Documentation Grafana Cloud Monitor applications Database Observability Get started MySQL AWS RDS

Set up AWS RDS MySQL

Set up Database Observability with Grafana Cloud to collect telemetry from AWS RDS MySQL instances using Grafana Alloy. You configure your RDS instance and Alloy to forward telemetry to Grafana Cloud.

What you’ll achieve

In this article, you:

• Configure RDS MySQL parameter groups for monitoring.
• Create monitoring users with required privileges.
• Configure Alloy with the Database Observability components.
• Forward telemetry to Grafana Cloud.

Before you begin

Review these requirements:

• RDS MySQL 8.0 or later.
• Access to modify RDS parameter groups.
• Grafana Alloy deployed and accessible to your RDS instance.
• Network connectivity between Alloy and your RDS instance endpoint.

For general MySQL setup concepts, refer to Set up MySQL.

Configure the DB parameter group

Enable Performance Schema and related instrumentation by configuring your RDS MySQL parameter group. These parameters require an instance restart to take effect.

Required parameters

Using the AWS Console

1. Open the RDS Console and navigate to Parameter groups.
2. Create a new parameter group or modify an existing one with family mysql8.0.
3. Set the parameters listed above.
4. Apply the parameter group to your RDS instance.
5. Reboot the instance to apply changes.

For detailed console instructions, refer to Working with parameter groups in the AWS documentation.

Using Terraform

Using Terraform with aws_db_parameter_group:

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resource "aws_db_parameter_group" "rds_mysql_monitoring" {
  name   = "<INSTANCE_NAME>-monitoring-params"
  family = "mysql8.0"

  parameter {
    name         = "performance_schema"
    value        = "1"
    apply_method = "pending-reboot"
  }

  parameter {
    name         = "performance_schema_max_digest_length"
    value        = "4096"
    apply_method = "pending-reboot"
  }

  parameter {
    name         = "performance_schema_max_sql_text_length"
    value        = "4096"
    apply_method = "pending-reboot"
  }

  parameter {
    name         = "max_digest_length"
    value        = "4096"
    apply_method = "pending-reboot"
  }
}

Replace <INSTANCE_NAME> with your RDS instance name.

After applying the parameter group to your instance, restart the instance for the changes to take effect.

Create a monitoring user and grant required privileges

Connect to your RDS MySQL instance and create the monitoring user:

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CREATE USER 'db-o11y'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '<DB_O11Y_PASSWORD>';
GRANT PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';

Replace <DB_O11Y_PASSWORD> with a secure password for the db-o11y MySQL user.

Disable tracking of monitoring user queries

Prevent tracking of queries executed by the monitoring user itself:

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UPDATE performance_schema.setup_actors SET ENABLED = 'NO', HISTORY = 'NO' WHERE USER = 'db-o11y';

Grant object privileges for detailed data

Grant access to specific schemas when you want detailed information:

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GRANT SELECT, SHOW VIEW ON <SCHEMA_NAME>.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';

Replace <SCHEMA_NAME> with the name of the schema you want to monitor.

Alternatively, if you’re unsure which specific schemas need access, grant broader read access to all schemas:

SQL Copy

GRANT SELECT, SHOW VIEW ON *.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';

Grant privileges to auto-enable consumers

Grant update privileges for Performance Schema consumers if you want Alloy to auto-enable them:

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GRANT UPDATE ON performance_schema.setup_consumers TO 'db-o11y'@'%';

Then, enable the Alloy option allow_update_performance_schema_settings as described in the reference documentation of the database_observability.mysql component.

Alternatively, enable consumers manually as described in the Set up MySQL guide.

Verify user privileges

Verify that the user exists and has the expected privileges:

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SHOW GRANTS FOR 'db-o11y'@'%';

Expected output:

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+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for db-o11y@%                                                         |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO `db-o11y`@`%`                    |
| GRANT SELECT, SHOW VIEW ON *.* TO `db-o11y`@`%`                              |
| GRANT SELECT ON `performance_schema`.* TO `db-o11y`@`%`                      |
| GRANT INSERT, UPDATE ON `performance_schema`.`setup_actors` TO `db-o11y`@`%` |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Verify parameter group settings

Verify that the parameter group settings were applied correctly after restarting the instance:

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SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema';

Expected result: Value is ON.

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SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema_max_digest_length';

Expected result: Value is 4096.

