How to access remote server with local phpMyAdmin client?

Question

Assuming there is a remote server and I have phpMyAdmin client installed localy on my computer. How can I access this server and manage it via phpMyAdmin client? Is that possible?

you can also install the `phpmyadmin` docker image locally and connect to your remote MySQL server. more details at [here](https://hub.docker.com/r/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin): `docker run --name myadmin -d -e PMA_HOST= -e PMA_PORT= -p 8080:80 phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin` — XoXo, Feb 14 '19 at 15:40

score 244 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 29 '20 at 12:33

244

Just add below lines to your /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file in the bottom:

$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'HostName:port'; //provide hostname and port if other than default
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'userName';   //user name for your remote server
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'Password';  //password
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';       // keep it as config

You will get Current Server: drop down with both 127.0.0.1 and one what you have provided with $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] can switch between the servers.

More Details: http://sforsuresh.in/access-remote-mysql-server-using-local-phpmyadmin/

edited Nov 29 '20 at 12:33

SAMPro

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answered Feb 28 '14 at 10:31

Suresh Kamrushi

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The `$i++` is an important point as this will not make us lose the database connection with the default `localhost`. – Gaurav Ramanan Dec 30 '14 at 11:44
I also had to follow the steps in [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14779104/how-to-allow-remote-connection-to-mysql) post after setting it up in phpMyAdmin to make it work. – Ahmed Akhtar May 26 '17 at 08:03
2

`/etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php` is the correct file to be changed – XoXo Oct 22 '18 at 13:35
Above method is absolutely correct but why you all did not tell me that I'll have to add or get it added my ip address in Remote mySql. otherwise it will not work. Please friends note this too – Jaydeep Goswami Jun 28 '19 at 10:26
1

If anyone is working on Apple system then the `config.inc.php` file is located at `Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php` file. – Anirudha Mahale Mar 28 '20 at 12:19

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 28 '20 at 21:26

34

It is certainly possible to access a remote MySQL server from a local instance of phpMyAdmin, as the other answers have pointed out. And for that to work, you have to configure the remote server's MySQL server to accept remote connections, and allow traffic through the firewall for the port number that MySQL is listening to. I prefer a slightly different solution involving SSH Tunnelling.

The following command will set up an SSH tunnel which will forward all requests made to port 3307 from your local machine to port 3306 on the remote machine:

ssh -NL 3307:localhost:3306 root@REMOTE_HOST

When prompted, you should enter the password for the root user on the remote machine. This will open the tunnel. If you want to run this in the background, you'll need to add the -f argument, and set up Passwordless SSH between your local machine and the remote machine.

After you've got the SSH tunnel working, you can add the remote server to the servers list in your local phpMyAdmin by modifying the /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file. Add the following to the end of the file:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose']       = 'Remote Server 1'; // Change this to whatever you like.
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host']          = '127.0.0.1';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port']          = '3307';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type']  = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension']     = 'mysqli';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress']      = FALSE;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'cookie';
$i++;

I wrote a more in-depth blog post about exactly this, in case you need additional help.

edited Nov 28 '20 at 21:26

SAMPro

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answered Apr 24 '14 at 13:50

c.hill

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I think this is the secure solution. Opening up mySQL to direct remote access is generally considered a poor security practice if it's not absolutely necessary. – Omn Sep 12 '14 at 20:40
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c.hill's answer is not quite right. Please note: The bind address must be set to the loop back address in the mysql my.cnf file. – Nov 25 '14 at 18:16
No need to be root on the remote host. the bridge works perfectly, thanks! I'm not so sure about config, though, prefer Suresh Kamrushi's answer. `$++` should definitely be first line, not last, at least for my default phpmyadmin.conf. – frnhr Sep 16 '15 at 21:53
I just ran into a case where I needed to change $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config'; // keep it as config to $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie'; // keep it as config. So thanks for that tip! – Phil Lawlor Feb 02 '16 at 14:58
The Best Solution! – Ghasem Sadeghi Feb 19 '20 at 07:26
You can access to a databaseServer only accessible from Server, which in turn you need to go through a jumpServer: `ssh -v -N -L 3306:databaseServer:3306 -J jumpUsername@jumpServer usrname@Server`. Test on your host with `nc -zv localhost 3306`. Consider using something like DBeaver instead of phpMyAdmin. – Pablo Bianchi Aug 31 '20 at 06:51

