grant remote access of MySQL database from any IP address

TO 'user'@'%'

% is a wildcard - you can also do '%.domain.com' or '%.123.123.123' and things like that if you need.

Enable Remote Access (Grant)Home / Tutorials / Mysql / Enable Remote Access (Grant)If you try to connect to your mysql server from remote machine, and run into error like below, this article is for you.

ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host ‘1.2.3.4’ is not allowed to connect to thisMySQL server

Change mysql config

Start with editing mysql config file

vim /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Comment out following lines.

#bind-address           = 127.0.0.1#skip-networking

If you do not find skip-networking line, add it and comment out it.

Restart mysql server.

~ /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Change GRANT privilege

You may be surprised to see even after above change you are not getting remote access or getting access but not able to all databases.

By default, mysql username and password you are using is allowed to access mysql-server locally. So need to update privilege. (if you want to create a separate user for that purpose, you can use CREATE USER 'USERNAME'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';)

Run a command like below to access from all machines. (Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD by your credentials.)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'USERNAME'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Run a command like below to give access from specific IP. (Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD by your credentials.)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'USERNAME'@'1.2.3.4' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION;

You can replace 1.2.3.4 with your IP. You can run above command many times to GRANT access from multiple IPs.

You can also specify a separate USERNAME & PASSWORD for remote access.

You can check final outcome by:

SELECT * from information_schema.user_privileges where grantee like "'USERNAME'%";

Finally, you may also need to run:

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Test Connection

From terminal/command-line:

mysql -h HOST -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD

If you get a mysql shell, don’t forget to run show databases; to check if you have right privileges from remote machines.

Bonus-Tip: Revoke Access

If you accidentally grant access to a user, then better have revoking option handy.

Following will revoke all options for USERNAME from all machines:

mysql> REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES, GRANT OPTION FROM 'USERNAME'@'%';Following will revoke all options for USERNAME from particular IP:mysql> REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES, GRANT OPTION FROM 'USERNAME'@'1.2.3.4';Its better to check information_schema.user_privileges table after running REVOKE command.

If you see USAGE privilege after running REVOKE command, its fine. It is as good as no privilege at all. I am not sure if it can be revoked.

Assuming that the above step is completed and MySql port 3306 is free to be accessed remotely; Don't forget to bind the public ip address in the mysql config file.

For example on my ubuntu server:

#nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the file, search for the [mysqld] section block and add the new bind address, in this example it is 192.168.0.116. It would look something like this

......    .....    # 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    bind-address        = 192.168.0.116.....    ......

you can remove th localhost(127.0.0.1) binding if you choose, but then you have to specifically give an IP address to access the server on the local machine.

Then the last step is to restart the MySql server(on ubuntu)

stop mysqlstart mysql

or #/etc/init.d/mysql restart for other systems

Now the MySQL database can be accessed remotely by:

mysql -u username -h 192.168.0.116 -p