Load MySQL data into BigQuery

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

Note: To get support or provide feedback for this feature, contact [e-mail].

You can load data from MySQL to BigQuery using the BigQuery Data Transfer Service for MySQL connector. It supports MySQL instances that are hosted in your on-premises environment, in Cloud SQL, and in other public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. With the BigQuery Data Transfer Service, you can schedule recurring transfer jobs that add your latest data from MySQL to BigQuery.

Before you begin

• Create a user in the MySQL database.
• Verify that you have completed all the actions that are required to enable the BigQuery Data Transfer Service.
• Create a BigQuery dataset to store your data.
• Verify that you have the required roles to complete the tasks in this document.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer, ask your administrator to grant you the BigQuery Admin (roles/bigquery.admin) IAM role on your project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create a BigQuery Data Transfer Service data transfer:

• BigQuery Data Transfer Service permissions:
  • bigquery.transfers.update
  • bigquery.transfers.get
• BigQuery permissions:
  • bigquery.datasets.get
  • bigquery.datasets.getIamPolicy
  • bigquery.datasets.update
  • bigquery.datasets.setIamPolicy
  • bigquery.jobs.create

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

For more information, see Grant bigquery.admin access.

If you intend to set up transfer run notifications for Pub/Sub, ensure that you have the pubsub.topics.setIamPolicy Identity and Access Management (IAM) permission. Pub/Sub permissions are not required if you only set up email notifications. For more information, see BigQuery Data Transfer Service run notifications.

Network connections

If a public IP address is not available for the MySQL database connection, you must set up a network attachment.

For detailed instructions on the required network setup, refer to the following documents:

• If you're transferring from Cloud SQL, see Configure Cloud SQL instance access.
• If you're transferring from AWS, see Set up the AWS-Google Cloud VPN and network attachment.
• If you're transferring from Azure, see Set up the Azure-Google Cloud VPN and network attachment.

Limitations

MySQL data transfers are subject to following limitations:

• The maximum number of simultaneous connections to a MySQL database is determined by the MySQL configuration parameter max_connections. By default, this is set to 151 connections, but it can be configured to a higher limit as needed. As a result, the number of simultaneous transfer runs to a single MySQL database is limited to that maximum amount. This limitation also means that the number of concurrent transfer jobs should be limited to a value less than the maximum number of concurrent connections supported by the MySQL database.
• A single transfer configuration can only support one data transfer run at a given time. In the case where a second data transfer is scheduled to run before the first transfer is completed, then only the first data transfer completes while any other data transfers that overlap with the first transfer is skipped.
  • To avoid skipped transfers within a single transfer configuration, we recommend that you increase the duration of time between large data transfers by configuring the Repeat frequency.

Data ingestion options

The following sections provide information about the data ingestion options when you set up a MySQL data transfer.

TLS configuration

The MySQL connector supports the configuration for transport level security (TLS) to encrypt your data transfers into BigQuery. The MySQL connector supports the following TLS configurations:

• Encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname: This mode performs a full validation of the server using TLS over the TCPS protocol. It encrypts all data in transit and verifies that the database server's certificate is signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). This mode also checks that the hostname you're connecting to exactly matches the Common Name (CN) or a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) on the server's certificate. This mode prevents attackers from using a valid certificate for a different domain to impersonate your database server.
  • If your hostname does not match the certificate CN or SAN, the connection fails. You must configure a DNS resolution to match the certificate or use a different security mode.
  • Use this mode for the most secure option to prevent person-in-the-middle (PITM) attacks.
• Encrypt data, and verify CA only: This mode encrypts all data using TLS over the TCPS protocol and verifies that the server's certificate is signed by a CA that the client trusts. However, this mode does not verify the server's hostname. This mode successfully connects as long as the certificate is valid and issued by a trusted VA, regardless of whether the hostname in the certificate matches the hostname you are connecting to.
  • Use this mode if you want to ensure that you are connecting to a server whose certificate is signed by a trusted CA, but the hostname is not verifiable or you don't have control over the hostname configuration.
• Encryption only: This mode encrypts all data transferred between the client and the server. It does not perform any certificate or hostname validation.
  • This mode provides some level of security by protecting data in transit, but it can be vulnerable to PITM attacks.
  • Use this mode if you need to ensure all data is encrypted but can't or don't want to verify the server's identity. We recommend using this mode when working with private VPCs.
• No encryption or verification: This mode does not encrypt any data and does not perform any certificate or hostname verification. All data is sent as plain text.
  • We don't recommend using this mode in an environment where sensitive data is handled.
  • We only recommend using this mode for testing purposes on an isolated network where security is not a concern.

