# ???Unable to connect to database??? ???User account root does not work. Could not create connection to database server. Attempted reconnect 3 times. Giving up. See the error log for more details???
**URL:** https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [April 30, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305 "2021-04-30T14:46:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kyokobah](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/kyokobah)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/1 "2021-04-30T14:46:32Z")
Hello all! I am have some trouble starting my server. I have gone through all the solution you guys have proposed but none of them work for me. I have successfully set this up before, but this time it’s not working. Here is a log of my error. [Error Message - Pastebin.com](https://pastebin.com/EULiiBKD) I used the SDK to set this up.
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### Author:  [@ibacher](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/ibacher)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/2 "2021-04-30T16:18:00Z")
The underlying error explains things fairly clearly:
> The server time zone value ‘EDT’ is unrecognized or represents more than one time zone. You must configure either the server or JDBC driver (via the ‘serverTimezone’ configuration property) to use a more specifc time zone value if you want to utilize time zone support.
It looks like your MySQL server is setup with “EDT” as its time zone, which isn’t a timezone MySQL understands. You can either fix your MySQL server configuration ([lots of details here](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/time-zone-support.html), but maybe just changing the `default_time_zone` value to something MySQL understands, e.g. “US/Eastern”). Alternatively, as the message says, you can modify your JDBC connection string (the `connection.url` property in the `openmrs-runtime.properties` file for you server) to something like:
```auto
connection.url=jdbc\:mysql\://localhost\:3308/openmrs?autoReconnect\=true&sessionVariables\=default_storage_engine%3DInnoDB&useUnicode\=true&characterEncoding\=UTF-8&serverTimezone\=US/Eastern
```
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### Author:  [@kyokobah](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/kyokobah)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/3 "2021-04-30T20:30:25Z")
> [@ibacher](#):
>
> `&serverTimezone\=US/Eastern`
Thank you! It worked.
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### Author:  [@ray](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/ray)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/4 "2022-06-13T14:34:48Z")
Hi, im getting the same problem starting my server but I don’t think its due to the same reason. This is the cause I get on my log: (Caused by: com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure) Would you kindly help me?
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### Author:  [@abertnamanya](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/abertnamanya)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/5 "2022-06-13T15:10:34Z")
Hi @ray
> [@ibacher](#):
>
> `connection.url=jdbc\:mysql\://localhost\:3308/openmrs?autoReconnect\=true&sessionVariables\=default_storage_engine%3DInnoDB&useUnicode\=true&characterEncoding\=UTF-8&serverTimezone\=US/Eastern`
Please add **useSSL=false** onto the connection.url **(Eg)**
connection.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3308/openmrs?autoReconnect=true&sessionVariables=default\_storage\_engine%3DInnoDB&useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&serverTimezone=US/Eastern&useSSL=false
Mostly been facing the same challenge when I install 2.11.0 Ref app and below versions.
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### Author:  [@ray](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/ray)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/6 "2022-06-16T13:49:27Z")
Thank you. I’ve done that and now I’m getting other error messages.
WARN - OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimePropertiesFilePathName(2033) |2022-06-16T14:37:30,531| Unable to find a runtime properties file at /Users/rayangadmor/git/openmrs-core/webapp/openmrs-runtime.properties
WARN - OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimePropertiesFilePathName(2061) |2022-06-16T14:37:30,537| Unable to find properties file: /Users/rayangadmor/.OpenMRS/openmrs-runtime.properties
WARN - InitializationFilter.executeStatement(1179) |2022-06-16T14:38:37,183| error executing sql: create database if not exists `?` default character set utf8
java.sql.SQLException: Failed to create schema directory ‘openmrs’ (errno: 2 - No such file or directory)
Can you please help. I have been stuck on simple installation steps for sooo long. I’m using mysql version 8.0.29 on MacOS 11.5.2,
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### Author:  [@abertnamanya](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/abertnamanya)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 1:59pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/7 "2022-06-16T13:59:22Z")
Ping me on slack(abertnamanya) we have a short call.
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### Author:  [@jwnasambu](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/jwnasambu)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 1:59pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/8 "2022-06-16T13:59:34Z")
@ray Kindly ensure that MySQL is running.
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### Author:  [@ray](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/ray)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/9 "2022-06-16T14:18:00Z")
ok thanks, im just getting it set up. Can you send me your email?
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### Author:  [@ray](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/ray)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/10 "2022-06-16T14:18:36Z")
Yes, its running.
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### Author:  [@abertnamanya](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/abertnamanya)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/unable-to-connect-to-database-user-account-root-does-not-work-could-not-create-connection-to-database-server-attempted-reconnect-3-times-giving-up-see-the-error-log-for-more-details/33305/11 "2022-06-16T14:20:47Z")
When your done setting up slack join [openmrs.slack.com](http://openmrs.slack.com) channel. Then search **abertnamanya**