AWS RDS Events Test

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) generates a significant number of events in categories that you can subscribe to using the Amazon RDS Console, AWS CLI, or the API. Each category applies to a source type.

Administrators may want to track these events, particularly problem events (eg., failure events, low storage events etc.), so that they instantly detect and promptly resolve issues in the AWS RDS service. This is where the AWS RDS Events test helps! 

This test reports the count of events of different categories that Amazon RDS periodically generates. Alerts are sent out if problem events are captured. Detailed diagnostics describe the problem events, so that you can quickly tell where and why the problem occurred. This way, the test helps in rapidly identifying and efficiently troubleshooting RDS-related issues.

Target of the test: Amazon Cloud

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each type of event source in each region of the AWS cloud - the source type can be a DB instance / DB parameter group / DB security group / DB snapshot / RDS proxy

First-level descriptor: AWS  region name

Second-level descriptor: Event source type

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Access Type

eG Enterprise monitors the AWS cloud using AWS API. By default, the eG agent accesses the AWS API using a valid AWS account ID, which is assigned a special role that is specifically created for monitoring purposes. Accordingly, the Access Type parameter is set to Role by default. Furthermore, to enable the eG agent to use this default access approach, you will have to configure the eG tests with a valid AWS Account ID to Monitor and the special AWS Role Name you created for monitoring purposes.

Some AWS cloud environments however, may not support the role-based approach. Instead, they may allow cloud API requests only if such requests are signed by a valid Access Key and Secret Key. When monitoring such a cloud environment therefore, you should change the Access Type to Secret. Then, you should configure the eG tests with a valid AWS Access Key and AWS Secret Key.

Note that the Secret option may not be ideal when monitoring high-security cloud environments. This is because, such environments may issue a security mandate, which would require administrators to change the Access Key and Secret Key, often. Because of the dynamicity of the key-based approach, Amazon recommends the Role-based approach for accessing the AWS API.

AWS Account ID to Monitor

This parameter appears only when the Access Type parameter is set to Role. Specify the AWS Account ID that the eG agent should use for connecting and making requests to the AWS API. To determine your AWS Account ID, follow the steps below:

  • Login to the AWS management console. with your credentials.

  • Click on your IAM user/role on the top right corner of the AWS Console. You will see a drop-down menu containing the Account ID (see Figure 2).

    Identifying AWS Account ID

    Figure 2 : Identifying the AWS Account ID

AWS Role Name

This parameter appears when the Access Type parameter is set to Role. Specify the name of the role that you have specifically created on the AWS cloud for monitoring purposes. The eG agent uses this role and the configured Account ID to connect to the AWS Cloud and pull the required metrics. To know how to create such a role, refer to Creating a New Role.

AWS Access Key, AWS Secret Key, Confirm AWS Access Key, Confirm AWS Secret Key

These parameters appear only when the Access Type parameter is set to Secret.To monitor an Amazon cloud instance using the Secret approach, the eG agent has to be configured with the access key and secret key of a user with a valid AWS account. For this purpose, we recommend that you create a special user on the AWS cloud, obtain the access and secret keys of this user, and configure this test with these keys. The procedure for this has been detailed in the Obtaining an Access key and Secret key topic. Make sure you reconfirm the access and secret keys you provide here by retyping it in the corresponding Confirm text boxes.

Proxy Host and Proxy Port

In some environments, all communication with the AWS cloud and its regions could be routed through a proxy server. In such environments, you should make sure that the eG agent connects to the cloud via the proxy server and collects metrics. To enable metrics collection via a proxy, specify the IP address of the proxy server and the port at which the server listens against the Proxy Host and Proxy Port parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none , indicating that the eG agent is not configured to communicate via a proxy, by default.

Proxy User Name, Proxy Password, and Confirm Password

If the proxy server requires authentication, then, specify a valid proxy user name and password in the Proxy User Name and Proxy Password parameters, respectively. Then, confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.

