Identify Database Performance Issues with Prometheus Exporter and Timescale Cloud

When you're running demanding applications, you need visibility when issues arise. Development teams should focus on innovation, not wrestling with database administration or black-box operational behavior in production.

At Timescale, we're constantly thinking about how to provide better tools to manage and understand your database services. That’s why, as part of our latest launch week, we’re rolling out new features designed to give you operational control and insight.

• Connections Dashboard
• Prometheus Exporter

Database Connection Visibility with Timescale Console

Ever had that moment where database performance dips, and your first question is: "What's connected to my database right now?" Or perhaps you've needed to deal with an errant application instance that's holding onto connections and causing trouble. Tracking down and managing database connections, especially in dynamic environments, can be a pain.

To solve this, we’ve added a new connections dashboard into the Timescale Cloud console. Here’s how it helps:

• Clear visibility into active connections: The dashboard gives you an immediate, straightforward list of all active connections to your database service. You will see essential details like the associated query, application name, username, start time, the current status of each connection (e.g., active, idle in transaction), and the duration of each connection. This transparency means you can quickly understand who or what is interacting with your database at any given time (and which application may be handling connections poorly).
• Terminate connections directly: If you spot a connection that needs to be addressed—maybe it's a hung query or an old application version you’re phasing out—you can now terminate that specific backend connection directly from the console. This gives you immediate control over resolving connection-related issues manually, providing you with direct operational access.
• Link connections to queries with Insights: Understanding connections is powerful, but knowing what those connections are doing is even better. The connections dashboard is designed to work alongside Insights by displaying the corresponding query. This allows you to correlate a specific connection with the actual queries it’s running, giving you a much clearer path to diagnosing performance issues or understanding database load.

While the connections tab provides performance visibility within Timescale Console, the Timescale Prometheus Exporter makes it easy to integrate Timescale Cloud metrics into your existing observability solution.

Export Metrics Efficiently with Timescale Prometheus Exporter

Timescale Prometheus Exporter extends visibility into the database. Export key database performance metrics directly to Prometheus for unified monitoring across your tech stack. 

With Prometheus Exporter, you gain deeper insights and control over your database performance and resource utilization.

• Export key metrics: Easily send a wide range of Timescale metrics, including CPU, memory, and storage usage, to your Prometheus instance. This gives you a comprehensive view of your database's health and performance.
• Visualize with Grafana: Leverage the power of Grafana to create custom dashboards. Track usage trends, identify patterns, and visualize your database metrics in a way that makes sense for your operational needs.
• Proactive alerting: Configure alerts in Prometheus based on the exported metrics. Get notified about critical situations like high CPU load or low available memory, enabling you to address potential issues before they impact your applications.

Getting started is straightforward.

1. Create an Exporter: Navigate to the Timescale Console and create a new Prometheus Exporter.
2. Attach to Your Service: Link the newly created exporter to the Timescale Cloud service you want to monitor.
3. Configure Prometheus: Update your Prometheus configuration to scrape metrics from the unique URL provided by the exporter.

For more detailed instructions, check out our documentation.

The Timescale Prometheus Exporter empowers you to integrate your database monitoring into your broader observability stack, providing a unified view of your system's health allowing you to move fast with confidence even when issues arise.

Observability with Timescale Cloud

Timescale Cloud provides a straightforward way to operate and manage your database, especially as your applications scale and demands grow.

Try out Timescale Cloud today for free and explore how through these visibility features we continue to deliver speed without sacrifice.