Proxy local mysql socket over the network

As an user of OpenVZ it's often my task to migrate database driven web applications to separate environments. In recent versions of OpenVZ, bind mounting of sockets between virtual environments is prohibited. I had to find a way to proxy local connections to /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock to the remote mysql server.

First I've created a mysql user and group:

addgroup --system mysql
adduser --system --home /var/run/mysqld --ingroup mysql mysql

Then I've installed and configured the excellent socat utility using launchtool.

#!/usr/bin/launchtool -C
tag = mysql-proxy
daemon = yes
user = mysql
command = socat UNIX-LISTEN:/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock,fork,mode=0666 TCP:db.vz:3306,forever
start dir = /var/run/mysqld
wait times = 5
infinite runs = yes
stats = yes
launchtool output = syslog:mysql-proxy,LOG_DAEMON,LOG_INFO
launchtool errors = syslog:mysql-proxy,LOG_DAEMON,LOG_ERR
command output = syslog:mysql-proxy,LOG_DAEMON,LOG_INFO
command errors = syslog:mysql-proxy,LOG_DAEMON,LOG_ERR