MySQL and MariaDB InnoDB log waits alert

The InnoDB Log Waits alert notifies you when its configured condition is met on MySQL and MariaDB instances so you can investigate and respond.

Alert summary

• Platform: MySQL and MariaDB
• Alert category: Disk
• Default enabled: false
• Default evaluation frequency: Minute
• Threshold label: Log waits/sec
• Unit: waits/sec

What Mini DBA checks

Mini DBA describes this alert as: InnoDB is waiting for redo log space or flushing. This can indicate write pressure, undersized redo logs, slow storage, or checkpoint pressure. Mini DBA evaluates this alert once a minute so changes are detected quickly. Because duration is used, Mini DBA can avoid treating a single short spike as a full incident when the condition clears quickly.

How this alert helps

This alert reports sessions waiting for InnoDB redo-log space or flushing. Sustained waits indicate write pressure, undersized redo capacity, slow log storage, or checkpoint pressure rather than row-lock blocking.

When to enable it

Enable it once the instance has a normal workload baseline. It is especially useful on busy OLTP, reporting, and integration systems where resource pressure can quickly become user-visible.

Threshold guidance

Threshold meaning: Log waits/sec. Major threshold: 1 waits/sec. Minor threshold: 0 waits/sec. Comparison direction: over. Duration is used, so prefer requiring the condition to persist before paging people for transient spikes. For an over-threshold alert, decreasing a threshold makes that severity fire sooner; increasing it tolerates more load or pressure. Set the minor threshold as an early-warning level and the major threshold at the highest acceptable value for the service.

Remediation for an active alert

Compare log waits with redo generation, checkpoint activity, transaction size and frequency, and log-storage latency. Correct slow storage or excessive write bursts, and resize redo-log capacity only through the supported MySQL or MariaDB procedure for the deployed version.

Investigation workflow

1. Confirm the log-wait rate, duration, and write-heavy workload active at the time.
2. Review redo generation, checkpoint pressure, transaction patterns, and log-storage latency.
3. Check version-specific redo-log sizing and configuration before making a change.
4. Confirm that log waits and commit latency return to baseline after remediation.

Avoiding alert noise

Allow for isolated flush stalls, but keep the alert sensitive to sustained non-zero waits. Use duration and the normal write workload rather than treating these waits as ordinary lock contention.

Related pages

• MySQL And MariaDB Alerts
• MySQL And MariaDB Activity
• MySQL And MariaDB Queries
• MySQL And MariaDB InnoDB
• MySQL And MariaDB Health Checks