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SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema_max_sql_text_length';

Expected result: Value is 4096.

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SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_digest_length';

Expected result: Value is 4096.

Run and configure Alloy

Run Alloy and add the Database Observability configuration for your RDS instance.

Run the latest Alloy version

Run Alloy version 1.12.0 or later with the --stability.level=public-preview flag for the database_observability.mysql component. Find the latest stable version on Docker Hub.

Add the RDS MySQL configuration blocks

Add these blocks to Alloy for RDS MySQL. Replace <DB_NAME>. Create a local.file with the Data Source Name string, for example, <DB_USER>:<DB_PASSWORD>@tcp(<INSTANCE_ENDPOINT>:<DB_PORT>)/:

Alloy Copy

local.file "mysql_secret_<DB_NAME>" {
  filename  = "/var/lib/alloy/mysql_secret_<DB_NAME>"
  is_secret = true
}

prometheus.exporter.mysql "mysql_<DB_NAME>" {
  data_source_name  = local.file.mysql_secret_<DB_NAME>.content
  enable_collectors = ["perf_schema.eventsstatements"]
}

database_observability.mysql "mysql_<DB_NAME>" {
  data_source_name  = local.file.mysql_secret_<DB_NAME>.content
  forward_to        = [loki.relabel.database_observability_mysql_<DB_NAME>.receiver]
  targets           = prometheus.exporter.mysql.mysql_<DB_NAME>.targets

  cloud_provider {
    aws {
      arn = "<AWS_RDS_INSTANCE_ARN>"
    }
  }
}

loki.relabel "database_observability_mysql_<DB_NAME>" {
  forward_to = [loki.write.logs_service.receiver]

  // OPTIONAL: add any additional relabeling rules
  // (must be consistent with rules in "discovery.relabel")
  rule {
    target_label = "instance"
    replacement  = "<INSTANCE_LABEL>"
  }
}

discovery.relabel "database_observability_mysql_<DB_NAME>" {
  targets = database_observability.mysql.mysql_<DB_NAME>.targets

  // OPTIONAL: add any additional relabeling rules
  // (must be consistent with rules in "loki.relabel")
  rule {
    target_label = "job"
    replacement  = "integrations/db-o11y"
  }

  rule {
    target_label = "instance"
    replacement  = "<INSTANCE_LABEL>"
  }
  rule {
    target_label = "<CUSTOM_LABEL_1>"
    replacement  = "<CUSTOM_VALUE_1>"
  }
}

prometheus.scrape "database_observability_mysql_<DB_NAME>" {
  targets    = discovery.relabel.database_observability_mysql_<DB_NAME>.output
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.metrics_service.receiver]
}

Replace the placeholders:

• DB_NAME: Database name Alloy uses in component identifiers (appears in component names and secret filenames).
• AWS_RDS_INSTANCE_ARN: AWS RDS instance ARN for cloud provider integration.
• INSTANCE_LABEL: Value that sets the instance label on logs and metrics (optional).
• Secret file content DSN example: DB_USER:DB_PASSWORD@tcp(INSTANCE_ENDPOINT:DB_PORT)/.
  • DB_USER: Database user Alloy uses to connect (e.g. db-o11y).
  • DB_PASSWORD: Password for the database user.
  • INSTANCE_ENDPOINT: RDS instance endpoint hostname.
  • DB_PORT: Database port number (default: 3306).

Add Prometheus and Loki write configuration

Add the Prometheus remote write and Loki write configuration. From Grafana Cloud, open your stack to get the URLs and generate API tokens:

Alloy Copy

prometheus.remote_write "metrics_service" {
  endpoint {
    url = sys.env("GCLOUD_HOSTED_METRICS_URL")

    basic_auth {
      password = sys.env("GCLOUD_RW_API_KEY")
      username = sys.env("GCLOUD_HOSTED_METRICS_ID")
    }
  }
}

loki.write "logs_service" {
  endpoint {
    url = sys.env("GCLOUD_HOSTED_LOGS_URL")

    basic_auth {
      password = sys.env("GCLOUD_RW_API_KEY")
      username = sys.env("GCLOUD_HOSTED_LOGS_ID")
    }
  }
}

Replace the placeholders:

• GCLOUD_HOSTED_METRICS_URL: Your Grafana Cloud Prometheus remote write URL.
• GCLOUD_HOSTED_METRICS_ID: Your Grafana Cloud Prometheus instance ID (username).
• GCLOUD_HOSTED_LOGS_URL: Your Grafana Cloud Loki write URL.
• GCLOUD_HOSTED_LOGS_ID: Your Grafana Cloud Loki instance ID (username).
• GCLOUD_RW_API_KEY: Grafana Cloud API token with write permissions.

