---
title: "Monitor a DBaaS instance and set alerts"
description: "Read a DBaaS instance's monitoring graphs, slow query log, and activity timeline, and set an email alert on a metric."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "database"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/database/how-to/configure-a-database-alert/"
topic: ["monitoring"]
---

# Monitor a DBaaS instance and set alerts

Monitor a DBaaS instance from its tabs: its monitoring graphs, its slow queries, and every
management action taken on it. Set an alert to get an email when one of six metrics meets a
condition you set.

## Before you begin

Make sure that everyone who needs the alert email is in an alert group. Your project's default
alert group already contains the account owner. To add people or make another group, see
[Manage alert groups](/myaccount/monitoring/how-to/manage-alert-groups/).

## Create an alert

On the DBaaS instance's **Alerts** tab, click **Create New**. In the **Create Alert** form, fill in:

| Field                   | What to enter                                                                                         |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Alert trigger type**  | CPU Load Average, Free Memory, Free Disk Space, Slow Query Rate, Query per second, or CPU Utilization |
| **Operator**            | Greater than, Less than, Equal to, or Not equal to                                                    |
| **Threshold value (%)** | A number from 10 to 100                                                                               |
| **Severity**            | How serious the alert is: Not classified, Information, Warning, Average, High, or Disaster            |
| **Alert Group(s)**      | The alert groups whose members get the email                                                          |

For example, a **Free Disk Space** alert with **Less than** and a threshold of 20 emails your alert
group before the disk fills.

Click **Create**. When the alert fires, it emails the members of the group chosen in
**Alert Group(s)**. To send alerts to more people, add them to that group under **Manage Alert
Groups** in Event Monitoring.

## Watch the monitoring graphs

The DBaaS instance's **Monitoring** tab graphs CPU, two memory metrics, network traffic, and space
utilization. It also graphs disk IOPS, for reads and writes separately, and connection and query
metrics for the DBaaS instance's engine.

## Read the slow query log

The DBaaS instance's **Slow Log Queries** tab lists queries that took longer than two seconds to
run. Each shows its time, client IP, query text, and execution time.

## Review past actions

The DBaaS instance's **Activity Timeline** tab lists every management action taken on it, in order.

You now have an alert that emails your alert group, and the tabs that show how the DBaaS instance is
behaving. If an alert shows the DBaaS instance running short of disk space, see
[Expand a DBaaS instance's disk space](/myaccount/database/how-to/expand-database-disk-space/).