Cloudwatch

--- name: cloudwatch description: AWS CloudWatch monitoring for logs, metrics, alarms, and dashboards. Use this when setting up monitoring, creating alarms, querying logs with Insights, configuring metric filters, building dashboards, or troubleshooting application issues. lastupdated : "2026-01-07" docsource :https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/ --- # AWS CloudWatch Amazon CloudWatch provides monitoring and observability for AWS resources and applications. It collects metrics, logs, and events, enabling you to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize your AWS environment. ## Table of Contents - [Core Concepts](#core-concepts) - [Common Patterns](#common-patterns) - [CLI Reference](#cli-reference) - [Best Practices](#best-practices) - [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) - [References](#references) ## Core Concepts ### Metrics Time-ordered data points published to CloudWatch. Key components: - Namespace: Container for metrics (e.g.,AWS/Lambda ) - Metric name: Name of the measurement (e.g.,Invocations ) - Dimensions: Name-value pairs for filtering (e.g.,FunctionName=MyFunc ) - Statistics: Aggregations (Sum, Average, Min, Max, SampleCount,pN ) ### Logs Log data from AWS services and applications: - Log groups: Collections of log streams - Log streams: Sequences of log events from the same source - Log events: Individual log entries with a timestamp and message ### Alarms Automated actions based on metric thresholds: - States: OK, ALARM,INSUFFICIENT_DATA - Actions: SNS notifications, Auto Scaling, EC2 actions ## Common Patterns ### Create a Metric Alarm AWSCLI : ``bash # CPU utilization alarm for EC2 aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \ --alarm-name "HighCPU-i-1234567890abcdef0" \ --metric-name CPUUtilization \ --namespace AWS/EC2 \ --statistic Average \ --period 300 \ --threshold 80 \ --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold \ --evaluation-periods 2 \ --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-1234567890abcdef0 \ --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts \ --ok-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts ` **boto3:** `python import boto3 cloudwatch = boto3.client('cloudwatch') cloudwatch.put_metric_alarm( AlarmName='HighCPU-i-1234567890abcdef0', MetricName='CPUUtilization', Namespace='AWS/EC2', Statistic='Average', Period=300, Threshold=80.0, ComparisonOperator='GreaterThanThreshold', EvaluationPeriods=2, Dimensions=[ {'Name': 'InstanceId', 'Value': 'i-1234567890abcdef0'} ], AlarmActions=['arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts'], OKActions=['arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts'] ) ` ### Lambda Error Rate Alarm `bash aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \ --alarm-name "LambdaErrorRate-MyFunction" \ --metrics '[ { "Id": "errors", "MetricStat": { "Metric": { "Namespace": "AWS/Lambda", "MetricName": "Errors", "Dimensions": [{"Name": "FunctionName", "Value": "MyFunction"}] }, "Period": 60, "Stat": "Sum" }, "ReturnData": false }, { "Id": "invocations", "MetricStat": { "Metric": { "Namespace": "AWS/Lambda", "MetricName": "Invocations", "Dimensions": [{"Name": "FunctionName", "Value": "MyFunction"}] }, "Period": 60, "Stat": "Sum" }, "ReturnData": false }, { "Id": "errorRate", "Expression": "errors/invocations*100", "Label": "Error Rate", "ReturnData": true } ]' \ --threshold 5 \ --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold \ --evaluation-periods 3 \ --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts ` ### Query Logs with Insights `bash # Find errors in Lambda logs aws logs start-query \ --log-group-name /aws/lambda/MyFunction \ --start-time $(date -d '1 hour ago' +%s) \ --end-time $(date +%s) \ --query-string ' fields @timestamp, @message | filter @message like /ERROR/ | sort @timestamp desc | limit 50 ' # Get query results aws logs get-query-results --query-id <query-id> `` **boto