Amazon RDS for SQL Server
Welcome
- Welcome
Connect
- Connection Details
- Grant Account Permissions
Alarms (A-K)
- Alarms
- CPU Time Percentage Used
- Databases - Data File Group About to Grow
- Databases - Data File Group Space Used
- Databases - Dynamic Data File Group Growths Remaining
- Databases - Dynamic Log File Growths Remaining
- Databases - Log File Space Used
- Databases - Log Flush Wait Time
- Databases - SQL I/O Errors
- Databases - Unavailable
- Error Log - Error Count
- Error Log - Fatal Current Process Error (severity level 20)
- Error Log - Fatal Database Integrity Suspect Error (severity level 23)
- Error Log - Fatal Database (dbid) Processes Error (severity level 21)
- Error Log - Fatal Hardware Error (severity level 24)
- Error Log - Fatal Hardware Error (severity level 25)
- Error Log - Fatal Table Integrity Suspect Error (severity level 22)
- Error Log - High Severity Message
- Error Log - Information Severity Message
- Error Log - Low Severity Message
- Error Log - Medium Severity Message
- I/O Stall Time
- Index Fragmentation
- Index Fragmentation Status
Alarms (L-M)
- Latch - Total Wait Time Rate
- Locks - Blocked Processes
- Locks - Deadlocks
- Memory - Page Life Expectancy
- Missing SQL Performance Counters
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Alarm Action Failure
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Alarm Evaluation Failure
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Collection Execution Failure
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Connection Failure
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Host Not Defined
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Planned Outage
- Monitored Server - Azure SQL Managed Instance Secondary Connection Failure
Alarms (N-Z)
- Network - Azure SQL Managed Instance Packets Error Rate
- Performance Investigator
- Poor Performance Health
- SQL - Long Running SQL
- SQL - Running out of Threads
- SQL Agent - Jobs Failed
- SQL Agent - Long Running Jobs (Percent)
- SQL Agent - Long Running Jobs (Time)
- SQL Custom Counters
- SQL Virtual Log Files Count
- Tempdb Auto Growth
- Tempdb Contention
- Tempdb Version Store Generation Rate
- Tempdb Version Store Size
- User - Connection Count
- User - Logins Per Second
- User - Response Time
Spotlight Overview page
- Spotlight Overview page
- Sessions panel
- Flows
- Processes Panel
  - Total
  - System
  - User
  - Blocked Processes
  - CPU Usage
- Flows
  - Logical Reads
  - Compiles
- Memory panel
- Flows
- Disk Storage panel
- Performance Health panel
  - Performance Health
- System panel
  - Version
  - Host
  - Custom
  - Status
- Background Processes panel
  - Error Log
Memory drilldown
- Memory drilldown
- Memory Areas
- Server Memory
- Hit Rates
- Cache
- Buffer Cache Page Life Expectancy
SQL Activity drilldown
- SQL Activity drilldown
- Sessions page
- Summary page
- Locks page
  - Locks
  - Lock Types
  - Latches
- Blocking page
  - Blocking
  - Number of Blocked Processes
- Deadlocks page
  - Deadlock List
- I/O by File page
  - I/O by File grid
  - I/O by File chart
- Custom Counters page
  - Custom Counters chart
  - Custom Counters grid
- Query Execution Statistics page
Performance Health drilldown
- Performance Health drilldown
Wait Statistics drilldown
- Wait Statistics drilldown
- Wait Time Trend
- Waits Detail
Wait Events drilldown
- Wait Events drilldown
- SQL
- Plan
Databases drilldown
- Databases drilldown
- Databases page
  - Databases grid
- Summary page
  - Database Space
  - Database History
- File Groups page
- Data Files page
- Transaction Logs page
- Log Files page
- Tables page
- Indexes page
- Disk Space page
  - Disk Space chart
- Fragmented Indexes page
  - Fragmented Indexes grid
Support Services drilldown
- Support Services drilldown
- SQL Agent Jobs page
- Full Text Search page
  - Full Text Search Service
Configuration drilldown
- Configuration drilldown
- Configuration page
  - SQL Server Configuration grid
Error log drilldown
- Error log drilldown
- SQL Server Error Logs
- SQL Agent Error Logs
Workload Analysis drilldown
- Workload Analysis drilldown
- SQL
- Plan
Tempdb drilldown
- Tempdb drilldown
- Usage page
- Contention page
  - Wait Time
  - Sessions involved in this contention
Collections
- Collections
- Collect additional diagnostic information
Troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting

Memory - Page Life Expectancy alarm

The Memory - Page Life Expectancy alarm becomes active when the page life expectancy falls below a threshold.

A low page life expectancy indicates that Amazon RDS for SQL Server is evicting pages from the buffer cache thus reducing the value of the cache. This has the effect of requiring Amazon RDS for SQL Server to perform more disk reads. Performing extra disk reads degrades Amazon RDS for SQL Server performance.

This often has one of two causes: Amazon RDS for SQL Server has insufficient memory to work with, or SQL queries are accessing a very large number of pages in a non-sequential manner. Microsoft recommends that page life expectancy be greater than 5 minutes (300 seconds).

When the alarm is raised:

Ensure that Amazon RDS for SQL Server is configured to use as much physical memory as possible. Check, and if necessary alter, the Max Server Memory (MB) parameter in the Amazon RDS for SQL Server | Configuration drilldown.
Identify inefficient SQL using the Amazon RDS for SQL Server | SQL Activity drilldown | Sessions page. Look for sessions that are active and that are generating a large number of I/O operations. The Sessions page | Session Trace sub-page or Microsoft’s SQL Server Profiler tool can help here.

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