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Symptoms:

  • I am running CentOS 6.
  • I can connect to the remote MySQL from the command line: mysql -h a.b.c.d -u user -p -D db.
  • Laravel artisan commands run on the local command line can also connect: artisan migrate.
  • But the same Laravel code when running through Apache cannot connect.
  • The error is: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2003] Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘a.b.c.d’ (13)
  • The MySQL help on reasons for "access denied" didn't help.

What am I doing wrong? (I am self answering for posterity.)

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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To see what flags are set on httpd processes

getsebool -a | grep httpd

To allow Apache to connect to remote database through SELinux

setsebool httpd_can_network_connect_db 1

Use -P option makes the change permanent. Without this option, the boolean would be reset to 0 at reboot.

setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1
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2
  • What's the point of duplicating the answer for such an old question? Answer from bishop seems to be higher quality as it contains more explanation and not just list of commands.
    – rvs
    Aug 10, 2021 at 16:46
  • This answer adds new information, specifically the allow apache to talk to a database information which Bishop's answer lacks.
    – sysadmin1138 ♦
    Aug 10, 2021 at 23:05
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The key to this problem is the (13), which means "Permission Denied" (via perror). Because I can connect from the command line, the permission must be in the web app. Since I know that the credentials in the web app match the ones on the command line, the only thing left is the web server.

Via an strace, I discovered SELinux was blocking it. To fix:

sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect=1

This permanently sets SELinux to allow network connections out of httpd.

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1
  • You can solve the related problem of Apache not sending emails, while the command line can, with: setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail=1
    – bishop
    Nov 18, 2014 at 20:00

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