Quickstart: Integrate Azure Spring Apps with Azure Database for MySQL

Note

The Basic, Standard, and Enterprise plans will be deprecated starting from mid-March, 2025, with a 3 year retirement period. We recommend transitioning to Azure Container Apps. For more information, see the Azure Spring Apps retirement announcement.

The Standard consumption and dedicated plan will be deprecated starting September 30, 2024, with a complete shutdown after six months. We recommend transitioning to Azure Container Apps. For more information, see Migrate Azure Spring Apps Standard consumption and dedicated plan to Azure Container Apps.

This article applies to: ✅ Basic/Standard ❎ Enterprise

Pet Clinic, as deployed in the default configuration Quickstart: Build and deploy apps to Azure Spring Apps, uses an in-memory database (HSQLDB) that is populated with data at startup. This quickstart explains how to provision and prepare an Azure Database for MySQL instance and then configure Pet Clinic on Azure Spring Apps to use it as a persistent database.

Prerequisites

An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.

Create an Azure Database for MySQL instance

Create an Azure Database for MySQL flexible server using the az mysql flexible-server create command. Replace the placeholders <database-name>, <resource-group-name>, <MySQL-flexible-server-name>, <admin-username>, and <admin-password> with a name for your new database, the name of your resource group, a name for your new server, and an admin username and password. Use single quotes around the value for admin-password.

az mysql flexible-server create \
    --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
    --name <MySQL-flexible-server-name> \
    --database-name <database-name> \
    --public-access 0.0.0.0 \
    --admin-user <admin-username> \
    --admin-password '<admin-password>'

Note

The Standard_B1ms SKU is used by default. For pricing details, see Azure Database for MySQL pricing.

Tip

The password should be at least eight characters long and contain at least one English uppercase letter, one English lowercase letter, one number, and one non-alphanumeric character (!, $, #, %, and so on.).

Connect your application to the MySQL database

Use Service Connector to connect the app hosted in Azure Spring Apps to your MySQL database.

Note

The service binding feature in Azure Spring Apps is being deprecated in favor of Service Connector.

Azure CLI

1. If you're using Service Connector for the first time, start by running the command az provider register to register the Service Connector resource provider.

   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.ServiceLinker
   

2. Run the az spring connection create command to create a service connection between the customers-service app and the Azure MySQL database. Replace the placeholders for the following settings with your own information. Use single quotes around the value for MySQL server secret.

   Setting	Description
   --connection	The name of the connection that identifies the connection between your app and target service.
   --resource-group	The name of the resource group that contains the app hosted by Azure Spring Apps.
   --service	The name of the Azure Spring Apps resource.
   --app	The name of the application hosted by Azure Spring Apps that connects to the target service.
   --target-resource-group	The name of the resource group with the storage account.
   --server	The MySQL server you want to connect to
   --database	The name of the database you created earlier.
   --secret name= secret=	The MySQL server username and password.

   az spring connection create mysql-flexible \
       --resource-group <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-group-name> \
       --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-name> \
       --app customers-service \
       --connection <mysql-connection-name-for-app> \
       --target-resource-group <mySQL-server-resource-group> \
       --server <server-name> \
       --database <database-name> \
       --secret name=<username> secret='<secret>'
   

   Tip

   If the az spring command isn't recognized by the system, check that you have installed the Azure Spring Apps extension by running az extension add --name spring.

Azure portal

1. In the Azure portal, type the name of your Azure Spring Apps instance in the search box at the top of the screen and select your instance.

2. Under Settings, select Apps, and then select the customers-service application from the list.

3. Select Service Connector from the left table of contents and select Create.

   

4. Select or enter the following settings in the table.

   Setting	Example	Description
   Service type	DB for MySQL flexible server	Select DB for MySQL flexible server as your target service
   Connection name	mysql_9e8af	The connection name that identifies the connection between your app and target service. Use the connection name provided by Service Connector or enter your own connection name.
   Subscription	My Subscription	The subscription that contains your target service. The default value is the subscription that contains the app deployed to Azure Spring Apps.
   MySQL flexible server	MySQL80	Select the MySQL flexible server you want to connect to.
   MySQL database	petclinic	Select the database you created earlier.
   Client type	SpringBoot	Select the application stack that works with the target service you selected.

   

5. Select Next: Authentication to select the authentication type. Then select Connection string > Database credentials and enter your database username and password.

6. Select Next: Networking to select the network configuration and select Configure firewall rules to enable access to target service. Enter your username and password so that your app can reach the database.

7. Select Next: Review + Create to review the provided information. Wait a few seconds for Service Connector to validate the information and select Create to create the service connection.

Repeat these steps to create connections for the customers-service, vets-service, and visits-service applications.

Check connection to MySQL database

Azure CLI

Run the az spring connection validate command to show the status of the connection between the customers-service app and the Azure MySQL database. Replace the placeholders with your own information.

az spring connection validate \
    --resource-group <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-group-name> \
    --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-name> \
    --app customers-service \
    --connection <mysql-connection-name-for-app> \
    --output table

The following output is displayed:

Name                                  Result    Description
------------------------------------  --------  -------------
Target resource existence validated.  success
Target service firewall validated.    success
Username and password validated.      success

Tip

To get more details about the connection between your services, remove --output table from the above command.

Azure portal

Azure Spring Apps connections are displayed under Settings > Service Connector. Select Validate to check your connection status, and select Learn more to review the connection validation details.

Repeat these instructions to validate the connections for the customers-service, vets-service, and visits-service applications.

Update apps to use MySQL profile

The following section explains how to update the apps to connect to the MySQL database.

Azure CLI

Use the following command to set an environment variable to activate the mysql profile for the customers-service app:

az spring app update \
    --resource-group <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-group-name> \
    --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-resource-name> \
    --name customers-service \
    --env SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=mysql

Azure portal

Use the following steps to set an environment variable to activate the mysql profile for the customers-service app:

1. Go to the Azure Spring Apps instance overview page, select Apps from the navigation menu, and then select the customers-service application from the list.

2. On the customers-service Overview page, select Configuration from the navigation menu.

3. On the Configuration page, select Environment variables. Enter SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE for Key, enter mysql for Value, and then select Save.

   

Repeat these instructions to update app configuration for the customers-service, vets-service, and visits-service applications.

Validate the apps

To validate the Pet Clinic service and to query records from the MySQL database to confirm the database connection, follow the instructions in the Verify the services section of Quickstart: Build and deploy apps to Azure Spring Apps.

Clean up resources

If you plan to continue working with subsequent quickstarts and tutorials, you might want to leave these resources in place. When no longer needed, delete the resource group by using the az group delete command, which deletes the resources in the resource group. Replace <resource-group> with the name of your resource group.

az group delete --name <resource-group>

Next steps

• Bind an Azure Database for MySQL instance to your application in Azure Spring Apps
• Use a managed identity to connect Azure SQL Database to an app in Azure Spring Apps