Run and configure Alloy with the Grafana Kubernetes Monitoring Helm chart

Extend your values.yaml when you use the k8s-monitoring Helm chart and set databaseObservability.enabled to true within the MySQL integration.

YAML Copy

integrations:
  collector: alloy-singleton
  mysql:
    instances:
      - name: <INSTANCE_NAME>
        jobLabel: integrations/db-o11y
        exporter:
          enabled: true
          collectors:
            perfSchemaEventsStatements:
              enabled: true
          dataSource:
            host: <INSTANCE_ENDPOINT>
            auth:
              usernameKey: username
              passwordKey: password
        databaseObservability:
          enabled: true
          allowUpdatePerformanceSchemaSettings: true
          extraConfig: |
            cloud_provider {
              aws {
                arn = "<AWS_RDS_INSTANCE_ARN>"
              }
            }
        secret:
          create: false
          name: <SECRET_NAME>
          namespace: <NAMESPACE>
        logs:
          enabled: true
          labelSelectors:
            app.kubernetes.io/instance: <INSTANCE_NAME>

Replace the placeholders:

• INSTANCE_NAME: Name for this database instance in Kubernetes.
• INSTANCE_ENDPOINT: RDS instance endpoint hostname.
• AWS_RDS_INSTANCE_ARN: AWS RDS instance ARN for cloud provider integration.
• SECRET_NAME: Name of the Kubernetes secret containing database credentials.
• NAMESPACE: Kubernetes namespace where the secret exists.

To see the full set of values, check out the k8s-monitoring Helm chart documentation or the example configuration.

Optional: Configure AWS Secrets Manager and Kubernetes

If you use AWS Secrets Manager with External Secrets Operator to manage database credentials, configure them as follows.

Secret path convention

Store monitoring credentials in AWS Secrets Manager at a path following this convention:

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/kubernetes/rds/<INSTANCE_NAME>/monitoring

MySQL secret format

Store the secret as JSON with the following format:

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{
  "username": "db-o11y",
  "password": "<DB_O11Y_PASSWORD>",
  "engine": "mysql",
  "host": "<INSTANCE_ENDPOINT>.rds.amazonaws.com",
  "port": 3306,
  "dbInstanceIdentifier": "<INSTANCE_NAME>"
}

Replace the placeholders:

• DB_O11Y_PASSWORD: Password for the db-o11y MySQL user.
• INSTANCE_ENDPOINT: RDS instance endpoint hostname.
• INSTANCE_NAME: RDS instance name.

Create the secret via AWS CLI

Bash Copy

aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name "/kubernetes/rds/<INSTANCE_NAME>/monitoring" \
  --description "Alloy monitoring credentials for RDS MySQL instance" \
  --secret-string '{"username":"db-o11y","password":"<DB_O11Y_PASSWORD>","engine":"mysql","host":"<INSTANCE_ENDPOINT>.rds.amazonaws.com","port":3306,"dbInstanceIdentifier":"<INSTANCE_NAME>"}'

Kubernetes External Secrets configuration

Use the External Secrets Operator to sync the AWS secret into Kubernetes:

YAML Copy

---
apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: SecretStore
metadata:
  name: <INSTANCE_NAME>-db-monitoring-secretstore
spec:
  provider:
    aws:
      service: SecretsManager
      region: <AWS_REGION>
---
apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: <INSTANCE_NAME>-db-monitoring-secret
spec:
  refreshInterval: 1h
  secretStoreRef:
    kind: SecretStore
    name: <INSTANCE_NAME>-db-monitoring-secretstore
  dataFrom:
    - extract:
        conversionStrategy: Default
        decodingStrategy: None
        key: /kubernetes/rds/<INSTANCE_NAME>/monitoring
        metadataPolicy: None
        version: AWSCURRENT

Replace the placeholders:

• INSTANCE_NAME: RDS instance name.
• AWS_REGION: AWS region where the secret is stored.

Next steps

• Introduction to Database Observability
• Troubleshoot