The Cloud SQL idle instance recommender helps you detect instances that might be idle and provides you insights and recommendations to help you reduce costs. This page describes how this recommender works and how to use it.
How it works
The Cloud SQL idle instance recommender analyzes the usage metrics of primary instances that are older than 30 days. For each instance, the recommender considers the values of certain metrics within an observation period spanning the last 30 days. The recommender does not analyze read replicas.
If the activity level within the observation period is below a certain threshold, the recommender estimates that the instance is idle. Recommendations are generated every 24 hours for shutting down such instances.
Pricing
The Cloud SQL idle instance recommender is in the Standard Recommender pricing tier.
Before you begin
Before you can view recommendations and insights, do the following:
- To get the permissions to view and work with insights and recommendations,
ensure that you have the required roles.
Tasks Roles View recommendations One of these roles: recommender.cloudsqlViewer
orcloudsql.viewer
.Apply recommendations One of these roles: recommender.cloudsqlAdmin
,cloudsql.editor
, orcloudsql.admin
. -
Enable the Recommender API.
List idle Cloud SQL instance recommendations
You can list idle instance recommendations by
using the Google Cloud console, gcloud
, or the Recommender API.
Console
To list recommendations about idle instances by using the Google Cloud console, follow these steps:
Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.
Click View all on the idle instance recommendations banner.
Alternatively, follow these steps:
Go to the Recommendation Hub.
For more information, see Getting started with Recommendation Hub.
In the Reduce Cloud SQL instance cost card, click View all.
Click the Shut down instance tab.
gcloud
To list recommendations about idle instances by using gcloud
, run the
gcloud recommender recommendations list
command as follows:
gcloud recommender recommendations list \ --project=PROJECT_ID \ --location=LOCATION \ --recommender=google.cloudsql.instance.RECOMMENDER
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: Your project ID.LOCATION
: A region, such asus-central1
.RECOMMENDER
: The ID of the recommender asIdleRecommender
.
API
To list recommendations about idle instances by using the
Recommendations API, call the
recommendations.list
method as follows.
GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT-ID/locations/LOCATION/recommenders/google.cloudsql.instance.RECOMMENDER/recommendations
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: Your project ID.LOCATION
: A region, such asus-central1
.RECOMMENDER
: The ID of the recommender asIdleRecommender
.
If the recommender detects idle instances, it lists them in a table. Each row shows the instance name, a brief recommendation, the location, and the last refresh date.
View insights and detailed recommendations
You can view insights and detailed recommendations about idle instances by
using the Google Cloud console, gcloud
, or the Recommender API.
Console
To view insights about an idle instance by using the Google Cloud console, click the recommendation button in the list of instances.
gcloud
To view insights and detailed recommendations about idle instances by using gcloud
, run the
gcloud recommender insights list
command as follows:
gcloud recommender insights list \ --project=PROJECT_ID \ --location=LOCATION \ --insight-type=google.cloudsql.instance.INSIGHT_TYPE
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: Your project ID.LOCATION
: A region, such asus-central1
.INSIGHT_TYPE
: The ID of the insight type asActivityInsight
.
API
To view insights and detailed recommendations about idle instances by using the
Recommendations API, call the
insights.list
method as follows:
GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT-ID/locations/LOCATION/insightTypes/google.cloudsql.instance.INSIGHT_TYPE/insights
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: Your project ID.LOCATION
: A region, such asus-central1
.INSIGHT_TYPE
: The ID of the insight type asActivityInsight
.
A panel appears showing insights about the idle instance. The following categories of information are provided along with some supporting charts.
Fields | Descriptions and related metrics |
---|---|
Disk usage (bytes change) | Data utilization in bytes. Sampled every 60 seconds. Pertains to database/disk/bytes_used . |
Max CPU utilization | The maximum CPU utilization as a percentage. Pertains to database/cpu/utilization . |
Max memory utilization | The maximum memory utilization as a percentage. Pertains to database/memory/utilization . |
Max disk read ops count | The maximum number of read operations. Pertains to database/disk/read_ops_count . |
Max disk write ops count | The maximum number of write operations. Pertains to database/disk/write_ops_count . |
Observation start and end dates | The start and end dates of the 30-day observation period. |
The following table lists the insight and recommendation that the Cloud SQL
idle instance recommender might generate to help you reduce costs. The subtypes
are visible in the gcloud
and API results.
Insight | Recommendation |
---|---|
The instance has shown low levels of activity
during the observation period. Subtype: LOW_ACTIVITY
| Investigate to check if the instance can
be shut down to reduce costs. Subtype: SHUTDOWN_INSTANCE
|
Apply recommendations
Evaluate the recommendations carefully and do any of the following:
To examine the recommendation, click View instance.
A banner appears at the top of the page providing a recommendation.
You might find that the instance is intentionally idle and you don't need to shut it down. If it's inadvertently idle, you can stop and delete the instance. Stopping an instance suspends instance charges. The instance data is unaffected, and charges for storage and IP addresses continue to apply.
Exercise caution when stopping or deleting an instance. To avoid the loss of data, create a backup first.
To dismiss the recommendation so that it's de-emphasized and appears dimmed, click Dismiss.
To close the panel without applying or dismissing the recommendation, click Cancel.
You can also export these recommendations to BigQuery and examine them by using Looker Studio or Looker.
What's next
- Monitor disk availability
- Reduce overprovisioned Cloud SQL instances
- Blog: Maximize your Cloud ROI
- Blog: Do more with less
- Google Cloud recommenders