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Creating Automation Rules

Rapydo automation rules enable proactive database management by automatically responding to specific conditions. This guide walks you through the process of creating effective rules.

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Step 1: Identify What to Monitor

Before creating a rule, understand your database’s normal behavior and identify what needs attention. Key questions to ask:
  • What query duration is acceptable for your workload?
  • At what CPU/memory threshold does performance degrade?
  • How close do you get to connection limits during peak hours?
  • Are there specific users or databases requiring special monitoring?
Common scenarios:
  • “Kill any query running longer than 5 minutes”
  • “Alert when CPU exceeds 80% for more than 3 minutes”
  • “Notify when connections reach 90% of the limit”
  • “Terminate reporting queries exceeding 10 minutes”

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Step 2: Choose Your Rule Type

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Scout Rules

Use for: Query monitoring and automatic action.
  • Monitor long-running queries in real-time
  • Automatically kill queries exceeding duration thresholds
  • Filter by user, database, or query pattern
  • Get alerts when specific queries are detected
Example: Kill queries from analytics_user running longer than 600 seconds

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Alert Rules

Use for: Metric monitoring and notifications
  • Monitor CPU, memory, connections, IOPS
  • Send alerts when thresholds are exceeded
  • Multi-metric support (combine multiple conditions)
  • Email and webhook notifications
Example: Alert when CPU > 80% for 5 consecutive checks

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Step 3: Define Triggers and Conditions

Specify the exact conditions that activate your rule.

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For Scout Rules

Query Duration Trigger 
Condition: Query running longer than X seconds
Example: Duration > 300 seconds
Optional Filters:
  • Database: Apply only to specific databases (e.g., production_db)
  • User: Target specific users (e.g., reporting_user)
  • Query Pattern: Match SQL text or patterns (e.g., SELECT * FROM large_table)
  • IP Address: Filter by client IP address
💡 Important: Filters are optional but help target rules precisely and avoid impacting legitimate queries.

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For Alert Rules

Metrics Available metrics for monitoring: Resource Utilization:
  • CPU Utilization (%): Processor usage across instances
  • Free Memory: Available RAM (not percentage-based)
  • Read IOPS: Read input/output operations per second
  • Write IOPS: Write input/output operations per second
  • Connection Utilization (%): Percentage of maximum connections in use
Query Performance:
  • Max Query Duration: Duration of the longest-running query
Database Activity:
  • Connections count: Number of active connections
  • DB count: Number of databases
  • Users count: Number of connected users
  • Hosts count: Number of client hosts with connections
  • Waits count: Number of queries in wait state
Operators:
  • Greater than (>)
  • Greater than or equal (>=)
  • Less than (<)
  • Less than or equal (<=)
Example single metric: 
Metric: CPU Utilization
Operator: Greater than
Value: 80%
Multi-Metric Rules (Advanced) Combine multiple metrics with AND logic for sophisticated monitoring. All conditions must be true simultaneously for the rule to trigger. Example - High CPU AND High Connections: 
Metric 1: CPU Utilization > 80%
AND
Metric 2: Connections count > 100
→ Alert only when BOTH conditions are true simultaneously Example - Query Performance Issues: 
Metric 1: Max Query Duration > 60 seconds
AND
Metric 2: Waits count > 20
→ Alerts when slow queries correlate with high wait states 💡 Important: Multi-metric rules let you create precise conditions that reduce false alerts. For example, alerting on high CPU is more meaningful when combined with high connections.

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Step 4: Specify Actions

Define what happens when trigger conditions are met.

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Scout Rule Actions

When a Scout Rule is triggered, you can execute one of these actions:
Kill query
  • Terminates the specific query that triggered the rule
  • Use when: Query exceeds acceptable duration or consumes excessive resources
  • Example: Kill any query running longer than 300 seconds
Kill connection
  • Terminates the entire database connection (closes all queries from that connection)
  • Use when: A connection is causing persistent issues or needs to be forcibly closed
  • Example: Kill connections from problematic clients or applications
Kill idle connections
  • Terminates idle connections that aren’t actively running queries
  • Use when: Too many idle connections are consuming resources
  • Example: Close connections that have been idle for more than 1 hour
Rate limit
  • Automatically kills connections when they exceed a defined threshold to enforce the limit
  • How it works: If Rapydo detects multiple simultaneous connections matching the trigger, it kills enough connections to reach the defined limit
  • Use when: Need to limit concurrent connections from specific users or databases
  • Example: Limit reporting_user to maximum 5 concurrent connections—if 10 connections are detected, kill 5 to reach the limit
💡 Important: Rate limit controls the NUMBER of simultaneous connections, not queries per second.
RCA (Query Analysis)
  • Triggers automatic AI-powered query analysis for queries matching the trigger
  • Results are sent via email with complete analysis and remediation plan
  • What you get:
    • Root cause identification (missing indexes, inefficient joins, etc.)
    • Step-by-step remediation plan with SQL statements
    • Estimated performance impact
    • Table statistics and execution plan details
  • Use when: You want to understand WHY queries are slow and get optimization recommendations
  • Common trigger: Analyze any query running longer than a defined threshold (e.g., 60 seconds)
💡 Important: RCA goes beyond just identifying the problem—it provides complete solutions with implementation guidance. ⚠️ Required: A notification destination (email or webhook) must be configured when using RCA. The analysis report cannot be delivered without a valid notification target.
No action (Notification Only)
  • Select No action as the action type, then enable notifications with your email or webhook
  • Sends alert without taking any database action — queries continue running unaffected
  • The event is logged in Rapydo for audit purposes
  • Use when: You want visibility without automatic intervention
  • Example: Monitor query patterns to build baselines before taking action

