Connect to staging database from a local environment - Laravel 5

Question

Goal

Locally on my Mac OS, I'm trying to connect to my staging database that are running and hosted on my Ubuntu VM.

---

Steps

In my config/database.php

'connections' => [

    'mysql'       => [
    'driver'      => 'mysql',
    'host'        => env('DB_HOST'),
    'database'    => env('DB_DATABASE'),
    'username'    => env('DB_USERNAME'),
    'password'    => env('DB_PASSWORD'),
    'unix_socket' => env('UNIX_SOCKET'), <---- Need it here 
    'charset'     => 'utf8',
    'collation'   => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    'prefix'      => '',
    'strict'      => false,
    ]

],

In my .env I have

DB_HOST=45.55.88.88
DB_DATABASE=staging
DB_USERNAME=john
DB_PASSWORD=***
UNIX_SOCKET=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock  <---- I'm not sure what to put here 

I am not sure what to PUT as my UNIX_SOCKET since database.php need it.

I kept getting

SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

I believe that because my path to the UNIX_SOCKET is wrong.

How could I configure something like this?

Update

Base on @dparoli's answer. I update my database configuration not using UNIX_SOCKET any more.

'connections' => [

    'mysql'       => [

        'driver'      => 'mysql',
        'host'        => env('DB_HOST'),
        'database'    => env('DB_DATABASE'),
        'username'    => env('DB_USERNAME'),
        'password'    => env('DB_PASSWORD'),
        'port'        => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
        'charset'     => 'utf8',
        'collation'   => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
        'prefix'      => '',
        'strict'      => false,
    ]

],

now I got

PDOException in Connector.php line 49: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Operation timed out

---

I've tried looking more into the settings of my staging VM

sshd_config

Will /etc/ssh/sshd_config play any roles in this at all ? Is it because I disabled password log-in and only allow log-in via public key ?

I've tried both

PasswordAuthentication no

and

PasswordAuthentication yes

---

netstat

I ran netstat -ln, I got

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State      
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:5432            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:17123         0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:11300           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:3306            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
...

I saw 0 0.0.0.0:3306 there.

---

php.ini

max_execution_time = 60

and 

memory_limit = 1000M

---

/etc/mysql/my.cnf

# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
# 
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html

# This will be passed to all mysql clients
# It has been reported that passwords should be enclosed with ticks/quotes
# escpecially if they contain "#" chars...
# Remember to edit /etc/mysql/debian.cnf when changing the socket location.
[client]
port            = 3306
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram

# This was formally known as [safe_mysqld]. Both versions are currently parsed.
[mysqld_safe]
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
nice            = 0

[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user            = mysql
pid-file        = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port            = 3306
basedir         = /usr
datadir         = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir          = /tmp
lc-messages-dir = /usr/share/mysql
skip-external-locking
#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address = *
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer              = 16M
max_allowed_packet      = 16M
thread_stack            = 192K
thread_cache_size       = 8
# This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed
# the first time they are touched
myisam-recover         = BACKUP
#max_connections        = 100
#table_cache            = 64
#thread_concurrency     = 10
#
# * Query Cache Configuration
#
query_cache_limit       = 1M
query_cache_size        = 16M
#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
# As of 5.1 you can enable the log at runtime!
#general_log_file        = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
#general_log             = 1
#
# Error log - should be very few entries.
#
log_error = /var/log/mysql/error.log
#
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
#log_slow_queries       = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
#long_query_time = 2
#log-queries-not-using-indexes
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication.
# note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about
#       other settings you may need to change.
#server-id              = 1
#log_bin                        = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire_logs_days        = 10
max_binlog_size         = 100M
#binlog_do_db           = include_database_name
#binlog_ignore_db       = include_database_name
#
# * InnoDB
#
# InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/.
# Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many!
#
# * Security Features
#
# Read the manual, too, if you want chroot!
# chroot = /var/lib/mysql/
#
# For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca".
#
# ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem
# ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem
# ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem



[mysqldump]
quick
quote-names
max_allowed_packet      = 16M

[mysql]
#no-auto-rehash # faster start of mysql but no tab completition

[isamchk]
key_buffer              = 16M

#
# * IMPORTANT: Additional settings that can override those from this file!
#   The files must end with '.cnf', otherwise they'll be ignored.
#
!includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/

____

Result

PDOException in Connector.php line 49: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Operation timed out

How can I stop that ?

What else can I check or try ?

Answer 1

You are trying to connect to another host via a Unix socket, that is not possible because sockets, usually, are only directly visible to the system on which they are created.

For your staging env to work you have to comment out the unix_socket config line and add a port:

'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),

And configure mysql to listen on that port.