How do I troubleshoot a low burst balance value in my Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance?
I have a low burst balance in my Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for PostgreSQL DB instance.
Resolution
Amazon RDS DB instances use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes for storage. When Amazon RDS depletes the burst balance of a volume, the volume returns to its baseline performance values. The volume stays at its baseline until input/output operations per second (IOPS) use is lower than the baseline. Then, the burst balance starts to refill.
Based on the amount of storage you request, Amazon RDS automatically stripes across multiple Amazon EBS volumes to enhance performance.
To identify the number of volumes for a DB instance, turn on Enhanced Monitoring. Then, check the number of volumes in the Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS console.
Troubleshoot a low burst balance value
Take the following actions:
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To check if you must optimize your SQL queries, turn on the Standard mode of Database Insights for Amazon RDS.
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Determine if you require an increase in the DB instance storage size to achieve a higher IOPS capacity.
Note: You can't reduce your storage amount after Amazon RDS allocates storage. Increase your storage capacity only after you confirm your other tuning options. -
Scale up your storage class to improve performance. Or, change the storage type from General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes to provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) volumes and assign the required IOPS. Specify the amount of storage that you must allocate. Then, specify the amount of dedicated IOPS that you require.
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If you see IOPS or throughput throttle on a DB instance, then scale up the instance class to get a higher throughput or IOPS capacity.
For General Purpose SSD gp2 volumes, you can't reliably predict burst balance depletion from your deletion frequency alone. Burst balance depends on the cumulative I/O of your workload. Contributing factors include DELETE operations, autovacuum activity from dead tuple accumulation, write-ahead log writes, and other concurrent activity. Amazon EBS measures these I/O operations against the baseline credit replenishment rate of 3 IOPS per GB. Because of these combined factors, the same deletions run on a different schedule can produce a different outcome. A deletion pattern that didn't deplete your burst balance at one frequency can deplete it at another. Evaluate your overall I/O pattern rather than deletion frequency alone when you plan capacity or schedule maintenance.
Troubleshoot enhanced modeling for micro-bursting
Review the Micro-bursting section in How do I troubleshoot an IOPS bottleneck in my Amazon RDS instance that causes latency in my Amazon EBS volumes?
Related information
Understanding burst vs. baseline performance with Amazon RDS and gp2
- Topics
- Database
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To identify the number of volumes for an RDS instance, turn on Enhanced Monitoring and check the number of volumes in the Physical Devices console.
If, like me, you have no idea how to do this, I think the way is to go to your DB in RDS, go to the Monitoring tab, then click the dropdown there to go to Enhanced Monitoring (assuming you have it turned on).
Then, I think you can select a graph to see how many physical devices you have (in my case, it appeared to be four).
replied 3 years ago
Thank you for your comment. We'll review and update the Knowledge Center article as needed.
This article was reviewed and updated on 2026-09-09.
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