How to Allow Remote Access to MySQL Database on Ubuntu Linux

Install MySQL Database Server

You can install the MySQL database server on Ubuntu by running a couple of simple commands in your terminal. This process sets up the core software needed to manage your databases.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server mysql-client

After installing MySQL, the commands below can be used to stop, start, and enable MySQL service to always start up when the server boots…

Run these on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation…

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

We are securing the MySQL server deployment.

I am connecting to MySQL using a blank password.

VALIDATE PASSWORD PLUGIN can be used to test passwords
and improve security. It checks the strength of passwords
and allows the users to set only those passwords that are
secure enough. Would you like to set up VALIDATE PASSWORD plugin?

• Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No: N
• New password: Create New Password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat New Password
• Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
• Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No): Y
• Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No):  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No):  Y

Now that MySQL is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below…

sudo mysql -u root -p

type the root password when prompted…

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
Server version: 5.7.27-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or 'h' for help. Type 'c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> 

If you see a similar line, as shown above, the server was successfully installed…

Configure MySQL Remote Access

To allow others to connect to your MySQL database from a different computer, you need to change a setting called the ‘bind address’. This tells MySQL which network connections it should listen on.

For example, to allow all IPv4 addresses, set the bind-address to 0.0.0.0. This will allow MySQL server to accept connections on all host IPv4 interfaces. If you have IPv6 configured on your system, use the following:

On Ubuntu systems with MySQL database server installed, its default configuration file is located at/etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

Simply run the commands below to open the MySQL configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

Depending on your systems, you may find that same configuration file may be at the location below:

sudo nano /etc/my.cnf

When the file is opened, search for a line that begins with bind-address, as shown below. Its default value should be 127.0.0.1.

# this is read by the standalone daemon and embedded servers
# this is only for the mysqld standalone daemon
[mysqld]

#
# * Basic Settings
#
user            = mysql
pid-file        = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port            = 3306
basedir         = /usr
datadir         = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir          = /tmp
lc-messages-dir = /usr/share/mysql
skip-external-locking

# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address            = 127.0.0.1

#
# * Fine Tuning

What you need to do is change the default value 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0, as shown below:

# this is read by the standalone daemon and embedded servers

# this is only for the mysqld standalone daemon
[mysqld]

#
# * Basic Settings
#
user            = mysql
pid-file        = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port            = 3306
basedir         = /usr
datadir         = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir          = /tmp
lc-messages-dir = /usr/share/mysql
skip-external-locking

# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address            = 0.0.0.0

#
# * Fine Tuning

In the same file, you’ll want to comment out the line that begins with skip-networking by putting the # before it. Or delete it together. Then save your changes.

Please add the changes above under the [mysqld] section.

After making the change above, save the file and run the commands below to restart the server.

sudo systemctl restart mysql.service

To verify that the change happens, run the commands below.

sudo apt install net-tools
sudo netstat -anp | grep 3306

, and you should find the result that looks like the one below

tcp       0      0 0.0.0.0:3306          0.0.0.0:*        LISTEN         3213/mysqld

Now, the server is set up to listen to all IP addresses, but individual IP needs to be explicitly configured to connect to a database.

You must grant access to the remote server to enable a client to connect to a database.

Access from Remote Clients

Once your MySQL server is set up to accept remote connections, you can grant specific users permission to access your databases from other computers. This involves creating a user account that’s allowed to connect from a particular IP address.

For example, if you wish for a client computer with IP address 192.168.1.2 to connect to a database called database_name as user database_user, run the commands below after logging onto the database server.

GRANT ALL ON database_name.* TO 'database_user@192.168.1.2' IDENTIFIED BY 'database_user_password';

• database_name is the name of the database that the user will connect to.
• database_user is the name of the database user.
• 192.168.1.2 is the IP from which the client is connecting.
• database_user_password is the password of the database_user account

After running the commands above, you can access the server from the client computer with that assigned IP.

To connect to the server from the approved IP address, run the commands below

mysql -u database_user -p database_user_password -h database_server

That’s it! You’ve successfully configured remote access to the MySQL database server.

Ubuntu Firewall

If your Ubuntu server has a firewall enabled, you will want to open a connection to the database server. Simply run the commands below to open the firewall to the client from the IP address to the port only.

For example, to open the Ubuntu Firewall, allow the IP address 192.168.1.2 to connect to port 3306.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.2 to any port 3306

To allow all IP addresses (not secure), then run the commands below:

sudo ufw allow 3306/tcp

That’s it!

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured MySQL to allow remote access.