Trusted Server Certificate (PEM)

If you are using either the Encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname mode or the Encrypt data, and verify CA mode, then you can also provide one or more PEM-encoded certificates. These certificates are required in some scenarios where the BigQuery Data Transfer Service needs to verify the identity of your database server during the TLS connection:

• If you are using a certificate signed by a private CA within your organization or a self-signed certificate, you must provide the full certificate chain or the single self-signed certificate. This is required for certificates issued by internal CAs of managed cloud provider services, such as the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).
• If your database server certificate is signed by a public CA (for example, Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, or GlobalSign), you don't need to provide a certificate. The root certificates for these public CAs are pre-installed and trusted by the BigQuery Data Transfer Service.

You can provide PEM-encoded certificates in the Trusted PEM Certificate field when you create a MySQL transfer configuration, with the following requirements:

• The certificate must be a valid PEM-encoded certificate chain.
• The certificate must be entirely correct. Any missing certificates in the chain or incorrect content causes the TLS connection to fail.
• For a single certificate, you can provide single, self-signed certificate from the database server.
• For a full certificate chain issued by a private CA, you must provide the full chain of trust. This includes the certificate from the database server and any intermediate and root CA certificates.

Load MySQL data into BigQuery

Add MySQL data into BigQuery by setting up a transfer configuration using one of the following options:

Console

1. Go to the Data transfers page.

   Go to Data transfers

2. Click Create transfer.

3. In the Source type section, for Source, select MySQL.

4. In the Transfer config name section, for Display name, enter a name for the transfer. The transfer name can be any value that lets you identify the transfer if you need to modify it later.

5. In the Schedule options section, do the following:

   • Select a repeat frequency. If you select the Hours, Days (default), Weeks, or Months option, you must also specify a frequency. You can also select the Custom option to create a more specific repeat frequency. If you select the On-demand option, this data transfer only runs when you manually trigger the transfer.
   • If applicable, select either the Start now or Start at a set time option and provide a start date and run time.

6. In the Destination settings section, for Dataset, select the dataset that you created to store your data, or click Create new dataset and create one to use as the destination dataset.

7. In the Data source details section, do the following:

   • For Network attachment, select an existing network attachment or click Create Network Attachment. For more information, see the Network connections section of this document.
   • For Host, enter the hostname or IP address of the MySQL database server.
   • For Port number, enter the port number for the MySQL database server.
   • For Database name, enter the name of the MySQL database.
   • For Username, enter the username of the MySQL user initiating the MySQL database connection.
   • For Password, enter the password of the MySQL user initiating the MySQL database connection.
   • For TLS Mode, select an option from the menu. For more information about TLS modes, see TLS configuration.
   • For Trusted PEM Certificate, enter the public certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the TLS certificate of the database server. For more information, see Trusted Server Certificate (PEM).

   • For MySQL objects to transfer, do one of the following:

     • Click Browse to select the MySQL tables that are required for the transfer, and then click Select.
     • Manually enter the names of the tables in the MySQL objects to transfer.

8. Optional: In the Notification options section, do the following:

   • To enable email notifications, click the Email notifications toggle to the on position. When you enable this option, the transfer administrator receives an email notification when a transfer run fails.
   • To configure Pub/Sub run notifications for your transfer, click the Pub/Sub notifications toggle to the on position. You can select your topic name or click Create a topic to create one.

