Connect To MYSQL Through Virtual Machine

Question

I have windows and am running ubuntu 16.4 on a virtual machine for my analysis, I have installed and created user login and password to mysql databank through VM using this instruction:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-mysql-on-ubuntu-20-04

but now I don't understand how I can connect to it with my windows browser? Is it even possible to connect to mysql from my windows because technically I have installed it on another system (VM Ubuntu 16.4)?

I would appreciate if someone could guide me since I am a beginner. thanks

Answer 1

You don't connect to a database server like MySQL using a browser, but rather with a dedicated client program.

Some installations of MySQL also have a web program running called phpmyadmin. You can use that web program from your browser to do things to your MySQL server. But the digital ocean tutorial you followed doesn't install that.

You need a MySQL client program running on your Windows machine to connect to the MySQL server on your VM. Ansgar Becker's HeidiSQL is a good choice. So is MySQL Workbench from the MySQL team.

And, be sure you can ssh from your Windows machine to your VM before you try all this stuff. You'll need to know the IP address of your VM when you connect to your MySQL server from your MySQL client.

Let's say your Windows machine has IP 192.0.2.101 and your VM has IP 192.0.2.121 . You need to follow the steps in this part of your tutorial to create a MySQL user profile that can connect from your Windows machine. Something like this.

CREATE USER 'xyz0o'@'192.0.2.101' IDENTIFIED BY 'someHardToGuessPassword';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

To create that user you need to ssh into your vm and run the mysql command line program.

Then from your client on your Windows machine you'll connect to the MySQL server on 192.0.2.121 using whatever username / password combination you gave in the CREATE USER command.