# Overview of the Performance Insights dashboard
Overview of the dashboard

The dashboard is the easiest way to interact with Performance Insights. The following example shows the dashboard for a PostgreSQL DB instance.

![\[Enable Performance Insights during DB instance creation with console\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/aurora_perf_insights_enabling.png)


**Topics**
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## Time range filter
](#USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.Components.time-range)
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## Counter metrics chart
](#USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.Components.Countermetrics)
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## Database load chart
](#USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.Components.AvgActiveSessions)
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## Top dimensions table
](#USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.Components.AvgActiveSessions.TopLoadItemsTable)

## Time range filter


By default, the Performance Insights dashboard shows DB load for the last hour. You can adjust this range to be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 2 years. You can also select a custom relative range.

You can select an absolute range with a beginning and ending date and time. The following example shows the time range beginning at midnight on 9/25/24 and ending at 11:59 PM on 9/28/24.

By default, the time zone for the Performance Insights dashboard is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You can also choose the local time zone.

## Counter metrics chart


With counter metrics, you can customize the Performance Insights dashboard to include up to 10 additional graphs. These graphs show a selection of dozens of operating system and database performance metrics. You can correlate this information with DB load to help identify and analyze performance problems.

 The **Counter metrics** chart displays data for performance counters. The default metrics depend on the DB engine:
+ Aurora MySQL– `db.SQL.Innodb_rows_read.avg`
+ Aurora PostgreSQL – `db.Transactions.xact_commit.avg`

![\[Counter metrics\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/oracle_perf_insights_counters.png)


To change the performance counters, choose **Manage Metrics**. You can select multiple **OS metrics** or **Database metrics**, as shown in the following screenshot. To see details for any metric, hover over the metric name.

![\[Filter metrics\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_select_metrics.png)


For descriptions of the counter metrics that you can add for each DB engine, see [Performance Insights counter metrics](USER_PerfInsights_Counters.md).

## Database load chart


The **Database load** chart shows how the database activity compares to DB instance capacity as represented by the **Max vCPU** line. By default, the stacked line chart represents DB load as average active sessions per unit of time. The DB load is sliced (grouped) by wait states. 

![\[Database load\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_2.png)


### DB load sliced by dimensions


You can choose to display load as active sessions grouped by any supported dimensions. The following table shows which dimensions are supported for the different engines.


| Dimension | Aurora PostgreSQL | Aurora MySQL | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
|  Host  |  Yes  |  Yes  | 
|  SQL  |  Yes  |  Yes  | 
|  User  |  Yes  |  Yes  | 
|  Waits  |  Yes  |  Yes  | 
|  Application  |  Yes  |  No  | 
|  Database  |  Yes  |  Yes  | 
|  Session type  |  Yes  |  No  | 

The following image shows the dimensions for a PostgreSQL DB instance.

![\[Filter metrics\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_2b.png)


### DB load details for a dimension item


To see details about a DB load item within a dimension, hover over the item name. The following image shows details for a SQL statement.

![\[Database load item details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_2c.png)


To see details for any item for the selected time period in the legend, hover over that item.

![\[Time period details for DB load\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_3.png)


## Top dimensions table


The Top dimensions table slices DB load by different dimensions. A dimension is a category or "slice by" for different characteristics of DB load. If the dimension is SQL, **Top SQL** shows the SQL statements that contribute the most to DB load.

![\[Top N dimensions\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/images/perf_insights_4c.png)


Choose any of the following dimension tabs.


| Tab | Description | Supported engines | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
|  Top SQL  |  The SQL statements that are currently running  |  All  | 
|  Top waits  |  The event for which the database backend is waiting  |  All  | 
|  Top hosts  |  The host name of the connected client  |  All  | 
|  Top users  |  The user logged in to the database  |  All  | 
|  Top applications  |  The name of the application that is connected to the database  |  Aurora PostgreSQL only  | 
|  Top session types  |  The type of the current session  | Aurora PostgreSQL only | 

To learn how to analyze queries by using the **Top SQL** tab, see [Overview of the Top SQL tab](USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.AnalyzeDBLoad.AdditionalMetrics.md#USER_PerfInsights.UsingDashboard.Components.AvgActiveSessions.TopLoadItemsTable.TopSQL).