Top 10 MySQL Monitoring Tools

AUG 07, 2024 • WRITTEN BY ROMAN AGABEKOV
Choosing the right MySQL monitoring tool can make a world of difference toward improving your database’s condition and efficiency. You want a tool that offers features to help you keep your database fast, secure, and reliable. In this article, we present 10 of the best MySQL monitoring tools for you to consider.
Why Monitoring Matters
You absolutely need a MySQL monitoring tool. They are your secret weapons for tracking query performance, server health, maintenance requirements, and resource usage. Without them, you're flying blind, missing out on a heap of vital insights.

  1. Identify – MySQL database monitoring tools continuously check for unusual activity, such as spikes in query response times or unexpected resource usage. By detecting issues when they happen, so you can address problems immediately.
  2. Optimize – These tools analyze performance metrics, like query execution times and server load. If you can identify choke points and inefficiencies, you can tweak SQL queries, alter configurations, and improve indexing.
  3. Maintain – Regularly monitoring server health indicators, including CPU usage, memory consumption, and disk I/O, provides you with a clear snapshot of your server’s capacity and performance. You can proactively perform maintenance and avoid slowdowns.
  4. Scale – By observing how resources – CPU, memory, and disk space – are used you can make smarter choices about scaling your infrastructure.
Top 10 MySQL Monitoring Tools
If you’re in the industry, you’ve probably heard a lot of good things about PMM. And that’s because Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) is a great open-source tool if you want a deep dive into your MySQL database. From the experts at Percona, PMM offers everything you could ever want for MySQL database management in one neat package. It's important to note that PMM is only available for Linux and is likely to remain that way.

Key Features

  • Integrated Query Analytics (QAN) – Offers detailed query performance insights and troubleshooting with real-time and historical data.
  • Security Threat Tool – Monitors potential security threats, including failed login attempts, unusual access patterns, and changes in user privileges.
  • Advisors and Alerts – Built-in advisors provide best practice recommendations to shore up performance and security concerns, along with customizable alerts.
MySQL Enterprise Monitor, the paid sibling to MySQL Workbench, is Oracle’s tool for maintaining MySQL databases. Built for serious database administrators, it offers a range of tools to keep an eye on your system, pinpoint issues, and fine-tune performance like a pro. This tool integrates with Oracle's suite, making it a favorite for enterprises that demand reliable, high-quality monitoring with Oracle’s expertise.

Featuring a sleek intuitive interface and hassle-free setup, you can be up and running in just 10 minutes.

Key Features

  • Visual Query Insights– In-depth query monitoring to pinpoint and fix SQL code that’s causing slowdowns.
  • InnoDB Performance Check – Sends alerts about poor index usage, locking problems, and buffer pool usage with improvement tips.
  • Query Analyzer with History – Sift through historical query data or view real-time information for long-term optimization and detailed diagnostics.
  • Best Practice Advisors – Built-in advisors deliver recommendations based on current best practices and Oracle expertise.
  • Security Auditing – Comprehensive security auditing tools to track user activities, detect anomalies, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
Nagios is incredibly versatile, allowing you to watch over just about anything in your infrastructure. From small businesses to sprawling enterprise networks, Nagios provides in-the-moment alerts and specific performance insights to keep you informed.

With its extensive library of plugins, whether you need to monitor network devices, application health, or servers, there's likely a plugin for it. Nagios can track important MySQL metrics like connection time, uptime, open connections, and various cache hit rates.

Key Features

  • Huge Plugin Repository – Hundreds of community-contributed plugins for highly tailored monitoring setups, including MySQL-specific checks.
  • Custom Scripts – Supports custom scripts for monitoring specific aspects of MySQL databases, offering unparalleled flexibility.
  • High Availability Oversight – Equipped to monitor setups that have high availability requirements, ensuring minimal downtime.
  • Legacy System Support – Strong support for older systems and databases.
  • Scalable Architecture – Can monitor large and complex infrastructures without performance degradation, which is great for enterprise-level deployments.
Zabbix is open-source, robust, and built to handle thousands of instances without breaking a sweat. If you’re managing a big infrastructure and need a reliable, scalable solution, the Zabbix MySQL integration is particularly beneficial. It’s packed with features that make monitoring sprawling environments straightforward and efficient.

