MySQL

This page describes how to configure MySQL credentials for use by Census and why those permissions are needed.

Required Permissions

These instructions are well tested to connect Census to MySQL. If you're running into connection issues or missing tables or views, please confirm you've run all of these instructions.

Census reads data from one or more tables (possibly across different schemata) in your database and publishes it to the corresponding objects in your destination systems.

We recommend you create a dedicated CENSUS user account with a strong, unique password. Census uses this account to connect to your MySQL database. In order for the Census connection to work correctly, the CENSUS account must have these permissions:

  • Read-only access to any tables and views in any schemata that you would like Census to publish to your destinations.

MySQL permissions are complex and there are many ways to configure access for Census. The script below has been tested with recent MySQL versions and is known to work correctly:

-- Create census user the ability to sign in with a password
CREATE USER CENSUS IDENTIFIED BY '<strong, unique password>';

-- GRANT read-only access to which ever schemas you'd like to give access to
-- If you have multiple schemata that you would like Census to read from,
-- repeat the steps for "<your schema>" for each of them
GRANT SELECT ON <your schema>.* TO CENSUS;

Notes

  • Census supports MySQL Community 5.7 or later, as well as recent versions of MariaDB

Advanced Network Configuration

Census can successfully connect to MySQL instances that are using advanced networking controls including region constraints, IP address allow lists, or SSH Tunneling. For more information, see our Network Access Controls documentation.

Census supports MySQL with versions TLSv1.2 and greater.

Need help connecting to MySQL?

Contact us via support@getcensus.com or start a conversation with us via the in-app chat.

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