[ensembl-dev] cant connect to DB with perl API

[Nicolas Thierry-Mieg]

Hi list,

I'm trying to use the perl API to connect to Ensembl.
I am on an up-to-date Centos 7 system.
I have VEP installed in ~/Software/VariantEffectPredictor/ensembl-vep/ 
and up to date, and I'm using the version of bioperl that comes with VEP.

My test code is simply:
$ cat ensemblTest.pl
use lib "/home/nthierry/Software/VariantEffectPredictor/ensembl-vep/" ;
use Bio::EnsEMBL::Registry;
my $registry = 'Bio::EnsEMBL::Registry';
$registry->load_registry_from_db(
     -host => 'ensembldb.ensembl.org',
     -user => 'anonymous');

I must be missing something really simple, or else maybe the database 
access has been down all afternoon...?
In any case running the script consistently gives the following error:

$ perl ./ensemblTest.pl
DBI connect('host=ensembldb.ensembl.org;port=3306','anonymous',...) 
failed: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'ensembldb.ensembl.org' (110) 
at 
/home/nthierry/Software/VariantEffectPredictor/ensembl-vep//Bio/EnsEMBL/Registry.pm 
line 1770.

-------------------- EXCEPTION --------------------
MSG: Cannot connect to the Ensembl MySQL server at 
ensembldb.ensembl.org:3306; check your settings & DBI error message: 
Can't connect to MySQL server on 'ensembldb.ensembl.org' (110)
STACK Bio::EnsEMBL::Registry::load_registry_from_db 
/home/nthierry/Software/VariantEffectPredictor/ensembl-vep//Bio/EnsEMBL/Registry.pm:1770
STACK toplevel ./ensemblTest.pl:20
Date (localtime)    = Thu Sep 12 18:58:14 2019
Ensembl API version = 97
---------------------------------------------------

Any ideas or pointers? Thanks!

Regards,
Nicolas