In modern business, database administrators (DBAs) need to identify and address MySQL database performance issues quickly.
Failure to do so can have disastrous effects on an organization. Database monitoring is a technique that can be instrumental in allowing DBAs to more effectively perform their duties, including identifying and addressing MySQL database performance.
Why Bother Monitoring MySQL Database Performance?
In an ideal and strictly fictional computing environment, everything works smoothly. All systems operate perfectly all the time, and there is nothing for the database team to do except drink coffee while planning their vacations. But back in the real world where we all work, things are not so easy.
The majority of individuals earning their living in the information technology (IT) field spend a significant portion of their time handling unexpected events that can often lead to significant problems. Complex systems can experience many different issues that result in degraded performance or unforeseen outages.
Waiting until system-impacting problems occur and then scrambling for diagnostic information is not a productive administrative approach. Monitoring the infrastructure and associated systems offers teams a more efficient method of addressing the inevitable issues that will affect their databases and applications.
Monitoring provides MySQL database support teams with multiple benefits that can make a big difference in their ability to understand what is going on with their systems. Following are some of the reasons for monitoring MySQL database performance:
- Monitoring can help identify under-performing system components by comparing current activity against defined thresholds.
- Alerts can be generated to warn support personnel so proactive measures can be taken to avoid system outages.
- Looming capacity issues that may impact the ability to satisfy future demands can be uncovered from reviewing historical monitoring data.
- DBAs can quickly identify the culprit for MySQL performance or availability issues with the information available from monitoring tools.
What Database Aspects Should be Monitored?
Complicated MySQL environments consist of many moving parts that all need to operate in concert to provide the availability and performance required by business-critical databases and applications.
A robust solution can look at many characteristics of monitored systems. Some are more important than others and should be the focus of your monitoring efforts.
The most critical aspects of a MySQL database environment that should be monitored include:
- The SQL queries executing to satisfy user requests;
- Database security including apparent attempts to hack the systems;
- Disk problems and space usage;
- User access including verifying that excessive privileges have not been assigned;
- Database locks, blocks, and deadlocks.
A Dedicated MySQL Database Monitoring Solution
SQL Diagnostic Manager for MySQL is a monitoring solution specifically designed for MySQL and MariaDB databases. It furnishes MySQL DBAs with a powerful tool for addressing performance, availability, and security issues.
The functionality available with this monitoring solution gives the database team the information needed to quickly and accurately determine what needs to be done to fix the problems impacting their databases.
Following are some of the specific features that make this an excellent MySQL monitoring platform:
- Real-time monitoring is performed from a unified and customizable dashboard allowing DBAs to tailor the dashboard and charts to focus on discrete areas of interest.
- Alerts can be generated with over 600 predefined monitors based on industry best practices that can be modified to fit your business needs. Metrics can be set for items like disk space and availability to help maintain sufficient capacity.
- Problem queries can be identified and analyzed across multiple servers based on total execution time. The detailed information provided lets DBAs tune the queries affecting performance.
- The complete MySQL environment including physical, virtual, and cloud instances can be monitored from a single tool. The application supports Amazon RDS for MySQL/MariaDB/Aurora, Microsoft Azure Database for MySQL, Google Cloud SQL for MySQL, and Oracle MySQL Cloud Service.
- Monitoring sessions can be recorded and all historical data stored in an embedded repository which aids in diagnosing problems that may have occurred previously.
With SQL Diagnostic Manager for MySQL, DBAs can always quickly find out what’s happening with their databases. This can only help them keep the systems performing well and the customers satisfied.