# Storage and compute requirements for auditing
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**For Amazon RDS**
+ Audit logs are first stored locally to disk at the location `D:\rdsdbdata\SQLAudit`. Amazon RDS then uploads these files to an S3 bucket that's configured in the `SQLSERVER_AUDIT` option group by using the specified IAM role.
+ If you enable retention, Amazon RDS moves the file into the retention folder at `D:\rdsdbdata\SQLAudit\transmitted`. Audit records are kept on the DB instance until the audit log file is uploaded to Amazon S3.
+ Make sure to provision sufficient storage space for the instance based on the retention period.
+ CPU consumption for running audits is generally minimal. Monitor CPU usage when you run audit queries and size the Amazon RDS DB instance accordingly. You can monitor [Amazon RDS metrics with Amazon CloudWatch.](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/monitoring-cloudwatch.html)

**For Amazon EC2**
+ Make sure that there is sufficient storage space provisioned on the drive that stores the audit log files based on retention period.
+ CPU consumption for running audits is generally minimal. Monitor CPU usage when you run audit queries and size the EC2 instance accordingly. You can use [Amazon CloudWatch to monitor EC2 instances](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/using-cloudwatch.html).