If you’re a database administrator, you know a good GUI client can make life a whole lot easier. Sure you might know every MySQL command available, but running a host of commands on your server isn’t nearly as efficient as having a good GUI—especially when you’re charged with managing a large number of databases.
But which GUI should you use? Most MySQL database administrators know there are a lot of GUIs out there. However there’s one you might not have heard of: RazorSQL. This particular tool has been confirmed to work with over 40 databases, via JDBC or ODBC. And although RazorSQL does suffer from an aging GUI, it’s still a very powerful tool that can take your database administration to the next level. It also should be noted that RazorSQL isn’t free. The cost is $99.95 USD for a single user license. For more users, the cost goes down (check out this price matrix). What’s important to know about RazorSQL is that it has a fairly large feature list that will impress most any DB admin.
I want to show you how to connect RazorSQL to a MySQL database server. I’ll be running Razor on Ubuntu Linux 17.10 (the client is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows) and my database server is Ubuntu Server 16.04.
Installing RazorSQL
The first thing you must do is install RazorSQL. On the Linux platform, there really isn’t an installation per say. Instead, you download the file that matches your platform architecture (32- or 64-bit), unzip that file, change into the newly created directory, and start RazorSQL with the command ./razorsql.sh. This will create a new folder in your $USER directory, called .razorsql. Within that folder, your configuration options will be saved.
With that taken care of, let’s make the connection.
Creating a new connection
Before you attempt to make the connection, you must make sure your MySQL server is setup to allow remote connections.
See: How to set up MySQL for remote access on Ubuntu Server 16.04
To create a new connection, open RazorSQL and click Connections | Add Connection Profile. In the resulting screen (Figure A), you must select the database type. As I’m connecting to a MySQL server, I’ll select MySQL and click Continue.
Figure A
In the next window (Figure B), you must select a type of connection from the CONNECTION TYPE window. Select JDBC (MySQL Connector), click Auto Download Driver, and then when prompted click Continue. When the driver has downloaded, click OK.
Figure B
Configuring our remote server.
When you have the Connection Type created, fill out the remaining information for the remote MySQL server. After you’ve entered the necessary details for the remote MySQL server, click Connect and the connection should be made. When a connection to a new remote server is successful, the profile is automatically saved, so returning to that server is but a click away.
At this point, you can start working with your remote database. If you right-click the Databases entry in the left navigation, you can then click Create to create a new table, view, index, procedure, function, trigger, database, or user (Figure C).
Figure C
Creating new elements on your remote MySQL database server.
Easy connection for powerful usage
And that’s all there is to connecting RazorSQL to your remote MySQL database server. You can now take advantage of all the power that lies under the hood of this impressive database admin client. Once you start using RazorSQL, you’ll find it can help you get the most out of your MySQL (or other) database with a level of efficiency you might not get with the command line.
source:-techrepublic
