Notes

Enable logs (general, error, slow query) for Amazon RDS databases (MySQL, MariaDB)

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Databases
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Log locations are:

  • Error: /rdsdbdata/log/error/mysql-error.log
  • General: /rdsdbdata/log/general/mysql-general.log
  • Slow Query: /rdsdbdata/log/slowquery/mysql-slowquery.log

MariaDB logs are also named mysql-slowquery.log and mysql-general.log. These file locations (or names) can not be changed.

MySQL Parameters

  • slow_query_log = 1 (default value is 0 or no logging)
  • slow_query_log_file = /rdsdbdata/log/slowquery/mysql-slowquery.log (default location)
  • long_query_time = 5 (to log queries that run longer than five seconds)
  • general_log = 1 (default value is 0 or no logging)
  • general_log_file = /rdsdbdata/log/general/mysql-general.log (default location)
  • log_output = FILE

To work with the logs from the Amazon RDS console, Amazon RDS API, Amazon RDS CLI, or AWS SDKs, set the log_output parameter to FILE.

MariaDB Parameters

  • slow_query_log = 1
  • slow_query_log_file = /rdsdbdata/log/slowquery/mysql-slowquery.log
  • long_query_time = 5
  • general_log = 1
  • general_log_file = /rdsdbdata/log/general/mysql-general.log
  • log_output = FILE

Notes

  • The changes require a reboot to take effect. You have to manually reboot it, pending_reboot will NOT result in an automatic reboot during the next maintenance window.
  • log_output was set to file because setting it to table can effect the database performance for high throughput workload. Setting it to FILE means you can view the logs from the RDS console, but you can not query them.

To work with the logs from the Amazon RDS console, Amazon RDS API, Amazon RDS CLI, or AWS SDKs, set the log_output parameter to FILE.

  • If the option is set to TABLE then the amount of data written to the table can increase, which can also effect performance due to resources used to write to this table.
  • For the dev db where performance is not that big of a concern, i have set it to TABLE, and for the prod db i have set it to FILE.
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