DocumentationCommerceCommerce Intelligence User Guide

Connect MySQL via SSH Tunnel

Last update: Tue Jul 25 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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To connect your MySQL database to Commerce Intelligence via an SSH tunnel, you must do a few things:

  1. Retrieve the Commerce Intelligence public key
  2. Allow access to the Commerce Intelligence IP address
  3. Create a Linux user for Commerce Intelligence
  4. Create a MySQL user for Commerce Intelligence
  5. Enter the connection and user info into Commerce Intelligence

Retrieving the Commerce Intelligence public key retrieve

The public key is used to authorize the Commerce Intelligence Linux user. In the next section, you will create the user and import the key.

  1. Go to Manage Data > Connections and click Add New Data Source.
  2. Click the MySQL icon.
  3. After the MySQL credentials page opens, set the Encrypted toggle to Yes. This displays the SSH setup form.
  4. The public key is located underneath this form.

Leave this page open throughout the tutorial - you will need it in the next section and at the end.

Here’s how to navigate through Commerce Intelligence to retrieve the key:

Allow access to the Commerce Intelligence IP address allowlist

For the connection to be successful, you must configure your firewall to allow access from your IP addresses. They are 54.88.76.97 and 34.250.211.151 but they are also on the MySQL credentials page. See the blue box in the GIF above.

Creating a Linux user for Commerce Intelligence linux

This can be a production or secondary machine, as long as it contains real-time (or frequently updated) data. You may restrict this user any way you like, as long as it retains the right to connect to the MySQL server.

  1. To add the new user, run the following commands as root on your Linux server:
        adduser rjmetric -p<password>
        mkdir /home/rjmetric
        mkdir /home/rjmetric/.ssh

  1. Remember the public key you retrieved in the first section? To ensure that the user has access to the database, you need to import the key into authorized\_keys.

    Copy the entire key into the authorized\_keys file as follows:

        touch /home/rjmetric/.ssh/authorized_keys
        "<PASTE KEY HERE>" >> /home/rjmetric/.ssh/authorized_keys
  1. To finish creating the user, alter the permissions on the /home/rjmetric directory to allow access via SSH:
        chown -R rjmetric:rjmetric /home/rjmetric
        chmod -R 700 /home/rjmetric/.ssh
        chmod 400 /home/rjmetric/.ssh/authorized_keys
IMPORTANT
If the sshd\_config file associated with the server is not set to the default option, only certain users have server access - this prevents a successful connection to Commerce Intelligence. In these cases, it is necessary to run a command like AllowUsers to allow the rjmetric user access to the server.

Creating a MySQL user for Commerce Intelligence mysql

Your organization may require a different process, but the simplest way to create this user is to execute the following query when logged into MySQL as a user with the right to grant privileges:

    GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO 'rjmetric'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<secure password here>';

Replace secure password here with a secure password, which can be different from the SSH password.

To restrict this user from accessing data in specific databases, tables, or columns, you can instead run GRANT queries that only allow access to the data you permit.

Entering the connection and user info into Commerce Intelligence finish

To wrap things up, you need to enter the connection and user info into Commerce Intelligence. Did you leave the MySQL credentials page open? If not, go to Data > Connections and click Add New Data Source, then the MySQL icon. Do not forget to set the Encrypted toggle to Yes.

Enter the following info into this page, starting with the Database Connection section:

  • Username: The username for the Commerce Intelligence MySQL user

  • Password: The password for the Commerce Intelligence MySQL user

  • Port: MySQL port on your server (3306 by default)

  • Host By default, this is localhost. In general, it is the bind-address value for your MySQL server, which by default is 127.0.0.1 (localhost), but could also be some local network address (for example, 192.168.0.1) or your server’s public IP address.

    The value can be found in your my.cnf file (located at /etc/my.cnf) underneath the line that reads \[mysqld\]. If the bind-address line is commented out in that file, your server is secured from outside connection attempts.

In the SSH Connection section:

  • Remote Address: The IP address or hostname of the server Commerce Intelligence will tunnel into
  • Username: The username for the Commerce Intelligence SSH (Linux) user
  • SSH Port: SSH port on your server (22 by default)

When you are finished, click Save & Test to complete the setup.

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