Is it possible to connect MS Excel to Aurora?

Question

Hi,  
  
Well, as the subjects says...  
We have a older solution that we a planning to move to a serverless architecture with a AuroraDB as part of the backend.  
The old solution has some data administration that were managed by the administrator using a fairly advanced Excel sheet and that updated the appropriate tables in the old SQLserver DB.  
In the long run this administration will be rewritten as a web application but we had hoped that there is a possibility to keep using this Excel solution for the time being.  
  
I've tried to search the web for an answer and I can't find a post that says it **is** possible, nor one that says it's **not** possible...  
Since Aurora should be MySQL compatible would a MySQL driver for Excel work?  
Have someone tried to do something like this?  
  
Regards,  
Janne

Answer

Aurora MySQL looks like MySQL 5.6 or 5.7 (Serverless is currently 5.6 only) to an application, and you should just be able to point a MySQL application at an Aurora MySQL server without change.  
  
Excel has a 30-year history of connecting to multiple databases, indeed the industry standard ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) grew out of Excel's requirement to do so. Excel can connect to any database with an ODBC driver. The latest ODBC driver for MySQL can be found at https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/ More complete documentation is at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/connector-odbc/en/connector-odbc-introduction.html  
  
The MySQL team also has an Excel add-in for making connections easier. It is documented at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-for-excel/en/mysql-for-excel-intro.html  
  
There is an old, but I imagine still valid, tutorial for making the Excel-MySQL connection at https://helpdeskgeek.com/office-tips/excel-to-mysql/  
  
There is a separate question on if your Excel spreadsheet relies on SQL Server-specific features that can't be provided by MySQL or Aurora MySQL. I have no examples in mind, just pointing out it is possible.  
  
Since you are talking Aurora Serverless here keep in mind that you can't currently give a public IP address to an Aurora Serverless cluster. It can only be accessed from within a VPC. So to allow access from Excel on the administrator's PC to the Aurora Serverless cluster you will need to proxy that access through an EC2 node running in the VPC (i.e., by using SSH Tunneling).   
  
I haven't tried this myself, but I'm sure it has been done for Excel use. Maybe someone else an comment. Also, you may want to post this question to the RDS forum as it has a greater participation (including of Aurora users).

Is it possible to connect MS Excel to Aurora?

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