MySQL ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’ – Solution

Symptom:

Unable to access MySQL database remotely using root account. Any attempt to access MySQL database will result in error:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'ip-address' (using password: YES)

Solution:

The above MySQL error message is a default behavior of the MySQL server to disallow a Root user to connect remotely as by default the Root user is allowed to connect to MySQL server on from localhost that is 127.0.0.1. The solution is to create a new admin user. The below SQL commands will create new user called admin and grant remote access:

mysql> CREATE USER 'admin'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'admin'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Alternative but not recommended solution is to grant remote MySQL access to root user:

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

The above line will grant a privilege to the root user to connect remotely:

$ mysql -u root -ppassword -h 172.17.0.14
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 41
Server version: 5.5.43-0+deb8u1 (Debian)

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