Key Features

  • Flexible Dashboards – Easily create and customize dashboards to display key metrics, providing clear insights into your database.
  • Low-Level Discovery – Automatically detects and monitors new databases, tables, and configurations, reducing manual setup.
  • Custom Alerting – A highly adaptable alert system that supports escalation and dependencies.
  • Historical Data Storage – Capable of storing long-term performance data that can be analyzed for trends.
  • Templating – Use templates to quickly and consistently deploy monitoring setups across environments.
New Relic is designed to monitor the latest applications with ease. New Relic's MySQL integration collects and transmits inventory and metrics from your MySQL database to the New Relic platform. This enables comprehensive monitoring of your database server's health and provides deep metric analysis to pinpoint the root of any issues. If you're looking for a tool that ties together backend performance with real UX, New Relic has got you covered.

Key Features

  • Real User Monitoring (RUM) – Links MySQL performance with actual user experiences, so you can understand how database issues impact your end-users.
  • AI-Powered Insights – Leverages artificial intelligence to dissect performance data and deliver actionable insights for optimization.
  • Observability for the Entire Stack – Offers a holistic view by monitoring everything from front-facing apps to backend databases within a unified platform.
  • Code-Level Diagnostics – Provides detailed diagnostics down to the code level, helping you pinpoint and fix specific problems without searching through code.
  • Distributed Tracing – Track queries and transactions across microservices architectures.
Prometheus and Grafana are the dynamic duo of open-source monitoring. Prometheus handles the heavy lifting of gathering and storing metrics, while Grafana turns those metrics into beautiful, actionable dashboards. This combo is a favorite for cloud native environments, especially for those working with Kubernetes.

Grafana Cloud's MySQL integration allows for comprehensive collection and visualization of MySQL server logs. This features a pre-configured MySQL logs dashboard and setup of the Grafana Agent.

Key Features

  • PromQL – This flexible language allows for writing complex queries and data aggregations.
  • Alertmanager Integration – Connects with Alertmanager to provide advanced alerting and notification features, so critical issues can get fixed fast.
  • Rich Visualizations – Grafana’s powerful visualization tools enable the creation of customizable, dynamic dashboards.
  • Time-Series Database – Prometheus uses a time-series database optimized for storing and retrieving high-dimensional data efficiently.
  • Kubernetes Native – Excellent support for Kubernetes environments, providing native metrics collection, monitoring, and visualization.
Monyog is a dedicated MySQL performance analyzer with a user-friendly interface. Monyog offers powerful tools to manage and optimize your database performance. You can benefit from over 600 built-in monitors and advisors that assess your server’s health, sending alerts when critical thresholds are exceeded.

Key Features

  • Configuration Change Tracking: Track all changes made to global variables and config files.
  • Locked & Long-Running: Monitor queries that take an unusually long to execute. Receive slow query notifications via email and configure Monyog to automatically terminate these problematic queries if necessary.
  • RDS and Log Monitoring: For hosted MySQL services like RDS and Aurora, Monyog provides a consolidated view of all error logs. It also displays OS metrics using APIs like CloudWatch.
  • Top Query Identification: Spot the top 10 queries most time-consuming queries across all servers.
  • Custom Dashboards & Charts: Customize charts to fit your needs. Easily detect and analyze trends by expanding charts to investigate spikes and view which queries were related to each spike.
SolarWinds Database Performance Monitor (DPM) is a powerful and flexible tool that handles thousands of different database types, including MySQL. It has strong support on Windows and it also works across many Linux distributions. With features like 24/7 monitoring, detailed historical analysis, high-granularity data, and extensive analytics, SolarWinds DPM is ideal for DBAs that want to gain a cohesive understanding of their IT landscape.

If you're searching for robust MySQL monitoring tools for Windows and Linux, SolarWinds DPM is a reliable solution.