Phil Cross · Answer 3 · 2014-09-16T07:01:38.120

It can be done, but you need to change the phpMyAdmin configuration, read this post: http://www.danielmois.com/article/Manage_remote_databases_from_localhost_with_phpMyAdmin

If for any reason the link dies, you can use the following steps:

Find phpMyAdmin's configuration file, called config.inc.php
Find the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] variable, and set it to the IP or hostname of your remote server
Find the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] variable, and set it to the remote mysql port. Usually this is 3306
Find the $cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] and $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] variables and set these to your username and password for the remote server

Without proper server configuration, the connection may be slower than a local connection for example, it's would probably be slightly faster to use IP addresses instead of host names to avoid the server having to look up the IP address from the hostname.

In addition, remember that your remote database's username and password is stored in plain text when you connect like this, so you should take steps to ensure that no one can access this config file. Alternatively, you can leave the username and password variables empty to be prompted to enter them each time you log in, which is a lot more secure.

You also need to have the firewall on the database instance allow the traffic, and a user on the DB server with privileges for remote access. — ceejayoz, May 28 '13 at 21:14
May I ask a question here? As I newbie I am curious what form should the link have I want to enter in browser in order to access a database via phpMyAdmin that is installed on a server of my client who hosts a website himself. — Garavani, May 29 '18 at 07:03

Dulanga Sashika · Answer 4 · 2015-01-15T13:35:53.907

Follow this blog post. You can do it very easily. https://wadsashika.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/manage-remote-mysql-database-locally-using-phpmyadmin/

The file config.inc.php contains the configuration settings for your phpMyAdmin installation. It uses an array to store sets of config options for every server it can connect to and by default there is only one, your own machine, or localhost. In order to connect to another server, you would have to add another set of config options to the config array. You have to edit this configuration file.

First open config.inc.php file held in phpMyAdmin folder. In wamp server, you can find it in wamp\apps\phpmyadmin folder. Then add following part to that file.

$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host']          = 'hostname/Ip Adress';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port']          = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket']        = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type']  = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension']     = 'mysql';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress']      = FALSE;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'config';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']          = 'username';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']      = 'password';

Let’s see what is the meaning of this variables.

$i++ :- Incrementing variable for each server
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘host’] :- Server host name or IP adress
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘port’] :- MySQL port (Leave a blank for default port. Default MySQL port is 3306)
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘socket’] :- Path to the socket (Leave a blank for default socket)
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘connect_type’] :- How to connect to MySQL server (‘tcp’ or ‘socket’)
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘extension’] :- php MySQL extension to use (‘mysql’ or ‘msqli’)
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘compress’] :- Use compressed protocol for the MySQL connection (requires PHP >= 4.3.0)
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘auth_type’] :- Method of Authentication
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘username’] :- Username to the MySQL database in remote server
$cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘password’] :- Password to the MySQL database int he remote server

After adding this configuration part, restart you server and now your phpMyAdmin home page will change and it will show a field to select the server.

Now you can select you server and access your remote database by entering username and password for that database.

could please be more accurate and explain more about your answer. link answers are good but the may be unreachable if the link corrupts for any reason. — Milad Faridnia, Jan 14 '15 at 04:55

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

As stated in answer c.hill answer, if you want a secure solution I would advise to open an SSH tunnel to your server.

Here is the way to do it for Windows users:

Download Plink and Putty from the Putty website and place the files in the folder of your choice (In my example C:\Putty)
Open the Windows console and cd to Plink folder: cd C:\Putty
Open the SSH tunnel and redirect to the port 3307:

plink -L 3307:localhost:3306 username@server_ip -i path_to_your_private_key.ppk

Where:

3307 is the local port you want to redirect to
localhost is the address of the MySQL DB on the remote server (localhost by default)
3306 is the port use for PhpMyAdmin on the remote server (3306 by default)

Finally you can setup PhpMyAdmin:

Add the remote server to your local PhpMyAdmin configuration by adding the following line at the end of config.inc.php

Lines to add:

$i++;   
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose']          = 'Remote Dev server';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host']             = 'localhost';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port']             = '3307';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type']     = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension']        = 'mysqli';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress']         = FALSE;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']        = 'cookie';

You should be able to connect now at http://127.0.0.1/phpmyadmin

If you do not want to open the console each time you need to connect to your remote server, just create a batch file (by saving the 2 command lines in a .bat file).

oo_miguel · Answer 6 · 2015-10-30T08:19:40.210

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You can set in the config.inc.php file of your phpMyAdmin installation.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '';

edited Oct 30 '15 at 08:19

answered May 28 '13 at 21:15

oo_miguel

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score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 14 '17 at 19:16

I would have added this as a comment, but my reputation is not yet high enough.

