Step 4: Configure the Collector

Configuring the collector on Amazon ECS

• Single DB Instance
• Multiple DB Instances

aws ssm put-parameter --name /pganalyze/DB_PASSWORD --type SecureString --value "YOUR_MONITORING_USER_PASSWORD"
aws ssm put-parameter --name /pganalyze/PGA_API_KEY --type SecureString --value "YOUR_PGANALYZE_API_KEY"

{
  "family": "pganalyze-fargate",
  "requiresCompatibilities": [
    "FARGATE"
  ],
  "executionRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:role/pganalyzeTaskRole",
  "taskRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:role/pganalyzeTaskRole",
  "networkMode": "awsvpc",
  "memory": "512",
  "cpu": "256",
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "pganalyze",
      "image": "quay.io/pganalyze/collector:stable",
      "essential": true,
      "environment": [
        {"name": "DB_HOST", "value": "your_database_host"},
        {"name": "DB_USERNAME", "value": "your_monitoring_user"},
        {"name": "DB_NAME", "value": "your_database_name"},
      ],
      "secrets": [
        {"name": "PGA_API_KEY", "valueFrom": "/pganalyze/PGA_API_KEY"},
        {"name": "DB_PASSWORD", "valueFrom": "/pganalyze/DB_PASSWORD"}
      ],
      "logConfiguration": {
        "logDriver": "awslogs",
        "options": {
          "awslogs-group": "/ecs/pganalyze",
          "awslogs-region": "us-east-1",
          "awslogs-stream-prefix": "pganalyze"
        }
      },
      "user": 1000,
      "readonlyRootFilesystem": false,
      "mountPoints": []
    }
  ]
}

Handling Amazon Aurora clusters vs instances

In the case of Amazon Aurora, the collector automatically resolves cluster endpoints to the underlying writer instance.

{"name": "DB_HOST", "value": "mydbcluster.cluster-123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"},

This will only monitor the writer instance. If you also want to monitor a reader instance, you'll need to use the Multiple Instances method above and specify the reader instance as a second instance within the pganalyze_collector.conf file, then update the /pganalyze/CONFIG_CONTENTS SSM secret.

[pganalyze]
api_key = 'your_pga_organization_api_key'

[writer_instance]
db_host = mydbcluster.cluster-123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com
...

[reader_instance]
db_host = mydbcluster.cluster-ro-123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com
...

Alternatively, you can run a separate Docker container to monitor a reader instance. Use the cluster-ro endpoint as the DB_HOST of the environment variables:

{"name": "DB_HOST", "value": "mydbcluster.cluster-ro-123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"},

If you have a cluster with multiple readers, you either need to add each instance endpoint to the content of the pganalyze_collector.conf file (e.g. add each section like [reader_instance1], [reader_instance2]), then update the /pganalyze/CONFIG_CONTENTS SSM secret, or run one pganalyze collector Docker container for each instance.

Registering the task and launching it

We can now register the task definition like this, as well as create the log group:

aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://pganalyze_task.json
aws logs create-log-group --log-group-name /ecs/pganalyze

And then launch the task like this:

aws ecs run-task --task-definition pganalyze-fargate --launch-type FARGATE --platform-version 1.3.0 --cluster test-cluster --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={assignPublicIp=ENABLED,subnets=[subnet-YOUR_SUBNET],securityGroups=[sg-YOUR_SECURITYGROUP]}"

You will need to make sure that subnet-YOUR_SUBNET and sg-YOUR_SECURITYGROUP are correctly specified.

To verify that the task is running successfully, first retrieve the task ID:

$ aws ecs list-tasks --cluster test-cluster
{
    "taskArns": [
        "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:ACCOUNTID:task/TASKID"
    ]
}

Now you can request the logs, which should look like this:

$ aws logs get-log-events --log-group-name /ecs/pganalyze --log-stream-name pganalyze/pganalyze/TASKID
{
    "nextForwardToken": "...",
    "events": [
        {
            "ingestionTime": 1564856657429,
            "timestamp": 1564856653493,
            "message": "I [default] Submitted compact snapshots successfully: 5 activity, 2 logs"
        },

The Submitted compact snapshots successfully message indicates that you have configured the collector correctly.

Your setup is complete. The dashboard will start showing data within 15 minutes.

Once you've confirmed the install is successful and you're receiving query data in pganalyze, we recommend setting up Log Insights as a follow-up step, to automatically track log events in your database.