When moving a site from one server/host to another it’s often necessary to have both servers/hosts share a third server’s database. This is necessary because as the DNS change propagates around the world some user’s ISP may send them to your old server and some may arrive at the new server.
If you had two independent servers running two instances of MySQL the records in the database won’t match and some users will never be on the new server. This is especially a problem if you’re running a subscription based website. You merchant may have already processed their account information and confirmed them on your site, but wait, were they confirmed on the old server or the new one?
Using a shared database allows users who sign up to your site through the old server to be added same database as users who sign up through the new server. But MySQL doesn’t allow this to happen by default. It thinks that any incoming request from an outside connection is a security threat.
The internet is usually a great place to find tutorials, especially relating to programming. However, configuring a MySQL database for remote connections seems to be a poorly documented thing online.
With that in mind, here is a short explanation of how to configure MySQL to allow remote connections.
Note: this will not work on shared hosting.
