GuidesAPI ReferenceSupportArticles

Connections and Debugging

Suggest Edits

Every Compose deployment comes with one or multiple connection strings that connect you and your applications to your databases. These are found on the Overview of the deployment, under Connection Strings. If you are having trouble connecting to your deployment or database, there are a few debugging steps that can help narrow down the problem.

If trying the steps here indicate that there is a connection that is not responding, check the Compose Status Page to check for any known issues with the host you are trying to connect to. Contact support [email protected] or open a ticket, if you see errors or experience other problems with your connections.

Testing via Web Browser

The following deployment types can be tested using a web browser:

Admin UI

  • RabbitMQ - Use the URL in the Admin UI section of the RabbitMQ deployment Overview page. Copy and paste it into a new browser tab. It should prompt you to log-in; you may use a user that you have created to access the page. This indicates that at least the portal that serves the UI is up and running.
  • RethinkDB - Use the URL in the Admin UI section of the RethinkDB deployment Overview page. Copy and paste it into a new browser tab. Since the server uses a self-signed certificate, it will give you a security warning and ask you to log in. You should use the deployment's credentails. Sucessfully accessing the RethinkDB Administration Console indicates that the portal to access your deployment is up and running.

Status Page

  • Elasticsearch - Enter https connection string into a new browser tab, omitting the username, password, and '@' symbol. For example: https://portal2176-5.blissful-elasticsearch-32.compose-34.composedb.com:20458/ . It should prompt you to enter a username and password; you may use any user you have created to have access the deployment. Upon successful connection you should see some JSON response data relating to the details of your deployment.
  • MongoDB - Use one of the mongodb:// connection strings with https:// and open it in a new browser tab. For example, https://app.compose.io/compose-34/deployments/astute-mongodb-33. Since the server uses a self-signed certificate, it will give you a security warning. Upon successfully connecting you will see text saying: It looks like you are trying to access MongoDB over HTTP on the native driver port.

CLI Testing

Netcat

Netcat is a utility used for reading from and writing to TCP and UDP connections. It can be used to test connectivity to the server and port provided by your deployment.

In the following example, the -z flag means that we aren't sending any data, just establishing a connection and then closing it.
The -v flag, for verbose mode, pushes slightly more information to stdout.

$ nc -zv portal2176-5.blissful-elasticsearch-32.compose-34.composedb.com 20458
>found 0 associations
>found 1 connections:
  1: flags=82<CONNECTED,PREFERRED>
>outif en0
>src 192.168.1.82 port 50673
>dst 52.7.2.19 port 20458
>rank info not available
>TCP aux info available
>
>Connection to portal2176-5.blissful-elasticsearch-32.compose-34.composedb.com port 20458 [tcp/*] succeeded!

If it's able to connect, you should see in the response
Connection to portal2176-5.blissful-elasticsearch-32.compose-34.composedb.com port 20458 [tcp/*] succeeded!
If it's unable to connect you will most likeliy see
nc: connectx to aws-us-east-1-portal.29.dblayer.com port 23371 (tcp) failed: Operation timed out
or
nc: connectx to aws-us-east-1-portal.29.dblayer.com port 23371 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

Telnet

You can either test your connection by using the telnet command with the sever and port or by opening the telnet client and using commands to connect.

$ telnet portal2176-5.blissful-elasticsearch-32.compose-34.composedb.com 20458
>Trying 52.7.2.19...
>Connected to ec2-52-7-2-19.compute-1.amazonaws.com.
>Escape character is '^]'.
$ ^]
telnet> quit

Once successfully connected, use the esacpe character ^] (it's ctrl + ]) to exit to the telnet client. This will NOT close the connection; type quit in order to exit telnet and close the connection.

Testing SSL/TLS Connections

If you are testing connections that are secured using SSL/TLS, use OpenSSL to connect and view the server's certificate information. In the example, s_client is given two arguments. -connect supplies the hostname and port to connect to, and -servername allows the client to pass the server name indication (SNI) to the server. This will allow the server to give back the correct certificate for your deployment.