Key Features

  • Wait-Time Analysis – Identifies choke points in your database by analyzing wait times.
  • Historical Trend Analysis – Detailed historical analysis to identify long-term trends and patterns in database performance.
  • Custom Metric Collection – Enables the gathering of specific metrics you choose based on your needs.
  • Regular Reports and Alerts – Weekly and daily summaries, along with customizable alerts, keep you updated on database health.
  • Orion Platform Compatibility – Integrates with the SolarWinds Orion Platform for comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring.
MySQL Workbench is Oracle's toolset for everything from database architecture to management and monitoring. It's a favorite among DBAs for its powerful features and straightforward interface. Whether you’re designing a new database or optimizing an existing one, MySQL Workbench can help you get it done.

Key Features

  • Visual SQL Development – A dynamic visual editor that makes it easy to craft, model, and fine-tune SQL queries.
  • Live Performance Insights – A real-time dashboard that provides a snapshot of key metrics like CPU load, memory usage, and I/O operations
  • Schema and Data Synchronization – Tools to synchronize schemas and data across different databases, guaranteeing everything stays consistent and in sync.
  • Visual Explain Plan – Visualizes execution plans, making it simpler to spot and fix inefficient queries.
  • Integrated Migration Wizard – Simplifies the process of migrating databases, supporting a range of sources like Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL.
10. Releem
Releem is a lifesaver for busy DBAs. Releem is designed to put your mind at ease by taking over the heavy lifting of MySQL performance monitoring and optimization. Releem automates the entire process, from detecting issues to tuning configurations and optimizing queries, allowing you to focus on more important tasks without getting bogged down by the details of database management. It's free for a single database instance, making it an excellent choice for small setups. For multiple instances, it's the most affordable paid option on this list, costing only $79 per database per month.

Releem supports MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB databases, and is compatible with popular Linux distributions like Debian, CentOS, and Ubuntu, as well as cloud services such as AWS RDS and Aurora.

Key Features

  • Configuration Optimization – The Releem Cloud Platform analyzes your MySQL setup and suggests the best configuration tweaks to solve issues and improve efficiency. The Releem Agent can automatically implement these recommendations for you.
  • SQL Query Optimization – Releem analyzes all queries, automatically identifies inefficient queries and suggests recommendations to improve them.
  • User-Friendly Design – Features a simple dashboard, providing all critical metrics on a single page, which eliminates the need for custom reports or extensive training. Get setup within minutes with a straightforward installation process.
  • Query Analytics – Automates the identification of inefficient queries and ranks your top 100 SQL queries by execution time and total load time, directly from the dashboard. Users can inspect the full query statement for detailed analysis.
  • Health Checks – Conducts twice-daily evaluations of 19 different metrics, such as cache performance, database efficiency, resource utilization, and temporary data management, to proactively identify and resolve potential issues.
  • Reporting Features – Offers weekly and daily reports with timely insights and actionable recommendations. These reports serve as an early warning system, helping users stay ahead of potential problems.
Head-to-Head Comparison of Price and Compatibility
For budget-conscious users, there are plenty of free and open-source MySQL monitoring tools with flexible features and strong community support.

Here's a comparison of free versus paid tools, along with their compatibility across various operating systems and distributions:
Core Feature Comparison – Finding Your Perfect MySQL Monitoring Tool
To make choosing the right tool easier, we've compiled a comparison table of the top 10 MySQL monitoring tools. We focus on five crucial features: Auto Configuration Tuning, Automatic SQL Query Optimization, Query Analysis, System Health Monitoring, Security Audits, and Reporting Capabilities. This table shows you at a glance which tools have these features, so you can make the right choice with ease.
Nagios, Zabbix, and Prometheus/Grafana do not have any native higher-level MySQL management features. New Relic offers query analytics but nothing else. PMM, MySQL Enterprise Monitor, SolarWinds DPM, and MySQL Workbench tick multiple boxes, but only Releem delivers all five key features.

Selecting the ideal MySQL monitoring tool boils down to what you need, your budget, and how comfortable you are with tech. Whether you prefer a free, open-source option or a feature-packed enterprise solution, it’s crucial to pick a tool that ensures your database remains fast, secure, and reliable. Automated monitoring, query analysis assistance, and performance optimization features will help you minimize manual tasks and give you peace of mind.

Regular monitoring and performance tuning are key for a healthy and fast database. With the right tools, you can keep everything running like clockwork, optimize performance, and tackle any issues before they become big problems.

WRITTEN BY ROMAN AGABEKOV
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