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Step 5: Configure Details

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Basic Settings

Type
  • Alert rule (metric monitoring)
  • Scout rule (query monitoring)
Status
  • Active: Rule is monitoring and will execute actions
  • Disabled: Rule is saved but inactive (useful for testing)
DB Instances
  • Select All: Apply rule to all monitored instances
  • Specific Instances: Choose individual databases
  • 💡 Tip: Start with specific instances, then expand to “Select All” after testing

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Alert Rule Parameters

Samples to Trigger Number of consecutive checks that must exceed the threshold before alerting. 
Example:
Samples: 5
Metric: CPU > 80%

Check 1: 85% ✓ (1/5)
Check 2: 88% ✓ (2/5)
Check 3: 82% ✓ (3/5)
Check 4: 90% ✓ (4/5)
Check 5: 87% ✓ (5/5) → ALERT SENT 🚨
Why this matters: Prevents false alerts from temporary spikes. Only alerts on sustained issues. Recommended values:
  • Volatile metrics (CPU, IOPS): 4-5 samples
  • Critical failures (connections, deadlocks): 1-2 samples
Notification Interval (minutes) Minimum time between repeated alerts for the same condition. 
Example:
Notification Interval: 3 minutes
Condition: CPU still > 80%

Minute 0:  Alert sent 🚨
Minute 3:  Alert sent 🚨 (3 min passed)
Minute 6:  Alert sent 🚨 (3 min passed)
Why this matters: Prevents alert flooding while keeping you informed of ongoing issues.

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Complete Example: Scout Rule

Scenario: Analytics queries sometimes run for hours, impacting production. Goal: Terminate analytics queries exceeding 10 minutes. Configuration: 
Type: Scout rule
Status: Active
DB instances: production_db

Trigger:
  Query Duration > 600 seconds

Filters:
  User: analytics_user
  Database: production_db

Action: Kill Query + Send Webhook

Webhook Destination: #database-alerts
What happens:
  1. Rapydo monitors all queries from analytics_user on production_db
  2. If a query runs longer than 10 minutes, it’s automatically killed
  3. Webhook notification sent to Slack #database-alerts with query details
  4. Team is informed and can investigate root cause

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Complete Example: Alert Rule

Scenario: Production database occasionally experiences CPU spikes degrading performance. Goal: Get alerted when CPU remains high for sustained periods. Configuration: 
Type: Alert rule
Status: Active
DB instances: Select All (production instances)

Metric 1:
  Type: CPU Utilization
  Operator: Greater than
  Value: 80%

Samples to Trigger: 5
Notification: Webhook
Webhook Destination: #database-ops
Notification Interval: 3 minutes
What happens:
  1. Rapydo checks CPU every few minutes on all production instances
  2. If CPU > 80% for 5 consecutive checks (~15 minutes), webhook alert sent
  3. While CPU remains high, alerts repeat every 3 minutes
  4. If CPU drops below 80%, counter resets and alerts stop

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Best Practices

✅ Start conservative: Higher thresholds, longer durations. Tighten after observing behavior. ✅ Use descriptive names: “Kill Analytics Queries >10min” not “Rule 1” ✅ Leverage filters: Target rules precisely to avoid impacting legitimate activity. ✅ Test thoroughly: Always validate in non-production before deploying. ✅ Review regularly: Audit rules monthly to ensure they’re still relevant. ✅ Avoid alert fatigue: Don’t create so many alerts that teams start ignoring them.

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Multi-Metric Examples

Example 1: High CPU + High Connections 
Metric 1: CPU Utilization > 85%
AND
Metric 2: Connection Count > 200

Notification: Webhook to #critical-alerts
→ Only alerts when database is both CPU-bound AND connection-saturated
Example 2: Query Performance Degradation 
Metric 1: Max Query Duration > 30 seconds
AND
Metric 2: Waits count > 50

Notification: Webhook to #database-ops
→ Alerts when slow queries correlate with high lock contention

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What’s Next?