MySQL Workbench allows connecting to remote server databases from your personal computer.

However, MySQL workbench failed to connect errors happen due to MySQL version compatibility or set up problems.

One such error is,

Failed to Connect to MySQL at 7129bXXX43dc.XXXX.com:3306 through SSH tunnel at wheelxx@xxx.x.xxx.xx:2414 with user username

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to set up MySQL workbench as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see the top reasons that result in MySQL failed connection and how our Support Engineers fix them.

How to Connect to a Cloud Database via MySQL Workbench

MySQL workbench is s free, visual tool for database architects, developers, and DBAs. Also, it provides a platform for database management like development, administration, database design, creation, etc. The maintenance of a database becomes easy with this unique tool.

Well, MySQL Workbench is available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. And, that’s yet another reason for its popularity.

Here, let’s see how our Support Engineers connect to Cloud Databases via MySQL Workbench.

1. Initially, we go to http://www.mysql.com/products/workbench/ and install MySQL WorkBench.

2. Then, we launch MySQL Workbench, select Server Administration >> New Server Instance option.

3. We select the Remote Host option and enter the URL you received when you created the database instance. Again, we click Continue.

4. Next, we go to Connection Method menu >> select Standard TCP/IP over SSH.

5. Also, we change the value for SSH hostname to name or IP address of a Cloud Server that we have created.

6. Then, we enter the following value as

1. SSH Username:- cloud server user name
2. MySQL Hostname:-  hostname received while creating the database instance via the API.
3. Username:- enter the username received when you created the database instance.

7. After that, we click Continue.

8. Finally, we enter the database instance password.

That’s it, we’ll get the Server Administration screen.

Common problems after setting up MySQL Workbench

From our experience in managing servers, we’ve seen customers facing different kinds of problems after installing MySQL Workbench.

Let’s see how our Support Team solved these common errors.

Missing SSL certificate

Recently, one of our customers contacted us with a problem related to MySQL Workbench. Also, both the SSH connection to the server and from the server to the cloud database worked. But when tried connecting from MySQL Workbench, it didn’t work. He received an error from Workbench. The error said,

Failed to Connect to MySQL at 7129b041xxxx476e8d37651071b12a6681b732.rackspaceclouddb.com:3306 through SSH tunnel at xxx.x.xxx.xx:2414 with user username connection error: error:140770FC:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:unknown.

On checking, our Support Engineers found that the problem was related to the SSL of the Cloud instance. In order to solve the problem, the options were to either configure MySQL workbench to connect without SSL OR configure SSL for the cloud instance.

However, configuring MySQL workbench without SSL can be a security risk. So, we set up SSL with the Cloud Database instance and solved the problem.

Incompatible MySQL version

Similarly, another customer had an error when tried to setup workbench for cloud hosting platforms like Appian. He got an error "failed to connect to MySQL at localhost 3306 with user root".

While checking, our Support Engineers found that the installed version of MySql was MySql 8.X which is not compatible with workbench. Therefore, we installed the Version 5.7.X version and it sorted out the problem.

[Never worry about MySQL workbench failed to connect errors anymore! We are here to fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, errors like MySQL workbench failed to connect may happen due to MySQL version compatibility or because of missing SSL certificate. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers set up MySQL workbench and fix related errors.