Configuration of AWSRegionRDSTest

This test closely tracks the current status, resource usage, and I/O activity of every active DB instance on each cloud region, and brings the following to light:

• Is any DB instance in an abnormal state presently?

• How are the DB instances using the CPU resources they have been configured with? Is any DB instance consuming high levels of CPU consistently? Should the DB instance class be changed?

• Does the DB instance have enough RAM? Will changing the DB instance class help in reducing the memory pressure on the instance?

• Do any db.t2 instances have a poor CPU credit balance?

• Is the disk I/O queue of any DB instance abnormally high? Which instance is this and when is I/O latency on that instance very high - when reading from or writing to the instance?

• Which DB instance is hungry for network bandwidth?

• Do all DB instances have enough free space? If not, which ones are rapidly running short of space?

The default parameters associated with this test are:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• Specify the host for which the test is to be configured in the HOST text box.

• To monitor an AWS EC2, the eG agent has to be configured with the "access key" of a user with a valid AWS account. To obtain the access key, follow the steps given below:

  • Sign up for a new AWS account from the http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ page.

  • Provide the details of the user for whom you wish to create the AWS account.

  • Based on the AWS EC2 Regions, you will be requested to choose the pricing for an instance to be deployed in the AWS EC2.

  • Once the payment is made, the user will be automatically signed in to the AWS account.

  • From the newly created AWS account, you can request for an "access key". You will be provided with an "access key" and a corresponding “secret key”.

  • Provide the access key in the AWS ACCESS KEY text box; this will enable the eG agent to communicate with the AWS API and collect the required metrics.

• Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

• Provide the secret key corresponding to the access key that you had obtained through your AWS account in the AWS SECRET KEY text box.

• In the EXCLUDE REGION box, 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*

• In some environments, all communication with the AWS EC2 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.

• 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. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.

• 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.

• By default, this test reports metrics for each active DB instance on the cloud. This is why, the RDS FILTER is set to DBInstanceIdentifier, by default. If needed, you can pick either of the following options from this drop-down:

  • DatabaseClass: The computation and memory capacity of a DB instance is determined by its DB instance class. If you select this option, then this test will report metrics for each DB instance class. In other words, eG will aggregate metrics for all databases that belong to a DB intance class, and will present these metrics at the macro class-level.

  • EngineName: Each DB instance runs a DB engine. Amazon RDS currently supports the MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server DB engines. Each DB engine has its own supported features, and each version of a DB engine may include specific features. If you select this option, then this test will report metrics for every DB engine. In this case, eG will aggregate metrics for all databases using a particular engine, and will present these metrics at the macro engine-level.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.