Google Cloud/MySQL

To set up MySQL on Google Cloud, create a new project using the Google Cloud Platform Console.

Link to google cloud platform console: https://console.cloud.google.com/project

Setting up Google Cloud SDK

This uses the gcloud command line tool (see Google Cloud/Gcloud). This tool uses the Compute Engine API, so you have to enable that first. Also, need to install Google Cloud SDK (which installs the gcloud tool). There are also client libraries that allow you to write scripts in various languages.

Link to enabling compute engine API: https://console.cloud.google.com/flows/enableapi?apiid=compute_component

Link to google cloud sdk: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/

Create MySQL Compute Instance

Start by setting up project:

$ gcloud config set project project-name

Set up compute zone:

$ gcloud config set compute//zone the-zone

Now to set up a MySQL server, create a compute instance. This sets up a plain, empty Debian VM that you can SSH to and install MySQL onto. Other operating systems are available too.

Create the instance:

$ gcloud instances create dummy

SSH to the instance:

$ gcloud compute ssh dummy

Install MySQL on the compute instance:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server

When you run the installation process, you will be prompted to set a root password.

(I suppose you could also use a Docker or Kubernetes image and run that in the cloud - but not sure exactly how that process would mesh with Google Cloud.)

Secure the installation using the MySQL command mysql_secure_installation:

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Connect to the server:

$ mysql --user=root --password

To do a "hello world" with MySQL, run the commands:

mysql> show processlist;

mysql> SELECT User, Host, Password FROM mysql.user;

Connect to MySQL Compute Instance

Once you've created the MySQL compute instance, you have a MySQL server running, and you can connect to the server using MySQL clients.

There are (multiple?) ways to do this:

• Use the web console to get a shell on the cloud instance using the little cloud shell icon, then use the gcloud sql command
• Connect to the MySQL server instance from a MySQL client instance by setting the proper connection parameters

How to connect to a remote MySQL server: MySQL#Get_a_remote_MySQL_shell (basically, just specify --host and --port arguments)

Link to Cloud SQL for MySQL that mentions the web console method: https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/quickstart

Now, can perform actions like creating a database, inserting sample data, etc.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE guestbook;

mysql> USE guestbook;

mysql> CREATE TABLE entries (guestName VARCHAR(255), content VARCHAR(255), 
    entryID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY(entryID));
    INSERT INTO entries (guestName, content) values ("first guest", "First!");
    INSERT INTO entries (guestName, content) values ("second guest", "What a jerk.");

mysql> SELECT * FROM entries;

Basic operations like configuring users [1] and creating databases [2] can be done using the standard MySQL client, or the web console.

Configuring Default User

The one operation that is not performed using a standard MySQL client or standard MySQL commands is configuring the default user account. This is required before you can connect to the instance. By default, the default user is root.

To configure the default user, can use the gcloud sql command:

$ gcloud sql users set-password root % \
--instance dummy --password YOUR-SECRET-PASSWORD-HERE

Delete MySQL Compute Instance

Once you're finished with the MySQL server you'll want to delete the VM that was allocated. I am unable to find a way to do this using the gcloud interface.

$ gcloud compute instances delete dummy --zone the-zone

Link to gcloud documentation that mentions this command: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/gcloud-compute/