Database Monitoring for SQL Server on Amazon RDS - Atatus Docs

Atatus monitors SQL Server on Amazon RDS, collecting key data like query metrics, execution plans, and events. This guide covers setup and configuration for full observability.

1. Grant the Agent Access

Create a read-only login for the Atatus Infra Agent and assign the necessary permissions.

USE [master];
CREATE LOGIN atatus WITH PASSWORD = '<YourSecurePassword>';
GO

USE [msdb];
CREATE USER atatus FOR LOGIN atatus;

GRANT SELECT ON dbo.log_shipping_monitor_primary TO atatus;
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.log_shipping_monitor_secondary TO atatus;

GRANT SELECT ON dbo.sysjobs TO atatus;
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.sysjobhistory TO atatus;
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.sysjobactivity TO atatus;
GO

USE [master];
GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO atatus;
GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO atatus;
GO

Note: AWS RDS doesn’t support CONNECT ANY DATABASE. You must create the user explicitly in each target database.

USE [your_database_name];
CREATE USER atatus FOR LOGIN atatus;
GO

2. Configure the Atatus Agent

Step 1: Configure the SQL Server Integration

Edit the /etc/atatus-infra-agent/conf.d/sqlserver.d/sqlserver.yml configuration file in your Atatus Agent installation directory:

metrics:
  - hosts:
      - "<MSSQL_SERVER_HOST>"
    port: 1433
    username: <DB_USERNAME>
    password: <DB_PASSWORD>
    dbm: true

Step 2: Restart the Atatus Infra Agent

sudo service atatus-infra-agent restart

Enable Schema Collection for SQL Server 2017+ (Optional)

Atatus Agent can collect schema information from SQL Server 2017 and above.

Requirements

Agent v3.4.0 or higher
collect_database_info: true
collect_settings: true
Use auto_discovery: true to auto-detect all databases

Configuration Examples

Collect schemas from all logical databases

metrics:
  - hosts:
      - "<MSSQL_SERVER_HOST>"
    port: 1433
    username: <DB_USERNAME>
    password: <DB_PASSWORD>
    dbm: true
    dbm_mssqlserver_options:
      collect_settings:
        enabled: true
      collect_database_info:
        enabled: true
        auto_discovery: true
        # include:
        #   - db_name1
        #   - db_name2
        # exclude:
        #   - db_name1
        #   - db_name2

Collect Metrics Using Custom Queries (Optional)

You can collect custom metrics from SQL Server using the custom_queries option in your configuration.

Configuration Example

metrics:
  - hosts:
      - "<MSSQL_SERVER_HOST>"
    port: 1433
    username: <DB_USERNAME>
    password: <DB_PASSWORD>
    dbm: true
    dbm_mssqlserver_options:
      additional_metrics_options:
# The following is an example of a custom query configuration.               
        custom_queries:
          - query: SELECT age, salary, hours_worked, name FROM hr.employees;
            columns:
              - name: custom.employee_age
                type: gauge
              - name: custom.employee_salary
                type: gauge
              - name: custom.employee_hours
                type: count
              - name: name
                type: tag
            tags:
              - 'table:employees'
        max_custom_queries: 20      