Proxy Domain and Proxy Workstation

If a Windows NTLM proxy is to be configured for use, then additionally, you will have to configure the Windows domain name and the Windows workstation name required for the same against the proxy domain and proxy workstation parameters. If the environment does not support a Windows NTLM proxy, set these parameters to none.

Exclude Region

Here, you can provide a comma-separated list of region names or patterns of region names that you do not want to monitor. For instance, to exclude regions with names that contain 'east' and 'west' from monitoring, your specification should be: *east*,*west*

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Creation events

Indicates the number of Creation events generated by this event source.

Number

Creation events are typically generated, when:

  • A DB instance is created;

  • A manual/automated DB snapshot is created

  • A DB proxy is created

  • A DB proxy endpoint is created

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Creation events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Availability events

Indicates the number of Availability events generated by this event source.

Number

Availability events are typically generated, when:

  • A DB instance is restarted/shutdown

  • An error occurs when restarting MySQL

  • The DB instance has reached the storage-full threshold, and the database has been shut down.\;

  • Free storage capacity of a DB instance is low

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Availability events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Configuration change events

Indicates the number of Configuration change events generated by this event source.

Number

Configuration change events are typically generated, when:

  • The DB instance is added to / removed from a security group;

  • The DB instance is converted to a Single-/Multi-AZ DB instance;

  • Modifications are applied to the database instance class;

  • Current storage settings for the DB instance are changed;

  • A parameter group for the DB instance is changed / finishes updating;

  • Automatic backups for the DB instance are enabled/disabled;

  • Users not tied to a specific host are reset;

  • The DB instance class for the DB instance changes;

  • The master password for the DB instance is reset;

  • An attempt to reset the master password for the DB instance fails;

  • The Enhanced Monitoring configuration changes;

  • An autoscaling-initiated modification is applied to allocated storage;

  • The security group and/or parameter group is modified;

  • RDS modifies the DB Proxy and/or the DB Proxy end-point;

  • RDS detects the addition of the DB instance and automatically adds it to the target group of the DB proxy;

  • RDS detects the deletion of the DB instance and automatically removes it from the target group of the DB proxy;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Configuration change events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Low storage events

Indicates the number of Low storage events generated by this event source.

Number

Low storage events are typically generated, when:

  • The allocated storage for the DB instance has been consumed;

  • The DB instance has consumed more than 90% of its allocated storage

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Low storage events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Notification events

Indicates the number of Notification events generated by this event source.

Number

Notification events are typically generated, when:

  • Operator-issued notifications are triggered;

  • Patching of the DB instance has been delayed;

  • The MySQL storage engine you are using is not InnoDB, which is the recommended MySQL storage engine for Amazon RDS;

  • The number of databases and/or tables you have for your DB instance exceeds the recommended best practices for Amazon RDS;

  • The TDE key has been rotated;

  • You attempted to convert a DB instance to Multi-AZ, but it contains in-memory file groups that are not supported for Multi-AZ; 

  • The DB instance has been started / stopped;

  • The DB instance is being started due to it exceeding the maximum allowed time being stopped;

  • RDS cannot modify the DB instance class because the target instance class cannot support the number of databases that exist on the source DB instance;

  • DB instance is in a state that cannot be upgraded;

  • The RDS Custom support perimeter configuration changes

  • The gp2 burst balance credits for the RDS database instance are low;

  • Storage size is approaching the maximum storage threshold;

  • Copying of DB snapshot from a region starts / finishes;

  • Request for copying DB snapshot from region is cancelled;

  • DB snapshot export task is completed / is canceled / fails;

  • Copying of DB snapshot to region starts / finishes;

  • Request for copying DB snapshot in region is cancelled

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Notification events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Read replica events

Indicates the number of Read replica events generated by this event source.

Number

Read replica events are typically generated, when:

  • An error has occurred in the read replication process;

  • The read replica has resumed replication;

  • Replication on the read replica is terminated / manually stopped;

  • Replication on the read replica is reset;

  • Read replica creation fails;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Read replica events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Recovery events

Indicates the number of Recovery events generated by this event source.

