Exploring Amazon CloudWatch - Metrics, Events and Container Insights

This guide explores Amazon CloudWatch and provides insights into metrics, events, and container insights.

Hafeez Baig
21 steps
2 minutes

Amazon Web Services

Refer to the following guide to learn how to use IAM in the cloud\ <https://scribehow.com/shared/Creating_an_IAM_User_and_User_Group_in_AWS_Management_Console__hWNiiXlcRJKFqYZZEJD-cg>

Sign in to **AWS Management Console** as an **IAM User** **Pre-requisite** - Ensure you have selected the AWS region closest to your location\ For this guide, we will be using us-east-2 (Ohio) as a preferred choice

Type **CloudWatch** in the search bar and click on **CloudWatch** to view the **CloudWatch** Dashboard

**What is CloudWatch in AWS?** Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows users to collect and track metrics, monitor log files, set alarms, and automatically react to changes in AWS resources in real-time. CloudWatch provides valuable insights into the performance, availability, and health of applications and infrastructure resources running on AWS.

**Cloudwatch** dashboard will open, click on the **All metrics** from the left bar

**What are Metrics in CloudWatch?** In Amazon CloudWatch, metrics are fundamental data points that represent the performance, utilization, and behavior of AWS resources and applications over time. These metrics are collected and monitored to gain insights into the health, availability, and operational efficiency of the systems they represent.

**Metrics** wizard will open, here you can view the graph

Scroll the page and click on the metric **Lambda** link

From the **Lambda** metric, click on the **By Function Name** link

**By Function Name** wizard will open, select the FunctionName **my-s3-notification**

On **CloudWatch** dashboard, on the top right corner click on the **Custom** option to select the custom data

Select the option **Relative** and choose the weeks setting, to view 2 weeks of data and click on the **Apply** button

Here you can visualize the 2 weeks of data in the form of a graph

Congratulations on exploring and viewing visualized metrics data on CloudWatch! Well done!

To create **Rule** for CloudWatch, click on the **Rules** from the left bar

**What are the Event Rules in CloudWatch?** In Amazon CloudWatch, Event Rules (formerly known as CloudWatch Events) allow you to create rules that match events and route them to one or more targets. These rules can be based on a schedule or events generated by AWS services or custom applications.

**Rules** wizard will open, click on the **Create rule** button on the right side

**Define rule detail** wizard will open, give the name as "**my-rule"**

Scroll to the **Rule type** section and select the option **Rule with an event pattern** then, click on the **Next** button

**Build event pattern** wizard will open, select the option **AWS events or EventBridge partner events**

**What is an Event source in CloudWatch?** An event source refers to the origin of the event that triggers an Event Rule. Event sources can be various entities within the AWS ecosystem or external applications.

Scroll to the **Sample event type** section and select the option **AWS events**

Scroll to the **Event pattern** section and configure the settings then, click on the **Next** button to create a rule

Congratulations on successfully creating the rule for CloudWatch! Well done!

To view the **Services**, click on the **Services** from the left bar

**What is Services in CloudWatch?** In Amazon CloudWatch, "services" refer to the various AWS resources or components that can be monitored and managed through CloudWatch. CloudWatch provides monitoring and observability services for a wide range of AWS resources, allowing users to collect, analyze, and act on metrics, logs, and events generated by these services.

**Services** wizard will open

**What are CloudWatch Applications Signals?** Amazon CloudWatch Application Signals is a feature within Amazon CloudWatch that streamlines application performance monitoring (APM). It's designed to make it easier to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve performance issues within your applications.

To view the **Container Insights**, click on the **Container Insights** from the left bar

**What is Container Insights in CloudWatch?** Container Insights is a feature provided by Amazon CloudWatch that allows users to monitor and gain insights into the performance and health of containerized applications deployed on Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Kubernetes clusters running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

**Container Insights** wizard will open

**What does Container Insights do?** Container Insights collects and aggregates metrics, logs, and metadata from containerized applications, enabling users to analyze and troubleshoot their containerized environments effectively.

Congratulations on completing this lab and successfully creating the rule for CloudWatch! Well done!