To connect to a cluster using ycqlsh:

  1. On the Clusters tab, select a cluster.

  2. Click Connect.

  3. Click YugabyteDB Client Shell.

  4. If you have not installed the YugabyteDB clients on your computer, select your operating system and copy the command to install the clients from the command line.

  5. Click Download CA Cert to download the root.crt certificate for TLS encryption, and install the certificate on your computer. If you are using Docker, copy the certificate to your Docker container.

  6. If your cluster is deployed in a VPC, choose Private Address if you are connecting from a peered VPC. Otherwise, choose Public Address (only available if you have enabled Public Access for the cluster; not recommended for production).

  7. Copy the YCQL connection string.

    The connection string includes the cluster host and port, with flags for the database username (-u), and TLS settings (--ssl). The command specifies that the connection will use the CA certificate you installed on your computer.

    Here's an example of the generated ycqlsh command:

    SSL_CERTFILE=<ROOT_CERT_PATH> \
    ./ycqlsh \
    740ce33e-4242-4242-a424-cc4242c4242b.aws.ybdb.io 9042 \
    -u <DB USER> \
    --ssl
    
  8. On your computer, change directories to the directory where you installed the client shell.

  9. Paste and run the command, replacing

    • <ROOT_CERT_PATH> with the path to the root certificate on your computer.
    • <DB USER> with your database username.

The ycqlsh shell opens connected to the remote cluster.

Connected to local cluster at 35.236.85.97:12200.
[ycqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.9-SNAPSHOT | CQL spec 3.4.2 | Native protocol v4]
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