How do I connect to mysql database via PHP?

Question

I have a ubuntu VM created on Azure and an SQL database and I am trying to connect to my database via PHP.

I have tried using the PHP connection string provided within the database connection examples and this fails - I get a PDO exception:

Error connecting to SQL Server.PDOException Object ( [message:protected] => could not find driver [string:Exception:private] => [code:protected] => 0 [file:protected] => /var/www/html/index.php [line:protected] => 22 [trace:Exception:private] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [file] => /var/www/html/index.php [line] => 22 [function] => __construct [class] => PDO [type] => -> ) ) [previous:Exception:private] => [errorInfo] => ) 1

For info I am running PHP 8.3.6 on my VM and I have mysqli installed and enabled - I have done all the latest updates, I have the PDO library installed and enabled and pdo_mysql v8.3.6 installed and enabled.

I have checked my databse connection via Windows Powershell as Admin as per the Azure/SQL Connectivity checker code and I was able to connect to my database - it passed all the connection tests.

I have set the firewall permissions to allow my VM ip access to the database.

I have also tried to connect via the code provided here using the SSL certificate as per the answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52425321/mysqli-real-connect-failed

I installed the certificate on my VM and used the following code:

{

$db = mysqli_init(); mysqli_ssl_set($db,NULL,NULL,"/var/www/html/certificate/BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot.crt.pem",NULL,NULL);

$connection = mysqli_real_connect($db, 'citytour.database.windows.net','uname@uname','mypassword','citytour',3306,NULL, MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL);

if(mysqli_connect_errno($db))

{

echo "<br><b>Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error()."<b>";

}

else

{

$sql = 'show tables ';

$result = mysqli_query($db,$sql);

$rows = array();

if(!empty($result))

    {

         while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){

         $rows[] = $row;

         echo '<pre>'; print_R($row);

     }

 }

}
```I didn't get any errors but it didn't work - can anyone tell me how to find the error when mysqli_real_connect fails? That would be really useful - I know it is this line it is failing at.

Also I don't know how to:

1. Enable SSL connection in azure server.

1. Directly run the MySQL command "status" in the database and check **SSL: Cipher in use is AES256-SHA**

Can anyone explain in details the steps I do for the above? Do I need to run a command in PowerShell or similar? Do I do this from my VM or within my database server?

For info my server name is citytour.database.windows.net.

I suspect the issues are one of the following:

a) SSL isn't enabled

b) PDO doesn't support PHP 8.3.6

c) my database is the wrong sort of database for this type of connection

Anyone able to help me troubleshoot this?