I have a MySQL database server with bind-address set to 10.x.y.z (IMPORTANT: not listening on localhost etc)

The web nodes can connect and use MySQL no problem.

Now I’m trying to access MySQL from my local machine.

First set up a tunnel with:

ssh -N -L 3306:10.x.y.z:3306 user@dbserver

Now try mysql:

mysql -h 10.x.y.z -u dbuser -p

It hangs for a long time and finally returns with “Can’t connect to MySQL server on ’10.x.y.z:3306′ (110)”.

If I SSH into the server, I can connect to mysql just fine. Either with

mysql -u dbuser -p

or with

mysql -h 10.x.y.z -u dbuser -p

I have also confirmed that /etc/ssh/sshd_config has
AllowTcpForwarding set to yes.

What am I doing wrong with the tunnel part?