Using Liquibase with MySQL

MySQL is a fast, multi-user SQL database service. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software. For more information, see the MySQL documentation page.

Verified database versions

MySQL Server, AWS Aurora – MySQL, AWS RDS – MySQL, Azure Database for MySQL

  • 8.0
  • 5.7

Google Cloud SQL – MySQL

  • 8.0

Deprecated Versions

  • Amazon AWS RDS for MySQL 5.7 is deprecated as of December 1, 2023.
    • Liquibase support for AWS RDS for MySQL 5.7 ends on February 29, 2024.
    • This does not affect Amazon Aurora MySQL 5.7, Google Cloud SQL MySQL 5.7, or Microsoft Azure Database Flexible Server for MySQL 5.7.
  • MySQL Server 5.7 is deprecated as of October 21, 2023.
    • Liquibase support for MySQL Server ends on January 19, 2024.
    • This does not affect AWS Aurora 5.7, AWS RDS - MySQL 5.7, or Azure Database for MySQL 5.7.

Prerequisites

  1. Introduction to Liquibase: Dive into Liquibase concepts.
  2. Install Liquibase: Download Liquibase on your machine.
  3. Ensure Java is installed: Liquibase requires Java to run. If you used the Liquibase Installer, Java is included automatically. Otherwise, you must install Java manually.
  4. Get Started with Liquibase: Learn how to use Liquibase with an example database.
  5. Design Your Liquibase Project: Create a new Liquibase project folder and organize your changelogs.
  6. How to Apply Your Liquibase Pro License Key: If you use Liquibase Pro, activate your license.

Install drivers

CLI users

To use Liquibase and MySQL, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven download).

To use the Liquibase CLI, place your JAR file(s) in the liquibase/lib directory.

Maven users

To use Liquibase with Maven, you must instead include the driver JAR(s) as a dependency in your pom.xml file. Using this information, Maven automatically downloads the driver JAR from Maven Central when you build your project. 

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
    <version>9.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Configure connection

  1. Ensure your MySQL is configured:
  2. Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file (defaults file), along with other properties you want to set a default value for. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard connection format:

Test connection

  1. Create a text file called changelog (.xml, .sql, .yaml, or .json) in your project directory and add a changeset.

    If you already created a changelog using the init project command, you can use that instead of creating a new file. When adding onto an existing changelog, be sure to only add the changeset and to not duplicate the changelog header.

    2. --liquibase formatted sql

--changeset your.name:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT NOT NULL, test_column INT, PRIMARY KEY (test_id))

    Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2.0 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql instead of --liquibase formatted sql and -- changeset myname:create-table instead of --changeset myname:create-table.

    databaseChangeLog:
   - changeSet:
       id: 1
       author: your.name
       changes:
       - createTable:
           tableName: test_table
           columns:
           - column:
               name: test_id
               type: INT
               constraints:
                   primaryKey:  true
                   nullable:  false
           - column:
               name: test_column
               type: INT
    {
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "1",
        "author": "your.name",
        "changes": [
          {
            "createTable": {
              "tableName": "test_table",
              "columns": [
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "test_id",
                    "type": "INT",
                    "constraints": {
                      "primaryKey": true,
                      "nullable": false
                    }
                  }
                },
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "test_column",
                    "type": "INT"
                  }
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet id="1" author="your.name">
        <createTable tableName="test_table">
            <column name="test_id" type="int">
                <constraints primaryKey="true" nullable="false" />
            </column>
            <column name="test_column" type="int"/>
        </createTable>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>
  2. Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:
    3. liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    Note: You can specify arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

    If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this:

    4 changesets have not been applied to <your_connection_url>
Liquibase command 'status' was executed successfully.
  3. Inspect the deployment SQL with the update-sql command:
    4. liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    If the SQL that Liquibase generates isn't what you expect, you should review your changelog file and make any necessary adjustments.

  4. Then execute these changes to your database with the update command:
    5. liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    If your update is successful, Liquibase runs each changeset and displays a summary message ending with:

    Liquibase: Update has been successful.
Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.
  5. From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the test_table object you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

Now you're ready to start making deployments with Liquibase!

MySQL Server

  • Ensure your MySQL is configured. You can check the status by running:
    • The sudo service mysql status command for Linux.
    • The net start MySQL or services.msc command for Windows. The services.msc command will open a new window and display the list of services available on your system. Find MySQL and check the status column. You can also run mysql -u root -p to see if MySQL works.
  • Specify the database URL in your liquibase.properties file:
    • url: jdbc:mysql://<servername>:<port>/<dbname>

    Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>

MySQL on AWS RDS

  • Check the connection by using the mysql command-line client and running the following:

    • mysql -h <endpoint> -P 3306 -u <mymainuser> -p

    Note: The alternative way is to connect with the SSL certificate.

    You can find the connection information in the AWS Management Console:

    1. Open the Amazon RDS console
    2. Select Databases and choose the needed database
    3. Select Connectivity & security. You will see all information under Endpoint & Port.

    To find the connection information using the AWS CLI and RDS API, refer to the Connecting to a DB instance running the MySQL database engine documentation.

  • Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file as follows:

    • url: jdbc:mysql://<endpoint>:<port>/<dbname>

    Example: url:jdbc:mysql://mydb.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:3306/myTestDB?autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false

Other

You can also use Liquibase on MySQL with Amazon Aurora, Azure Database, and Google Cloud SQL.

Type handling

When you run a command like generate-changelog or snapshot-reference, Liquibase maps data from your database onto the Liquibase output, like the data type of a column.

By default, Boolean types in MySQL map to TINYINT(1). In Liquibase 4.24.0+, Liquibase also maps Boolean types to TINYINT(1) by default. In previous versions, Liquibase maps Boolean types to BIT by default.

Related links