Number

Recovery events are typically generated, when:

  • Recovery of the DB instance starts;

  • Recovery of the DB instance completes;

  • A manual backup was requested but Amazon RDS is currently in the process of creating a DB snapshot;

  • Recovery of the Multi-AZ instance starts;

  • Recovery of the Multi-AZ instance ends;

  • The SQL Server DB instance re-establishes its mirror;

  • The RDS Custom DB instance is inside the support perimeter

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Recovery events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Restoration events

Indicates the number of Restoration events generated by this event source.

Number

Restoration events are typically generated, when the DB instance is restored from a point-in-time backup / DB snapshot;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Restoration events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Backup events

Indicates the number of Backup events generated by this event source.

Number

Backup events are typically generated, when:

  • A DB instance is backed up;

  • RDS is unable to associate the option group with the database instance replication;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Backup events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Maintenance events

Indicates the number of Maintenance events generated by this event source.

Number

Maintenance events are typically generated, when:

  • Offline maintenance of the DB instance is taking place, or is complete;

  • Patching of the DB instance is complete;

  • The DB instance has a DB engine minor version upgrade available;

  • An Oracle time zone file update is available;

  • Your Oracle DB instance is using latest time zone file version, and either of the following is true:

    • You recently added the TIMEZONE_FILE_AUTOUPGRADE option.

    • Your Oracle DB engine is being upgraded

  • The upgrade of your Oracle time zone file completes;

  • The upgrade of the time zone file fails;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Maintenance events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Failover events

Indicates the number of Failover events generated by this event source.

Number

Failover events are typically generated, when:

  • A Multi-AZ failover that resulted in the promotion of a standby instance starts/completes;

  • Amazon RDS is not attempting a requested failover because a failover recently occurred on the DB instance;

  • A Multi-AZ failover has completed;

  • A Multi-AZ activation starts after a successful instance recovery;

  • A Multi-AZ activation is complete;

  • The instance recovers from a partial failover

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Failover events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Failure events

Indicates the number of Failure events generated by this event source.

Number

Failure events are typically generated, when:

  • The DB instance fails due to an incompatible configuration or an underlying storage issue.;

  • The DB instance has invalid parameters;

  • The DB instance is in an incompatible network;

  • An error occurs while creating Statspack user account PERFSTAT;

  • Enhanced Monitoring cannot be enabled without the enhanced monitoring IAM role;

  • Enhanced Monitoring was disabled due to an error making the configuration change;

  • The IAM role that you use to access your Amazon S3 bucket for SQL Server native backup and restore is configured incorrectly;

  • The RDS Custom DB instance is outside the support perimeter;

  • Amazon RDS was unable to upgrade a MySQL DB instance from version 5.7 to version 8.0 because of incompatibilities related to the data dictionary;

  • The DB instance is in an invalid state;

  • The DB instance is in the cooling-off period for a previous scale storage operation;

  • Storage autoscaling is unable to scale the storage for some reason;

  • Storage autoscaling has triggered a pending scale storage task that would reach the maximum storage threshold;

  • The security group owned by the user does not exist;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Failure events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Deletion events

Indicates the number of Deletion events generated by this event source.

Number

Deletion events are typically generated, when:

  • The DB instance is deleted;

  • A DB snapshot is deleted;

  • RDS deletes the DB proxy;

  • RDS deletes the endpoint of DB proxy;

To know which of the aforesaid activities triggered the Deletion events, when, and in which region, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Note:

If Amazon RDS does not generate any event, then this test will not be able to report any metrics. To handle such situations, this test supports a Summary descriptor. As long as the Amazon RDS service generates at least one event, the Summary descriptor will not even be visible in the eG monitoring console. On the contrary, if the service does not even generate a single event, then this test will report measures for the Summary descriptor alone. In this case, the test will report the value 0 for the Creation events, Availability events, Failure events, and Deletion events measures of the Summary descriptor. Other measures will not appear in the eG monitoring console.