Troubleshoot MySQL® Profiles

Last modified: December 2, 2022

Overview

This document describes additional steps to follow if you experience problems when you attempt to connect to your remote MySQL® server.

Note:

If you see a Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2) 0 error, verify whether the mysqld daemon is functional.

If the daemon is functional, verify the Unix socket. To do this, run the netstat -ax | grep mysql command.
If you have one socket and an application points to the other socket, make a symbolic link to point it to the correct socket.

Error messages

The following describes some errors that you may encounter, their possible causes, and the solutions we recommend:

Failed to connect to remote server

DNS error: the server cannot resolve the hostname

Verify your DNS configuration settings.

Invalid IP address error: the IP address does not exist

Confirm the local server’s IP address network configuration. For more information, read our Installation Guide - Troubleshoot Your Installation.
Confirm the remote MySQL server’s IP address.
Ensure that the remote MySQL server is responsive.
Verify the local and remote server firewall configuration settings.

Incorrect SSH port

Confirm the SSH port on the remote MySQL server:

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# ss -pln | grep ssh
LISTEN     0      128                      :::22                      :::*      users:(("sshd",1163,4))
LISTEN     0      128                       *:22                       *:*      users:(("sshd",1163,3))

Enter the correct SSH port for the remote MySQL server. In the example, the correct port is 22.

Invalid SSH credentials

Verify you have the correct username and password to access the remote MySQL server.

Unable to connect to remote MySQL host IP, connection failed with error

Host ‘hostname’ is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

Insufficient MySQL permissions

Grant the user superuser access.

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# mysql mysql
-snip-
mysql> CREATE USER 'user'@'hostname' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'user'@'hostname' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘handshake: waiting for initial communication packet’, system error: 110

Firewall error. The server cannot access the specified port on the remote MySQL server.

Verify your firewall configuration settings. For more information, read our How to Configure Your Firewall for cPanel & WHM Services documentation.

Note:

The specific solution will depend on the configuration settings of the local server, remote server, and firewall utility.

Cannot connect to MySQL server on ‘IP’ (107)

MySQL is down on the remote MySQL server.

Restart MySQL on the remote MySQL server.

Incorrect MySQL port.

Confirm the MySQL port on the remote MySQL server:

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# ss -pln | grep mysql
LISTEN     0      50                        *:3306                     *:*      users:(("mysqld",3308,12))

Enter the correct MySQL port for the MySQL server. In the example, the correct port is 3306.

Reverse DNS entry warning

Before you set up a remote MySQL server, ensure that the remote server can resolve your local server’s hostname to its IP address. To confirm this, log in to the remote server via SSH and run the following command, where 1.2.3.4 represents the IP address:

host 1.2.3.4

If you do not have a reverse DNS entry configured for your hostname, add an entry for your hostname to the /etc/hosts file on the remote server.

For more information, read our How to Configure Reverse DNS in WHM documentation.

Remote MySQL `root` password

You can change the MySQL root password in WHM’s MySQL Root Password interface (WHM » Home » SQL Services » MySQL Root Password). If you use a remote MySQL server, you must choose whether you will change the local or the remote server’s root password. By default, the system selects the remote MySQL server.

Warning:

If you install MySQL 8.0 on a remote server from the community repository, the server will enable its own levels of password validation by default. These may conflict with cPanel & WHM’s password validation.

If you use the Automatically create a MySQL superuser via SSH. option to set up the remote MySQL profile, the system will automatically make an adjustment for these different validation schemes.
If you use the Manually enter an existing MySQL superuser’s credentials option to set up the remote MySQL profile, you will need to perform the following changes through the MySQL command line:
1. Open the /etc/my.cnf file with your preferred text editor.
2. Add the following lines to the file:

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validate-password.policy=0
validate-password.length=1
validate_password.special_char_count=0
validate_password.mixed_case_count=0
validate_password.number_count=0

MySQL 8.0 running on a cPanel server

When the remote MySQL server is also a cPanel & WHM server, you must perform additional steps:

If you change the MySQL root password on the hosting server, you must update the remote MySQL server’s /root/.my.cnf configuration file.
If you change the MySQL root password on the remote MySQL server, you must update the MySQL profile on the hosting server, and then reactivate the profile.

MySQL 8.0 running on any other server

When the remote MySQL server is running on any other server, you must turn off password caching. Perform the following steps to avoid an authentication error:

Open the /etc/my.cnf with your preferred text editor.
Change the default-authentication-plugin settings value to mysql_native_password. This will resemble the following example:
```
default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
```
Log in to MySQL at the command line. Then, run the following command:
```
mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'cpanel.server.host' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '12345luggage';
```
Important:

Use a secure password. A secure password is not a dictionary word, and it contains uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.