Need help with MySQL and RT

[kmcferrin]

Hello, I'm new to MySQL, but I need to start somewhere. We have installed a Windows port of RT on a Windows 2000 server. As part of the install, it sets up an MySQL install to use for the database. Everything with the RT application is working fine.

However, we need to be able to connect to the DB and extract data for performance metrics, as this functionality doesn't exist in RT. We wanted to just set up an ODBC connection to the MySQL database and pull data as needed. I have downloaded and installed the MySQL Connector/ODBC driver v3.51.12, but could not successfully make a test connection with the configured DSN.

I then installed the drivers on the server that the MySQL DB resides on, and set up a DSN that does work. In the process I determined that MySQL is not using the default port, but is instead using 8285. That's no problem. However, even when I configure the DSN on my personal PC the same as on the MySQL server (changing the hostname from localhost to the actual server name) I am unable to connect.

On the MySQL server the DSN works fine and looks like this:

Name: RT_MYSQL_TESTSERVER2
Desc: MySQL on TESTSERVER2 for RT
Server: <blank>
User: root
Password: <blank>
Port: 8285

It also works if I set the server to 127.0.0.1 or localhost. However, if I change the servername to TESTSERVER2 (shortname or FQDN), or if I use the server's actual IP address (10.10.31.41) it fails with the following error:

[MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver]Can't connect to MySQL server on 'TESTSERVER2' (10061)

So apparently it's not just my remote system that can't connect, but any system that is coming across the actual networking interface instead of the local interface is failing. I know that on MSDE you have to enable named pipes to accept a remote connection. Is there a similar feature here? The only file that I could find that looked like a config file was MY.INI. It's contents are posted below:

[mysqld]
port=8285

key_buffer_size=256M
table_cache=64
query_cache_size=4M
max_allowed_packet=4000M
sort_buffer=1M
record_buffer=1M

innodb_buffer_pool_size=256M
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size=20M

max_connect_errors=100000
skip_grant_tables=yes
default_character_set=utf8

innodb_file_per_table

# XXX - overwrite this line based on Registry settings?
bind_address=127.0.0.1

 

[TonyGroves]

You would need to get rid of the bind_address line; it's forcing MySQL to accept connections through 127.0.0.1 only.

You might also like to think about the skip_grant_tables option. The current setting allows any user to do anything to the database, which could well be a big security hole. However, if you do get rid of that line, you would then have to configure the user privilege tables.

 

[kmcferrin]

Thanks, that did the trick.

I'm going to have to do a little more research on the skip_grant_tables option. As you pointed out, that's a security hole that you could drive a bus through. I'm not sure what RT is using to connect to the DB, but it looks like the only user in the DB is the root account. I am assuming that the RT application doesn't depend on the DB being completely open, as you pointed out.