STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG - Amazon Redshift
Table columnsUsage notesSample queries

STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG

Records an alert when the query optimizer identifies conditions that might indicate performance issues. Use the STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG view to identify opportunities to improve query performance.

A query consists of multiple segments, and each segment consists of one or more steps. For more information, see Query processing.

STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG is visible to all users. Superusers can see all rows; regular users can see only their own data. For more information, see Visibility of data in system tables and views.

Note

STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG only contains queries run on main provisioned clusters. It doesn't contain queries run on concurrency scaling clusters or on serverless namespaces. To access explain plans for queries run on both main clusters, concurrency scaling clusters, and serverless namespaces, we recommend that you use the SYS monitoring view SYS_QUERY_DETAIL . The data in the SYS monitoring view is formatted to be easier to use and understand.

Table columns

Column name Data type Description
userid integer ID of the user who generated the entry.
query integer Query ID. The query column can be used to join other system tables and views.
slice integer Number that identifies the slice where the query was running.
segment integer Number that identifies the query segment.
step integer Query step that ran.
pid integer Process ID associated with the statement and slice. The same query might have multiple PIDs if it runs on multiple slices.
xid bigint Transaction ID associated with the statement.
event character(1024) Description of the alert event.
solution character(1024) Recommended solution.
event_time timestamp Time in UTC that the query started. Total time includes queuing and execution. with 6 digits of precision for fractional seconds. For example: 2009-06-12 11:29:19.131358.

Usage notes

You can use the STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG to identify potential issues in your queries, then follow the practices in Query performance tuning to optimize your database design and rewrite your queries. STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG records the following alerts:

  • Missing statistics

    Statistics are missing. Run ANALYZE following data loads or significant updates and use STATUPDATE with COPY operations. For more information, see Amazon Redshift best practices for designing queries.

  • Nested loop

    A nested loop is usually a Cartesian product. Evaluate your query to ensure that all participating tables are joined efficiently.

  • Very selective filter

    The ratio of rows returned to rows scanned is less than 0.05. Rows scanned is the value of rows_pre_user_filter and rows returned is the value of rows in the STL_SCAN system view. Indicates that the query is scanning an unusually large number of rows to determine the result set. This can be caused by missing or incorrect sort keys. For more information, see Sort keys.

  • Excessive ghost rows

    A scan skipped a relatively large number of rows that are marked as deleted but not vacuumed, or rows that have been inserted but not committed. For more information, see Vacuuming tables.

  • Large distribution

    More than 1,000,000 rows were redistributed for hash join or aggregation. For more information, see Data distribution for query optimization.

  • Large broadcast

    More than 1,000,000 rows were broadcast for hash join. For more information, see Data distribution for query optimization.

  • Serial execution

    A DS_DIST_ALL_INNER redistribution style was indicated in the query plan, which forces serial execution because the entire inner table was redistributed to a single node. For more information, see Data distribution for query optimization.

Sample queries

The following query shows alert events for four queries. 

SELECT query, substring(event,0,25) as event, 
substring(solution,0,25) as solution, 
trim(event_time) as event_time from stl_alert_event_log order by query;

 query |             event             |          solution            |     event_time      
-------+-------------------------------+------------------------------+---------------------
  6567 | Missing query planner statist | Run the ANALYZE command      | 2014-01-03 18:20:58
  7450 | Scanned a large number of del | Run the VACUUM command to rec| 2014-01-03 21:19:31
  8406 | Nested Loop Join in the query | Review the join predicates to| 2014-01-04 00:34:22
 29512 | Very selective query filter:r | Review the choice of sort key| 2014-01-06 22:00:00

(4 rows)