I am trying to connect to my mysql database on a remote server (via ssh) through the command:
mysql -u me -h mydomain.com -p
But it fails with a ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user.. error
While
mysql -u me -h localhost -p
Works
Now this isn't just because I have not setup permissions, because the permissions to this database are set for % or any host for the me user.
This is proved by the fact that I can connect correctly from my local machine to the server, using the same user. i.e. running the following command from my local machine works:
mysql -u me -h mydomain.com -p
So my question why does this happen and how can I fix it? Why can I not connect to my mysql server from my server when I use the domain name instead of localhost, even though the permissions are setup to accept connections from any host.
This happens because of the way MySQL handles permission grants.
When you connect from a remote host (or from the local host via an external IP), it will match the me@% entry (if there is no specific grant for the particular host you're using!). But when you connect via the loopback interface (the "localhost" IP) or a socket, it will use the me@localhost grant. So you must have two GRANT PRIVILEGES; one for me@localhost and one for me@%.