Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Performance monitoring with Amazon RDS and Aurora, featuring Autodesk (DAT323)

Summary

Pini Dibask, a database specialty solutions architect at AWS, and Gal Cohen, a software architect from Autodesk, presented on database performance monitoring in Amazon RDS.
The session covered AWS monitoring tools and offerings, including Amazon CloudWatch, RDS Enhanced Monitoring, Performance Insights, and DevOps Guru for RDS.
The importance of visibility in database performance diagnostics and troubleshooting was emphasized.
Amazon RDS is a fully managed relational database service that supports various engines, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres, and Amazon Aurora.
CloudWatch is used for instance-level monitoring, RDS Enhanced Monitoring for granular OS-level metrics, and Performance Insights for deep dive SQL analysis.
DevOps Guru for RDS uses machine learning for automated performance diagnostics and proactive troubleshooting.
Gal Cohen shared Autodesk's success story, demonstrating how Performance Insights helped resolve a customer-facing incident involving a sudden storage drop in an RDS instance.
The session concluded with a call to be proactive in monitoring and to use the right AWS tools for the right monitoring levels.

Visibility into database performance is crucial for identifying and resolving bottlenecks. Tools like Performance Insights provide this visibility even for those without deep database expertise.
AWS monitoring tools offer different levels of granularity, from instance-level metrics to deep SQL analysis, allowing for comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics.
The use of machine learning in tools like DevOps Guru for RDS and anomaly detection in CloudWatch represents a trend towards more proactive and automated monitoring solutions.
Autodesk's case study illustrates the practical application of AWS monitoring tools in a real-world scenario, highlighting the importance of these tools in maintaining service availability and performance.
The session highlighted the evolution of database and infrastructure ownership from specialized teams to development teams, emphasizing the need for effective monitoring tools to bridge knowledge gaps.
The presentation underscored the importance of being proactive with monitoring and diagnostics, suggesting that AWS is continuing to innovate in this space to simplify the user experience.