Creating Users/Accounts
Understand why creating distinct user accounts in MySQL is critical for database security and access control. Learn to use the CREATE USER statement with hostname restrictions, set strong passwords, view existing users, update credentials, and remove accounts when no longer needed. This lesson prepares you to manage user identities securely in MySQL.
Imagine our OnlineStore is growing rapidly. We’ve hired a new data analyst to look at sales trends and an inventory manager to keep track of product stock. We certainly don’t want to give them the main administrator password for the database! That would be like giving everyone the keys to the entire store, including the cash registers and the manager’s office. Instead, we need a way to create specific identities or accounts for each person or application that needs to interact with our database, and later, we’ll define exactly what each identity is allowed to do. This is where creating user accounts comes in, forming the bedrock of database security and controlled access.
By the end of this lesson, we’ll be able to:
Understand why creating separate user accounts in MySQL is so important.
Learn the correct syntax to create new users.
Define where users can connect from by specifying hostnames.
Set secure initial passwords for these new accounts.
Check which users already exist on our MySQL server.
Let’s get started on how we can manage who gets access to our database.
The importance of creating user accounts
Before we talk about how to do it, let’s think about why. Why should we set up separate user accounts? Why not just use one or two accounts for everyone? ...