Service Instance Access

This page describes usage specific to a9s MariaDB. It builds upon the information provided in Getting Started - Accessing a Service Instance.

Accessing an a9s MariaDB Service Instance

In order to access an a9s MariaDB Service Instance, the Service Instance's credentials stored in the environment variables of the application bound to it. This is further explanined in Lifecycle of a Service Instance - Obtain Credentials for Accessing a Service Instance.

The resulting environment variables for an a9s MariaDB application can be seen below:

cf env a9s-mariadb-app

Check credentials for a9s MariaDB

Getting env variables for app a9s-mariadb-app in org test / space test as admin...
OK

System-Provided:
{
 "VCAP_SERVICES": {
  "a9s-mariadb106": [
   {
    "binding_name": null,
    "credentials": {
     "host": "d15575b.service.dc1.a9s-mariadb-consul",
     "name": "d15575b",
     "password": "a9s-password",
     "port": 3306,
     "uri": "mysql://a9s-brk-usr:a9s-password@d15575b.service.dc1.a9s-mariadb-consul:3306/d15575b",
     "username": "a9s-brk-usr"
    },
    "label": "a9s-mariadb106",
    "plan": "mariadb-cluster-small",
    "tags": [
     "sql",
     "database",
     "object-relational",
     "consistent"
    ],
    "volume_mounts": []
   }
  ]
 }
}
...

The host and password values can be used to connect to the database with a MariaDB client.

Using SSL in the Application

For a9s MariaDB 10.4, we've added support for SSL Plans. To ensure that the connection between the application and the database is encrypted, the MariaDB client must be configured in the application, to verify the CA certificate. In the Ruby Gem, it would be configured like this:

client = Mysql2::Client.new(
  'host': service_key[:host],
  'port': service_key[:port],
  # ...
  'ssl_mode': :verify_ca
)

The content of the CA certificate – when using an SSL plan – is available in the service binding via the key cacrt.

Timezone configuration

Sometimes the Aplication Developer needs to configure a particular timezone to be used by the database server.At the moment the used timezone is the default timezone configured in the BOSH stemcell (UTC by default).

Changing this value affects DATETIME columns and functions such as:

• NOW()
• SYSDATE()
• CURDATE()
• CURTIME()
• UNIX_TIMESTAMP()

In cases where a particular timezone is desired we suggest to set this timezone using a session parameter (setting: time_zone). Example:

MariaDB[(none)]> SET SESSION time_zone = 'Europe/Berlin';