RDS instance has no declared CloudWatch alarm on CPUUtilization

What it checks

RDS: no declared CloudWatch alarm on AWS/RDS CPUUtilization is proven to monitor this instance's DBInstanceIdentifier.

Where it applies

Terraform: aws_db_instance

CloudFormation: AWS::RDS::DBInstance

How to fix it

1. Add aws_cloudwatch_metric_alarm on AWS/RDS CPUUtilization dimensioned by DBInstanceIdentifier (for example >= 80% for 5 min). A DatabaseConnections alarm is optional and separate.

Frameworks

• AWS Well-Architected OPS.8

These mappings are advisory, not an attestation of compliance.

Vendor documentation

All rules