MySQL Workbench

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

I am not proficient at database administration (I am doing this as a personal project). I have just spent several weeks upgrading from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 8.0 and then MySQL 8.2.13. I have installed the latest version of the phpMyAdmin (5.2.1). I have imported the database and checked it all data a tables are as expected. I then installed the latest version of the MySQL Workbench (8.0). Now when I start MySQL Workbench I get the warning "Incompatible/nonstandard server version or connection protocol detected (8.2.0)." Please see attachment for the full warning. When I select "Continue Anyway" and go to the "Database --> Connect to database" (see attached) the Workbench closes. Is there a way to fix this please?

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Himai Minh]

How about getting the latest version of MySQL 8 and the latest version of WorkBench?
This suggestion is from https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/version-mismatch-between-mysql-and-workbench/24745

[Tim Holloway]

It says that the server that you are attempting to work with runs MySQL version 8.2.0 and that the MySQL Server Workbench you are using is only compatible with various MySQL Server version 5 and MySQL version 8.0.

In other words, something has changed between MySQL version 8.0 and MySQL version 8.2 that your obsolete version of MySQL Server Workbench cannot handle. Upgrade your copy of MySQL Workbench.

[Paul Clapham]

But Glyn (and also the MySQL Workbench home page) says that he already has the latest Workbench version. Which apparently doesn't work with the latest MySQL version? That seems like a peculiar thing for the MySQL people to do, but anyway it looks like downgrading MySQL to version 8.0 is the only option at this point. Unless we're missing something, which is not impossible.

[Tim Holloway]

Paul Clapham wrote:But Glyn (and also the MySQL Workbench home page) says that he already has the latest Workbench version. Which apparently doesn't work with the latest MySQL version? That seems like a peculiar thing for the MySQL people to do, but anyway it looks like downgrading MySQL to version 8.0 is the only option at this point. Unless we're missing something, which is not impossible.

Actually, it doesn't. Unless I'm being blind again. the dialogs don't actually tell what version of MySQL Workbench is running, but they do say that the server is running MySQL Server version 8.2.2. And the dialogs also say that the MySQL Workbench is compatible with MySQL Version 8.0.

You might think that the difference between 8.0 and 8.2 is inconsequential because it's a minor release difference. If you do, you haven't done much work with, say, PostgreSQL.

The OS platform that MySQL Workbench was installed on wasn't mentioned and it's possible that the standard installation package for that system hasn't been upgraded to an 8.2-compatible workbench at the moment.

[Paul Clapham]

I don't see any 8.2 version of the workbench available for download. Latest version is 8.0.36 as far as I can see.

[Tim Holloway]

Paul Clapham wrote:I don't see any 8.2 version of the workbench available for download. Latest version is 8.0.36 as far as I can see.

The latest release came out in 2020. I think it has become an orphan. Short of downgrading the server, that may be the end of the road for now.

The other alternative would be to look for an equivalent client that is more up to date.

I usually use the mysql command-line utility, which is part of the core system and thus always up-to-date. If you don't mind CLI.

One possible alternative might be SQuirreLDB, which, if memory serves, is a GUI-based JDBC client, thus supporting any JDBC database you have drivers for. It won't be MySQL-specific of course, but I found it useful last time I needed a GUI DB admin tool.

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate all your help and advice.

I am running MySQL (8.2.13) and Workbench (8.0.36). So, it seems that Tim is correct in that it has become an orphan and no longer supported by Oracle.

On another note, I received a telephone call from Oracle and the salesman put a lot of pressure on me to upgrade from the community version to enterprise. He said the community version was not secure. Is that correct?

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Paul Clapham]

That's probably an immensely complicated question. One facile response is "Okay, but nothing is totally secure". But in this case there are many things that need to be secured, and the community version of MySQL does have a lot of security features. (Section 8 in the user manual.) But on the other hand I read online that there's such a thing as "enterprise security". (I didn't carry on reading to see what that comprises.) So you'd need to evaluate your situation to see what your security issues might be.

My MySQL database is also a personal project. It's on a single computer and it's not accessible from the internet. Not unless the computer gets compromised, that is. So I'm not particularly concerned.

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

Thank you Paul.

[Ron McLeod]

Glyndwr Bartlett wrote:... I received a telephone call from Oracle and the salesman put a lot of pressure on me to upgrade from the community version to enterprise. He said the community version was not secure. Is that correct?

I call BS unless he provides some documented evidence/comparison, which you can then look-over to see if any of the insecurities apply to your usage and operating environment.

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

Thank you Ron.

[Paul Clapham]

Glyndwr Bartlett wrote:Thank you Paul.

And thank you for asking the question which has led me to not consider updating MySQL to the latest version. Not that it was on my agenda but upgrading to the latest version of things is something that I do.

Although I could take Tim's advice and switch to SquirrelDB if I did consider that, I suppose.

[Tim Moores]

SquirrelDB

The JDBC client is called SQuirreL, and it works well with all kinds of JDBC databases. I've been using it for years as my primary DB interface, and it has served me well for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, HSQLDB, Access and sqlite. The link is http://www.squirrelsql.org/, or https://sourceforge.net/projects/squirrel-sql/files/ just for the downloads.

I'm highlighting the name because there is such a thing as SquirrelDB, but that's a database that is unrelated to the JDBC client we're talking about here.

[Tim Holloway]

I defer to Mr. Moores' clarifications. I haven't used the product lately, even though I do have an icon on my desktop that agrees with Tim's naming.

Something to note: If you're using any open-source Linux (or MacOS?) OS, the "MySQL" database that installs from the OS package manager is actually MariaDB. We tend to call it "MySQL", since it's a fork off MySQL from before MySQL went private, but unlike imitation "Scotch Tape" or "Kleenex", there has never been any indication that MariaDB is at all inferior to Oracle MySQL™.

Of course you should never expose any database directly to the Internet. That's how the SQL Slammer attack wrought such havoc. Beyond that, long before MySQL was purchased by Oracle, MySQL was extremely tight with security and remains so. You have to not only create accounts with security credentials, you have to define what source IPs are allowed to use those accounts from, and what databases and database entities the account can do what things on. I rate it nearly as paranoid as PostgreSQL, and the "nearly" comes largely from the fact that MySQL allows the root user as a client, whereas PostgreSQL does not.

Oracle doesn't exactly have an "unbreakable" track record itself, and salesmen are not giving advice purely out of altruism. The only reasons I'd pay for Oracle over using MariaDB would be that you can expect to have someone to scream at when things don't work and/or because corporate auditors demand it (or a salesman played golf with the CEO and then the CEO mandated it). Well, it's possible that Oracle may have added features to MySQL since the split that you might need, but that's not a problem I've faced, as the MySQL family was functionally complete before the split.