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Description

This policy identifies Amazon RDS database instances that operate at high utilization levels, which may indicate that they are overburdened and require scaling or workload tuning to maintain optimal performance. An instance is flagged as overutilized when its 30-day average CPU utilization exceeds 90% and database connection or disk I/O metrics indicate workload activity.

Rationale​

Overutilized RDS database instances often struggle to meet workload demands, leading to degraded application performance and potential downtime. Proactively identifying these instances allows for timely resizing to a more appropriate instance class, ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and a better user experience for applications relying on the database.

Impact​

Scaling or resizing incurs additional costs. Implementing scaling strategies allows workloads to adapt dynamically to changing demand, preventing performance bottlenecks.

Audit​

This policy evaluates an AWS RDS Instance based on its 30-day performance metrics.

The Instance is marked as INCOMPLIANT if all the following criteria are met:

  • CloudWatch: CPU, 30-Day is greater than 90%.
  • At least one of the following workload activity indicators is present:
    • CloudWatch: Database Connections Max,30d is greater than 0.
    • CloudWatch: Disk Read IOPS, 30-Day is greater than 50 IOPS.
    • CloudWatch: Disk Write IOPS, 30-Day is greater than 50 IOPS.

The Instance is marked as INAPPLICABLE if it is not in an available Status or it has been running for less than 30 days.

The Instance is marked as UNDETERMINED if its Status, Create Time, CloudWatch: CPU, 30-Day, or all workload activity indicators are empty, indicating insufficient data in the CMDB to assess whether the instance is overutilized.