PDOException Error - Can't connect to database - laravel

Question

I'm using PHP 7.1, MySQL 5.7, and Laravel 5.7.12. And on a Mac.
I'm new to Laravel. I'm building my application on a remote server (a Cloudways Server). I know most people build their project locally and then deploy their application onto a remote server, but I'm just building my application on a live remote server and I'm using SFTP.
I've configured my .env file to reflect my server's connection details.
When I try to run php artisan migrate I get this error:
Illuminate\Database\QueryException : SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory (SQL: select * from information_schema.tables where table_schema = ********* and table_name = migrations)
at /Users/newadmin/Documents/Sites/Quipper/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Connection.php:664
660| // If an exception occurs when attempting to run a query, we'll format the error
661| // message to include the bindings with SQL, which will make this exception a
662| // lot more helpful to the developer instead of just the database's errors.
663| catch (Exception $e) {
> 664| throw new QueryException(
665| $query, $this->prepareBindings($bindings), $e
666| );
667| }
668|
Exception trace:
1 PDOException::("SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory")
/Users/newadmin/Documents/Sites/Quipper/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Connectors/Connector.php:70
2 PDO::__construct("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=*********", "*********", "**********", [])
/Users/newadmin/Documents/Sites/Quipper/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Connectors/Connector.php:70
Above I've placed ********** where my database name, username and password go, I guess just for security reasons.
I think it's worth noting on that second exception trace it says "mysql:host=localhost;", when in my .env file I have put in my DB_HOST address, which is a remote server address. So it shouldn't be saying localhost. That seems like it could be part of the problem?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I've already tried running in my terminal:
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:cache
And that didn't work.

Answer 1

From the log file, look at the path to the PHP script
/Users/newadmin/Documents/Sites/Quipper
This is in your local Mac or MacBook computer, which means that you need to SSH into your Cloudways server and then run the php artisan migrate command
By SSH I mean running something like
ssh cloudways_user#server_IP_ADDRESS
cd Quipper && php artisan migrate