Merge pull request #47 from openobserve/feature/chaitanya-blogs

adding cloudwatch metrics blog

content/blog/authors.json

@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
     },
     {
       "img": "/img/blog/authors/chaitanya.jpeg",
-      "bio": "Chaitanya Sistla is a Principal Solutions Architect with 13X certifications across cloud, data, DevOps, and cybersecurity. Leveraging extensive startup experience and a focus on MLOps, Chaitanya excels at designing scalable, innovative solutions that drive operational excellence and business transformation.",
+      "bio": "Chaitanya Sistla is a Principal Solutions Architect with 14X certifications across Cloud, Data, DevOps, and Cybersecurity. Leveraging extensive startup experience and a focus on MLOps, Chaitanya excels at designing scalable, innovative solutions that drive operational excellence and business transformation.",
       "facebookUrl": "",
       "name": "Chaitanya Sistla",
       "slug": "chaitanya",

content/blog/posts/monitor-aws-rds-with-cloudwatch-metrics.md

@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+---
+title: "Comprehensive Guide to Monitoring AWS RDS via CloudWatch Metrics and OpenTelemetry"
+seoTitle: "How to monitor AWS RDS with AWS Cloudwatch Metrics with Kinesis Firehose"
+description: Learn how to monitor AWS RDS metrics efficiently using AWS CloudWatch and OpenTelemetry. This guide covers end-to-end steps, including creating a CloudWatch metric stream, setting up a Kinesis data stream, and ingesting RDS metrics via OpenTelemetry for centralized monitoring. Perfect for managing multiple AWS accounts and ensuring optimal database performance.
+img: /img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/cloudwatch_rds_metrics_final.gif
+alt: monitor-aws-rds-with-cloudwatch-metrics
+slug: monitor-aws-rds-with-cloudwatch-metrics
+authors: 
+  - chaitanya
+publishDate: 2024-12-19
+tags:
+  - AWS
+  - Cloudwatch
+  - AWS RDS
+  - Postgres
+  - AWS RDS Metrics
+  - Amazon Data Firehose
+  - Kinesis
+  - OpenTelemetry
+  - Metrics
+---
+Monitoring AWS RDS metrics is critical for ensuring the reliability, performance, and scalability of your database systems, especially when managing multiple AWS accounts with multiple RDS instances. This guide walks you through the end-to-end process of using AWS CloudWatch and OpenTelemetry (Otel) 1.0 to collect, stream, and visualize RDS metrics efficiently.
+
+## Why Monitor AWS RDS Metrics?
+
+RDS metrics provide essential insights into your database health and performance, enabling you to:
+
+* **Optimize Resource Utilization**: Monitor CPU, memory, and storage usage to prevent bottlenecks.  
+* **Improve Query Performance**: Analyze read and write latencies to optimize database queries.  
+* **Ensure Availability**: Track replication lag and connection counts to detect issues proactively.  
+* **Centralize Observability**: Consolidate metrics from multiple AWS accounts into a single pane of glass for streamlined monitoring.
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+Before starting, ensure:
+
+1. You have access to AWS CloudWatch.  
+2. [Running OpenObserve Cluster](https://cloud.openobserve.ai/).  
+3. Familiarity with AWS Kinesis is recommended.  
+
+### Step 1: Configure Kinesis Data Stream
+
+CloudWatch streams metrics via Kinesis, which acts as a transport mechanism. Follow these steps:
+
+1. **Create a Kinesis Data Stream:**  
+   * Navigate to **Kinesis \> Data Streams** in the AWS Management Console.  
+   * Click **Create data stream** and name it appropriately (e.g., `RDSMetricsStream`).
+   ![aws cloudwatch metrics](/img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/kinesis_first.png)   
+
+2. **Connect the Metric Stream to Kinesis:**  
+   * In the metric stream configuration, select **Kinesis Data Stream** as the destination.  
+   * Choose the stream you created.  
+   ![aws cloudwatch metrics](/img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/kinesis_second.png)
+
+Refer to [this guide](https://openobserve.ai/docs/howto/ingest_cloudwatch_logs/) for detailed Kinesis configuration steps.
+
+### Step 2: Create a Metric Stream
+
+A metric stream in AWS CloudWatch allows you to stream selected metrics to a destination for analysis. Follow these steps:
+
+1. **Log into the AWS Management Console.**  
+2. Navigate to **CloudWatch \> Metric Streams**.  
+3. Select **Custom setup with Firehose** 
+![aws cloudwatch metrics](/img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/rds_metrics_first.png)
+
+### Step 3: Configure a Metric Stream
+
+Select the metrics you want to stream:
+
+1. Click on **Select Metrics.**  
+2. Select **Include \> AWS/RDS**.  
+3. Provide metric stream name
+![aws cloudwatch metrics](/img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/rds_metrics_second.png)
+
+### Step 4: Import the Prebuilt RDS Monitoring Dashboard
+
+To visualize the ingested metrics effectively, use the prebuilt RDS monitoring dashboard available in the [OpenObserve Dashboards repository](https://github.com/openobserve/dashboards/tree/main/AWS_Cloudwatch_RDS_Metrics):
+
+1. **Download the RDS Monitoring Dashboard JSON:**  
+   * Locate the JSON file for the RDS monitoring dashboard in the repository.  
+2. **Import the Dashboard:**  
+   * Navigate to your observability platform and import the JSON file.  
+   * Verify that panels display metrics such as CPU usage, latency, throughput, and replication lag.
+![aws cloudwatch metrics](/img/blog/cloudwatch-metrics-aws-rds/rds_metrics.gif)
+
+### **Key Panels Included:**
+
+* **CPU Utilization:** Monitor instance performance.  
+* **Connection Trends:** Analyze active database connections.  
+* **Disk Usage:** Track available and used storage.  
+* **Query Performance:** Visualize latency and throughput.  
+* **Error Analysis:** Identify and resolve database issues.
+
+## **Conclusion**
+
+By following these steps, you can set up an end-to-end monitoring solution for AWS RDS metrics using CloudWatch and OpenTelemetry. This approach ensures:
+
+* **Proactive Database Monitoring:** Detect and resolve issues before they impact users.  
+* **Centralized Observability:** Gain a unified view of RDS instances across accounts.  
+* **Scalable Insights:** Monitor growing workloads efficiently.
+
+Ready to optimize your database performance and simplify your observability workflows? [Visit our website](https://openobserve.ai/) to learn more details about how the platform works.