Connect to Percona Server for MySQL

In this tutorial, you will connect to the Percona Server for MySQL you deployed previously.

The Operator creates a dedicated Secret named <cluster_name>-psuser-root that contains all connection details for the root user: hostname, port, username, password, and ready-to-use URIs. The Operator keeps this Secret up to date on every reconciliation.

Here’s how to connect:

1. Export the namespace, cluster name and the Secret name as environment variables:

   export NAMESPACE=my-namespace
   export CLUSTER_NAME=ps-cluster1
   export SECRET_NAME=${CLUSTER_NAME}-psuser-root
   

   Replace ps-cluster1 with the name of your cluster if you changed it during installation.

2. Verify that the connection Secret exists:

   kubectl get secret $SECRET_NAME -n $NAMESPACE
   

   Look for the Secret named <cluster_name>-psuser-root. The default name differs on how you installed the Operator:

   via kubectlvia Helm

   ps-cluster1-psuser-root

   my-db-ps-db-psuser-root

3. Retrieve the user credentials from the Secret:

   bash kubectl get secret "$SECRET_NAME" -n "$NAMESPACE" \ -o jsonpath='{.data.user}' | base64 --decode && echo kubectl get secret "$SECRET_NAME" -n "$NAMESPACE" \ -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 --decode && echo

4. Run a container with the mysql client and connect its console output to your terminal. The following command does this, naming the new Pod percona-client:

   kubectl run -n $NAMESPACE -i --rm --tty percona-client \
   --image=percona/percona-server:8.4 --restart=Never -- bash -il
   

   Executing it may require some time to deploy the corresponding Pod.

5. Connect to Percona Server for MySQL. To do this, run mysql tool in the percona-client command shell using your cluster name and the password obtained from the secret instead of the <root_password> placeholder. The command will look different depending on whether your cluster uses load balancing with HAProxy (the default behavior) or uses MySQL Router (can be used with Group Replication clusters only):

   with HAProxy (default)with MySQL Router

   mysql -h <cluster_name>-haproxy -uroot -p'<root_password>'
   

   mysql -h <cluster_name>-router -uroot -p'<root_password>'
   

Congratulations! You have connected to Percona Server for MySQL.

Next steps

Insert sample data

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Last update: July 3, 2026
Created: March 25, 2024