Examples: note these status commands do not require username
additional notes at MySQLadmin Heavy
 M:\mySQL\bin\ mysqladmin  ping -h localhost -p 
mysqld is alive : Good news
The device is not ready.: Bad news, The server may or may not be known but MySQL is not running there.
error: 'Unknown MySQL server host 'localhost' (11001)'

confirm the spelling then
ping localhost and
tracert localhost

mysqladmin: connect to server at 'xReal-World-Systems.com' failed
error: 'Unknown MySQL Server Host 'xReal-World-Systems.com' (1)'
Check that mysqld is running on xReal-World-Systems.com and that the port is 3306.
You can check this by doing 'telnet xReal-World-Systems.com 3306'

  • telnet localhost 3306 results will include version number ex: 4.1.11 after a few seconds Connection to host lost.
    or
    Connection closed by foreign host.
    M:\mySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h localhost  status  -p 
    Uptime: 14568  Threads: 1  Questions: 10  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 0  
    Flush tables: 1  Queries per second avg: 0.000
    
    M:\mySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h localhost  version -p 
    mysqladmin  Ver 8.41 Distrib 4.1.11, for Win32 on ia32
    Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
    This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
    and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license
    
    Server version          5.0.3-beta-nt
    Protocol version        10
    Connection              localhost via TCP/IP
    TCP port                3306
    Uptime:                 4 hours 2 min 56 sec
    
    Threads: 1  Questions: 11  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 0  Flush tables: 0  
    Open tries per second avg: 0.000 

    note: Not interactive, commands must be provided on command line.
    M:\mySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h localhost -p 
    mysqladmin  Ver 8.41 Distrib 4.1.11, for Win32 on ia32
    Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
    ...
    
    Administration program for the mysqld daemon.
    
    Usage: mysqladmin [OPTIONS] command command....
    
      -h, --host=name      		
      -u, --user=name      		 if not current user.
      -p, --password[=name]		If password not given it will be requested 		  
    
      -O, --set-variable=name	Change the value of a variable. deprecated; 
    				  use   --variable-name=value.
    
      -v, --verbose       		 
      -V, --version       		Output version information and exit.
    
      -#, --debug[=name]  		Output debug log. Often this is 'd:t:o,filename'.
    
      -f, --force         		Don't ask for confirmation on drop database; danger
                          		With multiple commands, continue even if an error occurs.
    
      -C, --compress      		Use compression in server/client protocol.
      --protocol=name     		 tcp,socket,pipe,memory.
      -W, --pipe          		 
      -P, --port=#        		
      -S, --socket=name   		Socket file to use for connection.
    
      -i, --sleep=#       		Execute commands again and again with a sleep between. ex: status
      -c, --count=#       		Number of iterations to make. with --sleep  
      -r, --relative      		Show difference between current and previous values used with --sleep 
      -E, --vertical      		Print output vertically. similar to --relative, 
    
      -w, --wait[=#]      		Wait and retry if connection is down.
      --connect_timeout=#
      -s, --silent        		Silently exit if can't connect to server.
    
      --shutdown_timeout=#
    
    Variables (--variable-name=value)
    and boolean options {FALSE|TRUE}  Value (after reading options)
    --------------------------------- -----------------------------
    count                             0
    force                             FALSE
    compress                          FALSE
    character-sets-dir                (No default value)
    default-character-set             (No default value)
    host                              localhost
    port                              3306
    relative                          FALSE
    shared-memory-base-name           (No default value)
    socket                            (No default value)
    sleep                             0
    user                              (No default value)
    verbose                           FALSE
    vertical                          FALSE
    connect_timeout                   43200
    shutdown_timeout                  3600
    
    Default options are read from the following files in the given order:
    C:\WINNT\my.ini C:\WINNT\my.cnf C:\my.ini C:\my.cnf
    
    The following groups are read: mysqladmin client
    The following options may be given as the first argument:
    --print-defaults        Print the program argument list and exit
    --no-defaults           Don't read default options from any options file
    --defaults-file=#       Only read default options from the given file #
    --defaults-extra-file=# Read this file after the global files are read
    
