More oddity with MySQL PaaS

Whilst setting up the phpipam tool (the one i mentioned in my last post http://phpipam.net/) i decided to use a MySQL PaaS in Azure to host the database part rather than manage MySQL myself - however this proved a little tricky to get working.

Well i say tricky - it just needed the config file amended and then it was fine - however this was not at all obvious - let me explain what happened.

So after loading the software using the normal yum tooling you then have to link the app to a database via the gui screen below - you have a few options - i chose the last one the manual install

 

So I click that then follow the steps as described on the screen below - after that I put the login details in the config.php file and then the login button should redirect me to the login page

 However that wasn't happening at all and I was just being redirected to the main install screen - and it continued round in that loop with no error message coming out at all.....

So I started to dig into the php code to see what was happening ( I don't know php by the way so I was learning as I went along).

After a lot of trial and error and tracking the code path through i finally came across this piece of code

/* open persistent DB connection */
$database = new database($db['host'], $db['user'], $db['pass'], $db['name'], NULL, false);
if($database->connect_error) { $dbFail = true; }

This connects to the mysql database based on the contents of the config.php file - however if there are any errors all that happens is the value of the dbFail variable is set to true - but no actual errors about what is wrong are displayed.

So i added an extra line based on what i found on google for this kind of thing

/* open persistent DB connection */
$database = new database($db['host'], $db['user'], $db['pass'], $db['name'], NULL, false);
if($database->connect_error) { $dbFail = true; }
/* added by rich */
echo ('Connect Error (' . mysqli_connect_errno() . ') ' . mysqli_connect_error());

Now when i run the page i see this " connect error (9002) "

So progress - something to go on. However in this case there is nothing of any use that comes up on Google - however based on my experiences with setting up another MySQL PaaS I suspected the username format may be the problem.

So i changed the config file from this

/*      database connection details
 ******************************/
$db['host'] = "mysqlpaas.mysql.database.azure.com";
$db['user'] = "phpipam";
$db['pass'] = "password";
$db['name'] = "phpipam";

to this

/*      database connection details
 ******************************/
$db['host'] = "mysqlpaas.mysql.database.azure.com";
$db['user'] = "phpipam@mysqlpaas.mysql.database.azure.com";
$db['pass'] = "password";
$db['name'] = "phpipam";


After I did that the connect error went away and I'm presented with the proper login screen.

I thought it worth sharing as this different username format for PaaS will likely cause a lot of confusion - I've been trying to find a note that describes this and why it has to be specified this way but not real luck so far.

Hopefully this helps someone else