mysql_connect() works fine on localhost but not when accessing seperate ip...

Question

Howdy everyone!

I'm working with my University's Systems Administrators to get a LAMP stack setup for me. I'll need to access this server from several websites that I'm working on and I'm having some issues.

So to keep thing's clear:

LAMP Server URL = https://mysqlserver.edu

School URL = https://schoolsite.edu

When I run mysql_connect() on the LAMP Server it connects fine:

mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'password'); Works great!

However, when I run mysql_connect() on the School URL I can't connect:

mysql_connect('mysqlserver.edu', 'user', 'password');

Warning: mysql_connect(): Unknown MySQL server host 'mysqlserver.edu' (1) in /home/content/x/x/x/xxx/html/testconnect.php on line 3 Unknown MySQL server host 'mysqlserver.edu' (1)

What do I need to ask the System Administrator to do in order to give my PHP scripts on external sites access to the MySQL server?

Does the SSL complicate issues?

I appreciate any insight you might be able to provide.

Answer 1

MySQL user depends on the computer it is access from. 'root@localhost' is not the same root as '[email protected]'. So you have to add the user from the computer you are going to access from. So let say the computer where php script is served is '192.168.156' you need to add a user '[email protected]' to the MySQL server and don't forget to set the privilege for that user to access to the database needed.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

It's rare to make a MySQL connection over a public WAN. It's common to take a LAN hop or two but you usually can't cross a firewall for security reasons. That is, incoming TCP connections to port 3306 are being blocked by the firewall or gateway onto the local LAN where mysqlserver.edu is.

The canonical test for this is:

$ telnet mysqlserver.edu 3306

I can predict that this will not work. ("Work" means that it reports "Connected to..." and outputs some gibberish.) You have several choices:

• run the database locally, or at least nearby. I mean, it's not a LAMP stack unless it has MySQL. :-) This is what approximately everyone does.
• use a tunnel / VPN solution of some kind to get through the firewall and to port 3306
• open up 3306 on the firewall. You probably will not get cooperation on this.

Answer 3

Unknown MySQL server host probably means that your machine cannot resolve to hostname mysqlserver.edu, have you tried connecting via IP address?

After you make sure you are resolving the name, you have to overcome three further barriers:

• firewalls as others have shown,
• MySQL server configuration which has to allow remote connections and
• a user able to connect remotely has to be setup.

Answer 4

Is "skip-name-resolve" option enabled in your my.cnf?