InnoDB: "Only one log file found" after binary import

My first one on DBA...

After successful upgrading a master MySQL server 5.5 to 5.6.17 (CentOS 6 VPS serer), I done and moved my binary backups to a slave server (same version 5.6.17 but different environment on Jelastic). The binary backup was done using Percona Xtrabackup 2.1.7 with preparation. Both systems are x86_64 GNU/Linux

After restoring the binary backups to /var/lib/mysql and starting MySQL I was welcomed with the following error from MySQL log:

140725 15:02:11 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
2014-07-25 15:02:13 0 [Warning] TIMESTAMP with implicit DEFAULT value is deprecated. Please use --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp server option (see documentation for more details).
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Using atomics to ref count buffer pool pages
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Using Linux native AIO
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Using CPU crc32 instructions
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 128.0M
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [ERROR] InnoDB: Only one log file found.
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' init function returned error.
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed.
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [ERROR] Unknown/unsupported storage engine: InnoDB
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [ERROR] Aborting

2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] Binlog end
2014-07-25 15:02:13 11854 [Note] Shutting down plugin 'partition'

This is ls /var/lib/mysql

```
backup-my.cnf
ibdata1
ib_logfile0
xtrabackup_binary
xtrabackup_binlog_inf

Assuming you have run innobackupex --apply-log successfully you either have a configuration problem (probably innodb_log_files_in_group is 1 in the original and 2 -or not set- in the restored server) or you lost ib_logfile1 somewhere in the process.

InnoDB is ok, it is normal for it to fail when it detects a different configuration on disk than on the file.

Please be aware that xtrabackup/innobackupex only copies data files, not the /etc/my.cnf.

Final answer: apply-log wasn't being executed successfully- a mistake while logging was concealing that. The actual error was due to a specific bug in an old version of Percona XtraBackup. Update to a newer version >= 2.1.8 should fix that.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#72408, answer score: 3