# Monitoring Amazon RDS metrics with Amazon CloudWatch
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Amazon CloudWatch is a metrics repository. The repository collects and processes raw data from Amazon RDS into readable, near real-time metrics. For a complete list of Amazon RDS metrics sent to CloudWatch, see  [ Metrics reference for Amazon RDS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/en_us/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/metrics-reference.html).

To analyze and troubleshoot the performance of your databases at scale, use [CloudWatch Database Insights](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_DatabaseInsights.html).

**Topics**
+ [Overview of Amazon RDS and Amazon CloudWatch](#cw-metrics-overview)
+ [Viewing DB instance metrics in the CloudWatch console and AWS CLI](metrics_dimensions.md)
+ [Exporting Performance Insights metrics to CloudWatch](PI_metrics_export_CW.md)
+ [Creating CloudWatch alarms to monitor Amazon RDS](creating_alarms.md)
+ [Tutorial: Creating an Amazon CloudWatch alarm for Multi-AZ DB cluster replica lag for Amazon RDS](multi-az-db-cluster-cloudwatch-alarm.md)

## Overview of Amazon RDS and Amazon CloudWatch
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By default, Amazon RDS automatically sends metric data to CloudWatch in 1-minute periods. For example, the `CPUUtilization` metric records the percentage of CPU utilization for a DB instance over time. Data points with a period of 60 seconds (1 minute) are available for 15 days. This means that you can access historical information and see how your web application or service is performing.

You can now export Performance Insights metrics dashboards from Amazon RDS to Amazon CloudWatch. You can export either the preconfigured or customized metrics dashboards as a new dashboard or add them to an existing CloudWatch dashboard. The exported dashboard is available to view in the CloudWatch console. For more information on how to export the Performance Insights metrics dashboards to CloudWatch, see [Exporting Performance Insights metrics to CloudWatch](PI_metrics_export_CW.md).

As shown in the following diagram, you can set up alarms for your CloudWatch metrics. For example, you might create an alarm that signals when the CPU utilization for an instance is over 70%. You can configure Amazon Simple Notification Service to email you when the threshold is passed.

![\[RDS metrics in AWS CloudWatch\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/images/rds-cloudwatch.png)


Amazon RDS publishes the following types of metrics to Amazon CloudWatch:
+ Metrics for your RDS DB instances

  For a table of these metrics, see [Amazon CloudWatch metrics for Amazon RDS](rds-metrics.md).
+ Performance Insights metrics

  For a table of these metrics, see [Amazon CloudWatch metrics for Amazon RDS Performance Insights](USER_PerfInsights.Cloudwatch.md) and [Performance Insights counter metrics](USER_PerfInsights_Counters.md).
+ Enhanced Monitoring metrics (published to Amazon CloudWatch Logs)

  For a table of these metrics, see [OS metrics in Enhanced Monitoring](USER_Monitoring-Available-OS-Metrics.md).
+ Usage metrics for the Amazon RDS service quotas in your AWS account

  For a table of these metrics, see [Amazon CloudWatch usage metrics for Amazon RDS](rds-metrics.md#rds-metrics-usage). For more information about Amazon RDS quotas, see [Quotas and constraints for Amazon RDS](CHAP_Limits.md).

For more information about CloudWatch, see [ What is Amazon CloudWatch?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/DeveloperGuide/WhatIsCloudWatch.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*. For more information about CloudWatch metrics retention, see [Metrics retention](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/DeveloperGuide/cloudwatch_concepts.html#metrics-retention).