Re: MySQL Server 8.0.29 failed install (server won't start)

[Jose Ramirez]

Hello Randy,
Sorry for your continued troubles with getting the installation/configuration to work.

I've been able to reproduce the behavior you describe. The info you provided led me to identify that changing the location of the error log and configuring MySQL Server to run as a service is the cause of the failure.

By default the MySQL Server is configured to run as a Windows Service using the "Network Service" account. Said account has minimal permissions and only has write access in select locations such as "C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\Data". Not having write access to the file will cause the server start to fail and will also result in the MySQL Service not starting. As a workaround (which you already partially identified), you can either configure MySQL Server to run as a process or create the error log file beforehand ensuring that the "Network Service" account (or the configured local account) has write access to the file.

The following bug has been raised to track this failure: https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=107948

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Jose Ramirez
MySQL on Windows Team