Under version 4.5.4.1deb2ubuntu2, and I am guessing any other versions 4.5.x or newer. There is no need to modify the config.inc.php file at all. Instead go one more directory down conf.d.

Create a new file with the '.php' extension and add the lines. This is a better modularized approach and isolates each remote database server access information.

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 09 '17 at 10:11

In Ubuntu

Just you need to modify a single file in PHPMyAdmin folder i.e. “config.inc.php”.Just add below lines to your “config.inc.php”.

File location : /var/lib/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php OR /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Maybe you don't have the permission for editing that file, just give the permission using this command

sudo chmod 777 /var/lib/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

OR (in different systems you may have to check with these two locations)

sudo chmod 777 /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Then copy and paste the code in your config.inc.php file

    $i++;
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'cookie';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose'] = 'Database Server 2';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '34.12.123.31';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type']  = 'tcp';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress']      = false;
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false;

And make the appropriate changes with your server details

Mohannd · Answer 9 · 2020-08-10T09:15:36.607

3

Locate the file libraries/config.default.php

then find $cfg['AllowArbitraryServer'] = false;

then set It to true

note:

on ubuntu the file in the path /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/config.default.php

then you will find a new filed name SERVER in the main PHPMyAdmin page, you can add any IP or localhost for the local database.

edited Aug 10 '20 at 09:15

answered May 04 '20 at 04:16

Mohannd

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 18 '17 at 05:29

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Go to file \phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php at the very bottom, change the hosting details such as host, username, password etc.

answered Jan 18 '17 at 05:29

Patrick R

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Cornea Valentin · Answer 11 · 2018-05-18T08:13:48.970

Method 1 ( for multiserver )

First , lets make a backup of original config.

sudo cp /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php      ~/

Now in /usr/share/doc/phpmyadmin/examples/ you will see a file config.manyhosts.inc.php. Just copy in to /etc/phpmyadmin/ using command bellow:

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/phpmyadmin/examples/config.manyhosts.inc.php \
        /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Edit the config.inc.php

sudo nano /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Search for :

$hosts = array (
    "foo.example.com",
    "bar.example.com",
    "baz.example.com",
    "quux.example.com",
);

And add your ip or hostname array save ( in nano CTRL+X press Y ) and exit . Done

Method 2 ( single server ) Edit the config.inc.php

sudo nano /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Search for :

/* Server parameters */
if (empty($dbserver)) $dbserver = 'localhost';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = $dbserver;

if (!empty($dbport) || $dbserver != 'localhost') {
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type'] = 'tcp';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] = $dbport;
}

And replace with:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '192.168.1.100';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] = '3306';

Remeber to replace 192.168.1.100 with your own mysql ip server.

Sorry for my bad English ( google translate have the blame :D )

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 09 '19 at 06:22

In Windows with Wamp Server Installed you may find the configuration file

C:\wamp64\apps\phpmyadmin4.8.4\config.inc.php

Change the bolow line as appropriate

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '127.0.0.1';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] = 3306;//$wampConf['mysqlPortUsed'];
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension'] = 'mysqli';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '';

score -1 · Answer 13 · edited Feb 12 '18 at 12:57

Delete complete entries of /etc/http/conf.d/phpMyAdmin.conf

And below entires in above file,

<Directory /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/>
   AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

   <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.4
     <RequireAny>
       #ADD following line:
       Require all granted
       Require ip 127.0.0.1
       Require ip ::1
     </RequireAny>
   </IfModule>
   <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.2
     #CHANGE following 2 lines:
     Order Allow,Deny
     Allow from All
     Allow from 127.0.0.1
     Allow from ::1
   </IfModule>
</Directory>

Then,

run below command in MySQL prompt,

GRANT ALL ON *.* to root@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'root@<password>'

GRANT ALL ON *.* to root@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'root@<password>'

For reference: Allow IP to Access Secured PhpMyAdmin

How to access remote server with local phpMyAdmin client?

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