aws-cloudwatch

Monitor resources with metrics, alarms, and dashboards.

TLDR

Put custom metric data to CloudWatch

$ aws cloudwatch put-metric-data --namespace [MyApp] --metric-name [RequestCount] --value [1] --unit Count

Get metric statistics for an EC2 instance CPU

$ aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/EC2 --metric-name CPUUtilization --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=[i-1234567890abcdef0] --start-time [2024-01-01T00:00:00Z] --end-time [2024-01-02T00:00:00Z] --period 3600 --statistics Average

Create an alarm for high CPU usage

$ aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name [high-cpu] --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --statistic Average --period 300 --threshold 80 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold --evaluation-periods 2 --alarm-actions [arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic] --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=[i-1234567890abcdef0]

List all alarms in the account

$ aws cloudwatch describe-alarms

List available metrics for a namespace

$ aws cloudwatch list-metrics --namespace [AWS/EC2]

Delete specific alarms

$ aws cloudwatch delete-alarms --alarm-names [high-cpu] [low-disk]

Disable actions on an alarm

$ aws cloudwatch disable-alarm-actions --alarm-names [high-cpu]

Enable actions on an alarm

$ aws cloudwatch enable-alarm-actions --alarm-names [high-cpu]

SYNOPSIS

aws cloudwatch command [options]

DESCRIPTION

aws cloudwatch is the AWS CLI interface for Amazon CloudWatch, a monitoring and observability service for AWS resources and applications. CloudWatch collects metrics, logs, and events, providing visibility into resource utilization, application performance, and operational health.CloudWatch enables setting alarms that trigger notifications or automated actions based on metric thresholds. It supports both built-in AWS service metrics and custom application metrics.

COMMANDS

put-metric-data

Publish custom metric data points

get-metric-data

Retrieve metric values using queries

get-metric-statistics

Get statistics for a specific metric

list-metrics

List available metrics by namespace

put-metric-alarm

Create or update a metric alarm

describe-alarms

List configured alarms and their states

set-alarm-state

Manually set alarm state for testing

put-dashboard

Create or update a CloudWatch dashboard

delete-alarms

Delete one or more alarms

enable-alarm-actions

Enable actions for specified alarms

disable-alarm-actions

Disable actions for specified alarms

describe-alarms-for-metric

List alarms associated with a specific metric

list-tags-for-resource

List tags for a CloudWatch resource

put-anomaly-detector

Create an anomaly detection model for a metric

CAVEATS

Metric data older than 15 months is automatically deleted. High-resolution metrics (1-second granularity) incur additional costs. Custom metrics are charged per metric per month. Alarm evaluations may be delayed during service disruptions.

HISTORY

Amazon CloudWatch launched in May 2009 alongside EC2 monitoring. Custom metrics were added in 2011, dashboards in 2015, and anomaly detection in 2019. The service has evolved to become the central monitoring hub for all AWS services and is now integrated with CloudWatch Logs and EventBridge.