When you need to monitor, manage, and audit the SQL statements executed in your database instances, you can leverage the SQL Explorer and Audit feature. Once enabled, this feature automatically records SQL statements from database kernels, along with crucial context like the accounts used to execute them, IP addresses, and execution details. This is done with no performance impact on your database instance. You can also use traffic playback and stress testing features to validate instance specifications and effectively prepare for business traffic peaks.
Supported databases and regions
The SQL Explorer and Audit feature is a core component of DAS Enterprise Edition. The specific databases and regions supported depend on the version of DAS Enterprise Edition you have enabled.
For a complete and up-to-date list, see Databases and regions supported by each version.
Key features
Search: Query and export SQL statements and corresponding information, such as database, status, running time, etc. For more information, see Audit.
SQL Explorer: Diagnose SQL health status, troubleshoot performance issues, analyze service traffic, etc. For more information, see SQL Explorer.
Security Audit: Automatically detect high-risk SQL statements, SQL injection, new access sources, and other threats. For more information, see Security audit (old version).
Traffic Playback And Stress Test: Provides traffic playback and stress testing capabilities to help you verify whether your instance type needs to be scaled out to effectively handle service traffic peaks.
SQL Review: Provides global SQL workload analysis capabilities to help users quickly locate suspicious SQL statements in database instances, analyze these suspicious SQL statements, and provide corresponding optimization suggestions. For more information, see SQL Review.
Transaction Analysis: Through the transaction analysis feature, you can obtain the transaction type, number of transactions, and transaction details of a specific thread within a specified time period, which helps you understand, analyze, and optimize database performance at the transaction level. For more information, see Transaction analysis.
Quick Transaction Analysis: Through the quick transaction analysis feature, you can identify the start and end statements of the transaction where the SQL statement to be analyzed is located, thereby understanding the commit or rollback status of the transaction. For more information, see Quick transaction analysis.
Billing
You can use the SQL Explorer and Audit feature only after enabling DAS Enterprise Edition. For more information about the billing for different versions of DAS Enterprise Edition, see Product billing.
Enable SQL Explorer and Audit
This feature is automatically activated when you enable DAS Enterprise Edition for a database instance. You do not need to manually perform any additional steps. For more information, see Enable DAS Enterprise Edition.
Log on to the DAS console.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Intelligent O&M Center > Instance Monitoring.
Find the target instance, click the instance ID, and then go to the instance details page.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Request Analysis > SQL Explorer and Audit.
On the SQL Explorer and Audit page, enable the SQL Explorer and Audit feature.
If you have not enabled DAS Enterprise Edition for your Alibaba Cloud account, enable DAS Enterprise Edition as prompted. For more information, see Enable DAS Enterprise Edition.
Modify data storage duration
You can adjust how long your SQL Explorer and Audit data is stored.
Reducing the data retention period will cause any logs older than the new period to be permanently deleted immediately. It is highly recommended to export any necessary logs before shortening the retention duration.
Log on to the DAS console.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Intelligent O&M Center > Instance Monitoring.
Find the target instance, click the instance ID, and then go to the instance details page.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Request Analysis > SQL Explorer and Audit.
On the SQL Explorer and Audit page click Service Settings.
Modify the storage duration and submit.
If you have enabled DAS Enterprise Edition V3, you can modify the data storage duration for different sub-features.
NoteYou can also set the DAS Professional Edition Management page to configure the Data Duration for SQL Explorer and Audit data for your database instance. For more information, see Manage DAS Enterprise Edition.
The storage space for this data is provided by DAS and does not consume your database instance's storage.
Disable SQL Explorer and Audit
Disabling the feature will not impact your business applications, but it will cause all existing SQL audit logs to be permanently deleted. Before you disable this feature, we recommend that you export the SQL audit logs as a file and download the file to your computer. If you enable this feature again, SQL audit logs will be generated from the point in time when this feature is enabled.
Log on to the DAS console.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Intelligent O&M Center > Instance Monitoring.
Find the target instance, click the instance ID, and then go to the instance details page.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Request Analysis > SQL Explorer and Audit.
On the SQL Explorer and Audit page click Search.
In the log list area of the Search tab, click Export.
In the dialog box that appears, select the export fields and export time range.
Download the exported file and keep it safe.
The download function for SQL Explorer and Audit data varies with different DAS Enterprise Edition versions. Please download as needed.
In the View Exported Logs of the Search tab, download the exported file.
In the Task list tab, download the exported file.
Click Service Settings to disable SQL Explorer and Audit.
If you have enabled DAS Enterprise Edition V3, please uncheck all features of SQL Explorer and Audit, and click Submit.
NoteAfter disabling the feature, the system will release the associated storage space within about one hour.
Feature and storage architecture across versions
DAS Enterprise Edition has evolved to offer better performance and more flexible pricing:
V2 vs. V1: V2 introduced a new underlying storage architecture using a mix of hot and cold storage, significantly reducing costs.
V3 vs. V2: V3 builds on the hybrid storage model and introduces itemized billing, allowing you to pay only for the specific features you use, offering greater flexibility.