MySQL action returns “Unknown initial character set index '255' received from server” error.

Products

• CA Release Automation - Release Operations Center (Nolio)

Issue/Introduction

While running  “Execute SQL Query on MySQL” action, the following error is returned:

Action Type: Execute SQL Query on MySQL 

   Action State: false 

   Action Description: <u> An error occurred during database connection establishment</u><br/><b>Failed to get connection for: jdbc:mysql://hostname:port/database<br>Unknown initial character set index '255' received from server. Initial client character set can be forced via the 'characterEncoding' property.</b><br/>error code: 0 

   Action Status: FAILED_PAUSED 

Environment

Release Automation 6.8 and 6.9

Resolution

This error is related to a mismatch between the encoding of the target database. The problem may occur when a change is made in the target database like upgrading to a new version.

The solution is to add the connection string in the action definition, but including the "characterEncoding" parameter:

The string should looks like this:

jdbc:mysql://{serverName}:{serverPort}/{databaseName}?characterEncoding=latin1

NOTE: On this example, “latin1” is used, but it could be another like “utf8mb4”, depending on target database.