    Where command is a one or more of: (Commands may be shortened)
      debug                 Instruct server to write debug information to log
      create databasename   drop databasename     
      extended-status  
      flush-hosts        flush-logs       flush-status     flush-tables     flush-threads    flush-privileges      
      Reload grant tables 
      reload             
      kill id,id,...  Kill mysql threads
      password new-password Change old password to new-password, MySQL 4.1 hashin
      old-password new-password Change old password to new-password in old format
      ping            Check if mysqld is alive
      processlist     Show list of active threads in server
      refresh         Flush all tables and close and open logfiles
      shutdown              
      status                
      start-slave    stop-slave            
      variables             
      version               
    
    

    compare to MySQL status:

    M:\mySQL\bin> mysql -h localhost Reading table information for completion of table and column names You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 3 to server version: 5.0.3-beta-nt Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer. mysql> \s -------------- mysql Ver 14.7 Distrib 4.1.11, for Win32 (ia32) Connection id: 3 Current database: Current user: ODBC@SLAMMER-6GB SSL: Not in use Using delimiter: ; Server version: 5.0.3-beta-nt Protocol version: 10 Connection: localhost via TCP/IP Server characterset: latin1 Db characterset: latin1 Client characterset: latin1 Conn. characterset: latin1 TCP port: 3306 Uptime: 3 hours 50 min 42 sec Threads: 1 Questions: 8 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 1028 Queries per second avg: 34.936 -------------- mysql> quit Bye
    M:\mySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h localhost variables (Interesting ones shown here, see MySQLadmin.html for complete list)
     Variable_name                    Value  
    | auto_increment_increment        | 1  
    | auto_increment_offset           | 1  
    | automatic_sp_privileges         | ON  
    | back_log                        | 50  
    | basedir                         | C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\  
    ...
    | completion_type                 | 0  
    | concurrent_insert               | ON  
    | connect_timeout                 | 5  
    | datadir                         | C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\Data  
    | date_format                     | %Y-%m-%d  
    | datetime_format                 | %Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s  
    | default_week_format             | 0  
    ...
    | ft_boolean_syntax               | + -><()~*:""& 
    | ft_max_word_len                 | 84
    | ft_min_word_len                 | 4
    | ft_query_expansion_limit        | 20
    | ft_stopword_file                | (built-in)
    ...
    | log_error                       | .\localhost.err
    ...
    | lower_case_file_system          | OFF
    | lower_case_table_names          | 1
    ...
    | new                             | OFF
    | old_passwords                   | OFF
    ...
    | port                            | 3306
    ...
    | system_time_zone                | Eastern Standard Time
    ...
    | time_format                     | %H:%i:%s
    | time_zone                       | SYSTEM
    ...
    | tmpdir                       
    | updatable_views_with_limit      | YES
    | version                         | 5.0.3-beta-nt
    | version_comment                 | Official MySQL binary
    | version_compile_machine         | ia32
    | version_compile_os              | Win32
    | wait_timeout                    | 28800
    
    
    E:\programs\MySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h smother -u root -pxxxx -v -i 10 -c 3 -r status Uptime: 59148 Threads: 1 Questions: 27 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 11 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 0 Queries per second avg: 0.000 Uptime: 59158 Threads: 1 Questions: 27 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 11 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 0 Queries per second avg: 0.000 Uptime: 59168 Threads: 1 Questions: 27 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 11 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 0 Queries per second avg: 0.000 E:\programs\MySQL\bin>> mysqladmin -h smother -u root -p processlist Enter password: ****** +----+------+------------------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+ | Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info | +----+------+------------------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+ | 4 | root | SLAMMER-6GB:2442 | | Query | 0 | | show processlist | +----+------+------------------+----+---------+------+-------+------------------+ M:\mySQL\bin> mysqladmin -h smother -u root -pxxxx -v -i 10 -c 3 -r extended-status (very large list)