$ openssl s_client -connect portal1037-29.adept-redis-42.compose-34.composedb.com:24026 -servername portal1037-29.adept-redis-42.compose-34.composedb.com

>CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=1 /C=US/O=Let's Encrypt/CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
verify return:0
---
Certificate chain
 0 s:/CN=portal1037-29.adept-redis-42.compose-34.composedb.com
   i:/C=US/O=Let's Encrypt/CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
 1 s:/C=US/O=Let's Encrypt/CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
   i:/O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
---
Server certificate
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFTTCCBDWgAwIBAgISA9xd5jaASd6FlKs0OBrpvvabMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUA
MEoxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMRYwFAYDVQQKEw1MZXQncyBFbmNyeXB0MSMwIQYDVQQD
ExpMZXQncyBFbmNyeXB0IEF1dGhvcml0eSBYMzAeFw0xNzEwMDMxMjQ3NDhaFw0x
ODAxMDExMjQ3NDhaMEAxPjA8BgNVBAMTNXBvcnRhbDEwMzctMjkuYWRlcHQtcmVk
aXMtNDIuY29tcG9zZS0zNC5jb21wb3NlZGIuY29tMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEF
AAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAvmgOyI5qQwUB/E7IIyc7u0gKNxh6fRW3fk6R0mFrQknz
Y2SgNnwhyL2+gCn2qumvJCh5bZ+QpenV5Hx8BUuI0qAg/3GIH+3HVjnLubublaAo
gr3nVDSKuYr9hTgoctvmYyXDYP2F1nOUUFvlvEmrTVykd/pb+qySJ1cR+WU1ANfV
5Mr8Pk/KWwgYjcH5m0DPgoPBxqSMfXs0KQ8K/b8Wfa11qAfyY1uhtUNEj18cAT/1
/U3X/ivOR8h6H3zsTUfVp9heOyL+Sf9ssgc0afnSI8VT5+XVIdB+72Wuh6qToyFy
DvkFiaDIuE+ifEE6NoIaIW/KLL4FCHKxan/NVf2D9wIDAQABo4ICNTCCAjEwDgYD
VR0PAQH/BAQDAgWgMB0GA1UdJQQWMBQGCCsGAQUFBwMBBggrBgEFBQcDAjAMBgNV
HRMBAf8EAjAAMB0GA1UdDgQWBBSP222A9l4vSOa52x5CTAQs3ceIcTAfBgNVHSME
GDAWgBSoSmpjBH3duubRObemRWXv86jsoTBvBggrBgEFBQcBAQRjMGEwLgYIKwYB
BQUHMAGGImh0dHA6Ly9vY3NwLmludC14My5sZXRzZW5jcnlwdC5vcmcwLwYIKwYB
BQUHMAKGI2h0dHA6Ly9jZXJ0LmludC14My5sZXRzZW5jcnlwdC5vcmcvMEAGA1Ud
EQQ5MDeCNXBvcnRhbDEwMzctMjkuYWRlcHQtcmVkaXMtNDIuY29tcG9zZS0zNC5j
b21wb3NlZGIuY29tMIH+BgNVHSAEgfYwgfMwCAYGZ4EMAQIBMIHmBgsrBgEEAYLf
EwEBATCB1jAmBggrBgEFBQcCARYaaHR0cDovL2Nwcy5sZXRzZW5jcnlwdC5vcmcw
gasGCCsGAQUFBwICMIGeDIGbVGhpcyBDZXJ0aWZpY2F0ZSBtYXkgb25seSBiZSBy
ZWxpZWQgdXBvbiBieSBSZWx5aW5nIFBhcnRpZXMgYW5kIG9ubHkgaW4gYWNjb3Jk
YW5jZSB3aXRoIHRoZSBDZXJ0aWZpY2F0ZSBQb2xpY3kgZm91bmQgYXQgaHR0cHM6
Ly9sZXRzZW5jcnlwdC5vcmcvcmVwb3NpdG9yeS8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQADggEB
ACWksyk3l4QM7g79RJ+hNH4rtc7ImWILEi0EY+VZgfEigsbPTjK3oe5FDs3zNtFx
r3vX4zn6c1ANldqAAPLKnGmLihQVLHzsk9fUlnA3g/NqcUOyJmR++5/wZMVCZ0Zs
AFamx6AO8ztRwup2jVcYvj9y17Dygsdfq9omkrkulonCHfXww9T7s9qSKn03buj+
oWsMPkcLZMk3e8LYvhRIwbKUVa21VKW4X95Eeq3V2lGVub5lCrMqrr+JIMU7G5fj
6Leic1K+ZVdWiNLrLgJVAe6EDVJ1A1ynFkl2GG1j7jCySlQ52/YgV84I78wr2abM
iuLhNBOXsCIAb0zzTAeO68w=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
subject=/CN=portal1037-29.adept-redis-42.compose-34.composedb.com
