---
title: "What Database Observability provides | Grafana Labs"
description: "Capabilities and features of Grafana Cloud Database Observability"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Beyond basic metrics

Traditional database monitoring tells you *that* something is wrong. Database Observability tells you *why*.

| Basic monitoring (integrations) | Database Observability                             |
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| Queries per second (aggregate)  | Which specific queries are slow and why            |
| Connection count                | Which connections consume the most resources       |
| Replication status (up/down)    | How far behind a replica is and what’s causing lag |
| CPU and memory usage            | Which queries drive resource consumption           |

## What you see in the dashboards

**Queries Overview** is your starting point. It shows RED metrics (rate, errors, duration) for every query, so you can sort by duration and immediately find the slowest queries.

From there, you can drill into any query to explore:

- **Query samples** — Individual executions with timing and parameters
- **Explain plans** — Visual representation of how the database executes each query, with cost-coded nodes highlighting expensive operations
- **Wait events** — Where queries spend time waiting for locks, I/O, or other resources instead of executing
- **Table schemas** — Table structures, indexes, and constraints that may reveal missing indexes
- **AI-powered suggestions** — Optimization recommendations based on query patterns

## Managed database support

Database Observability works with the following self-managed databases and managed cloud services:

- Self-managed MySQL and PostgreSQL
- Amazon RDS (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
- Amazon Aurora (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
- Google Cloud SQL (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
- Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL

For cloud-managed databases, an infrastructure metrics panel surfaces CPU utilization, memory usage, IOPS, and network throughput alongside your query data.