Connect using a MySQL client

MySQL   |  PostgreSQL   |  SQL Server

You can use the MySQL command-line client to connect to Cloud SQL. This page describes how to connect a mysql client to your Cloud SQL instance, whether running locally on your client machine, on a Compute Engine VM, or in the Cloud Shell.

Note: For information about connecting a client to a Cloud SQL instance using the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, see Connecting using the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy. For information about connecting using private IP, see Configuring private IP connectivity.

Before you begin

Before you can use a mysql client to connect to your Cloud SQL instance, do the following:

• Create a Cloud SQL instance, including configuring the default user.

  See Create instances and Set the password for the default user account.

• Optionally, create a Compute Engine VM instance and then connected to the instance using SSH.

  See Create and start a VM instance, About SSH connections, or Connect to Windows VMs using RDP.

• Determine how you will connect to your instance.

  For the connection options and how to choose from among them, see About connection options.

Use a MySQL client on a local machine or a Compute Engine VM

Using a mysql client to connect to your Cloud SQL instance involves three high-level tasks:

1. Install the client.
2. Configure access to your Cloud SQL instance.
3. Connect to your Cloud SQL instance.

Install the client

To install the mysql client, do the following:

1. Download the MySQL Community Server for your platform from the MySQL Community Server download page.
   The Community Server includes the MySQL client.
2. Install the Community Server, following the directions on the download page.

For more information about installing MySQL, see Installing and Upgrading MySQL.

Configure access to your Cloud SQL instance

To configure access to your instance, do the following:

1. From the client machine or Compute Engine VM instance, use What's my IP to see the IP address of the client machine.
2. Copy that IP address.

3. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

   Go to Cloud SQL Instances

4. To open the Overview page of an instance, click the instance name.
5. Select Connections from the SQL navigation menu.
6. In the Authorized networks section, click Add network and enter the IP address of the machine where the client is installed.
   Note: The IP address of the instance and the mysql client IP address you authorize must be the same IP version: either IPv4 or IPv6.
7. Click Done. Then click Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
8. Connect to your instance, either with SSL or without SSL.

Connect to your Cloud SQL instance without encryption

Note: This procedure configures an unencrypted connection to your database. If your database contains sensitive data, connect to your instance using SSL.

To connect to your instance, do the following:

1. Confirm that you have installed the client and configured access to your instance.
2. Start the mysql client:

   mysql --host=INSTANCE_IP --user=root --password
   

3. Enter your password.
4. The mysql prompt appears.

Connect to your Cloud SQL instance using SSL

To connect using SSL, you need the following:

• A Certificate Authority (CA) certificate in a server-ca.pem file.
• A client public key certificate in a client-cert.pem file.
• A client private key in a client-key.pem file.

If you lack a client certificate and a corresponding private key, create a new client certificate.

Before you begin, confirm that you have installed the client and configured access to your instance.

To connect to your instance using SSL:

1. Start the mysql client:

   mysql --ssl-ca=server-ca.pem --ssl-cert=client-cert.pem --ssl-key=client-key.pem \
                --host=INSTANCE_IP --ssl-mode=verify_ca --user=root --password
   

   Warning: Don't include the --ssl-mode flag in the command if you are using a MariaDB client to connect to the MySQL instance. Use the client from the MySQL community server instead.
2. Enter the password.
3. At the MySQL prompt, enter the \s command to verify that your connection is using SSL.
4. Look for the output line with SSL:.

   ...
   SSL:                     Cipher in use is DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
   ...
   

   Warning: MySQL client versions prior to 5.7.3 consider the --ssl options as advisory, and silently fall back to unencrypted connections if the server does not accept an encrypted connection. For more information, see Using Encrypted Connections in the MySQL Reference Manual. To avoid this issue, you can configure the instance so that only SSL connections can connect to it (for more information, see Configuring SSL for Instances).

   For information about troubleshooting connection issues over IP, see Diagnosing issues with Cloud SQL instances.

Using the client in the Cloud Shell

To connect to a Cloud SQL instance (public IP only):

1. Go to the Google Cloud console.

   Go to the Google Cloud console

2. Click the Cloud Shell icon towards the right in the toolbar.

   The Cloud Shell takes a few moments to initialize.

3. At the Cloud Shell prompt, use the built-in client to connect to your Cloud SQL instance:

   gcloud sql connect INSTANCE_ID \
   --user=root
   

4. Enter your password.

The gcloud sql connect command does not support connecting to a Cloud SQL instance using private IP, or using SSL/TLS. To connect with encryption, install and use the proxy in the Cloud Shell:

1. Install the proxy (Linux 64-bit) in the /home/USER directory.
2. Start the proxy, using gcloud CLI authentication:

   ./cloud-sql-proxy INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME &

3. Connect to the database by using the TCP connection:

   mysql -u USERNAME -p --host=127.0.0.1

What's next

• Learn about configuring an instance with a private IP address.
• Learn about options for connecting to your instance from your application.
• Learn about the mysql client.

Try it for yourself

If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how Cloud SQL performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Try Cloud SQL free