issuer=/C=US/O=Let's Encrypt/CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
---
No client certificate CA names sent
---
SSL handshake has read 2922 bytes and written 488 bytes
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is AES256-SHA
Server public key is 2048 bit
Secure Renegotiation IS supported
Compression: NONE
Expansion: NONE
SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1
    Cipher    : AES256-SHA
    Session-ID: 27A56A7A962BDE58DA56E476E7BD588ABEE0D1CA943D4C59AFD88E649D338B8B
    Session-ID-ctx: 
    Master-Key: 12534F6D75A07742C17E75F3BA541BDD781BC038421E3991C5514883418C7602B264C4D5B0C81A8BEAD7C6A654EA731A
    Key-Arg   : None
    TLS session ticket lifetime hint: 300 (seconds)
    TLS session ticket:
    0000 - 36 9a f3 99 b5 6d 3c 74-de 5b cc 97 d1 57 bf 99   6....m<t.[...W..
    0010 - 63 62 86 03 4b 67 57 c1-85 04 8a ff 1e 81 1a 95   cb..KgW.........
    0020 - a2 da 95 d3 12 b8 b2 9d-76 87 62 c8 8c a0 7b f7   ........v.b...{.
    0030 - a3 f7 be b0 84 ce 1a ec-4c 19 64 48 ed b6 3d 31   ........L.dH..=1
    0040 - 6a ae ed 0c cb ae 04 7b-b0 7c de 61 4c 57 b1 72   j......{.|.aLW.r
    0050 - 14 e3 f2 56 8e ca 66 c8-96 2a 92 0a da 53 ab f7   ...V..f..*...S..
    0060 - 64 1a bc 3f 99 1e e7 34-b6 2e e6 bf 50 bd 33 0a   d..?...4....P.3.
    0070 - e8 64 ae f9 ce ce cd 2e-83 6b 17 49 f3 fb 12 3a   .d.......k.I...:
    0080 - 1a cf e4 a6 10 b4 06 9e-87 80 6f c2 e8 e6 d5 ad   ..........o.....
    0090 - f8 7d 00 ee e3 8f e6 fc-ef f7 a9 bd 05 7a 2f 47   .}...........z/G
    00a0 - 01 a2 fe b3 1c 19 1a 77-f4 cd 22 7f 58 3d 36 c9   .......w..".X=6.
    00b0 - 46 fb 03 ad 6e 9d 63 0d-4a 37 49 4a 51 93 07 a4   F...n.c.J7IJQ...
    00c0 - f6 7b 50 a9 e8 bd f2 86-8c 9d d1 62 b3 ba e7 c5   .{P........b....
    00d0 - ee 89 1d 74 87 1a a0 46-4a 0d 32 7f 6d da f2 92   ...t...FJ.2.m...

    Start Time: 1512059800
    Timeout   : 300 (sec)
    Verify return code: 0 (ok)
---

If the connection doesn't use SSL/TLS it will simply connect and return no certificate, or encryption information.

$ openssl s_client -connect aws-us-east-1-portal.9.dblayer.com:24026
>CONNECTED(00000003)

If it is unable to make any connection, then you will get a connection error.

Drivers

If you are able to connect using the above methods, but your application or driver is not able to connect, here are a few things to check:

  1. Make sure that your driver (and driver verison) supports the database version running on the deployment.
  2. If the driver has debugging or verbose modes, turn them on for better visibility
  3. Check out the Compose Grand Tour. It contains connection examples for many languages and database types. (With the goal of covering all of them).

Still Need Help?

If this article didn't solve things, summon a human and get some help!

Updated over 3 years ago