the daemon is running: Code: [root@ghost /]# ps -ef | grep -i "mysqld" root 1715 1 0 16:45 pts/0 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/var/lib/mysql mysql 1813 1715 0 16:45 pts/0 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/ghost.err --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/ghost.pid --socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock --port=3306 4. I then run the command to restart the daemon for MySQL and it fails... Code: [root@ghost /]# /etc/rc.d/mysqld restart :: Stopping MySQL Server [DONE] :: Starting MySQL Server [FAIL] I can use the 'start' and 'stop' commands for /etc/rc.d/mysqld but 'restart' for some reason fails and this concerns me. Can anyone help me understand what is wrong?