9. Click Save.

bq

Enter the bq mk command and supply the transfer creation flag --transfer_config:

bq mk
    --transfer_config
    --project_id=PROJECT_ID
    --data_source=DATA_SOURCE
    --display_name=DISPLAY_NAME
    --target_dataset=DATASET
    --params='PARAMETERS'

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID (optional): your Google Cloud project ID. If the --project_id flag isn't supplied to specify a particular project, the default project is used.
• DATA_SOURCE: the data source, which is mysql.
• DISPLAY_NAME: the display name for the data transfer configuration. The transfer name can be any value that lets you identify the transfer if you need to modify it later.
• DATASET: the target dataset for the data transfer configuration.

• PARAMETERS: the parameters for the created transfer configuration in JSON format. For example: --params='{"param":"param_value"}'. The following are the parameters for a MySQL transfer:

  • networkAttachment (optional): the name of the network attachment to connect to the MySQL database.
  • connector.database: the name of the MySQL database.
  • connector.endpoint.host: the hostname or IP address of the database.
  • connector.endpoint.port: the port number of the database.
  • connector.authentication.username: the username of the database user.
  • connector.authentication.password: the password of the database user. connector.connectionType
  • connector.connectionType (optional): the connection type to determine the connection URL. This can be SERVICE, SID, or TNS. When not provided, this defaults to SERVICE.
  • connector.tls.mode: specify a TLS configuration to use with this transfer:
    • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST to encrypt data, and verify CA and hostname
    • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA to encrypt data, and verify CA only
    • ENCRYPT_VERIFY_NONE for data encryption only
    • DISABLE for no encryption or verification
  • connector.tls.trustedServerCertificate: (optional) provide one or more PEM-encoded certificates. Required only if connector.tls.mode is ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST or ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA.
  • assets: a list of the names of the MySQL tables to be transferred from the MySQL database as part of the transfer.

For example, the following command creates a MySQL transfer called My Transfer:

bq mk
    --transfer_config
    --target_dataset=mydataset
    --data_source=mysql
    --display_name='My Transfer'
    --params='{"assets":["DB1/DEPARTMENT","DB1/EMPLOYEES"],
        "connector.authentication.username": "User1",
        "connector.authentication.password":"ABC12345",
        "connector.encryptionMode":"FULL",
        "connector.database":"DB1",
        "connector.endpoint.host":"54.74.220.23",
        "connector.endpoint.port":3306
        "connector.tls.mode": "ENCRYPT_VERIFY_CA_AND_HOST",
        "connector.tls.trustedServerCertificate": "PEM-encoded certificate"}'

API

Use the projects.locations.transferConfigs.create method and supply an instance of the TransferConfig resource.

When you save the transfer configuration, the MySQL connector automatically triggers a transfer run according to your schedule option. With every transfer run, the MySQL connector transfers all available data from MySQL into BigQuery.

To manually run a data transfer outside of your regular schedule, you can start a backfill run.

Data type mapping

The following table maps MySQL data types to the corresponding BigQuery data types.

MySQL data type	BigQuery data type
BIT	BOOLEAN
TINYINT	INTEGER
BOOL, BOOLEAN	BOOLEAN
SMALLINT	INTEGER
MEDIUMINT	INTEGER
INT, INTEGER	INTEGER
BIGINT	BIGNUMERIC
FLOAT	FLOAT
DOUBLE	FLOAT
DECIMAL	BIGNUMERIC
DATE	DATE
DATETIME	TIMESTAMP
TIMESTAMP	TIMESTAMP
TIME	TIME
YEAR	DATE
CHAR	STRING
VARCHAR	STRING
BINARY	BYTES
VARBINARY	BYTES
TINYBLOB	BYTES
TINYTEXT	STRING
BLOB	BYTES
TEXT	STRING
MEDIUMBLOB	BYTES
MEDIUMTEXT	STRING
LONGBLOB	BYTES
LONGTEXT	STRING
ENUM	STRING
SET	STRING

Troubleshoot

If you are having issues setting up your data transfer, see MySQL transfer issues.

What's next

• For an overview of the BigQuery Data Transfer Service, see What is BigQuery Data Transfer Service?.
• For information on using transfers, including getting information about a transfer configuration, listing transfer configurations, and viewing a transfer's run history, see Manage transfers.
• Learn how to load data with cross-cloud operations.