Creating a monitor in Amazon CloudWatch Internet Monitor using the console - Amazon CloudWatch
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Creating a monitor in Amazon CloudWatch Internet Monitor using the console

You create a monitor in Amazon CloudWatch Internet Monitor for your application by adding Amazon resources that it uses, and then setting several configuration options. The resources that you add, Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), Network Load Balancers (NLBs), CloudFront distributions, or WorkSpaces directories, provide the information for Internet Monitor to map internet traffic information for your application. After you create your monitor, wait 15-30 minutes to generate the traffic profile specific to where your application is used. Then, you can use the Internet Monitor monitor, or other tools, to visualize and explore performance and availability about your client usage. These tools provide insights for you using your application traffic's measurements, gathered and published by the monitor, for example, to CloudWatch Logs.

Typically, it's simplest to create one monitor in Internet Monitor for one application. Within the same monitor, you can search and sort through measurements and metrics in Internet Monitor log files by different locations and ASNs (typically internet service providers), or other information. It's not necessary to create separate monitors for applications in different areas, for example.

The steps here walk you through setting up your monitor by using the console. To see examples of using the Amazon Command Line Interface with the Internet Monitor API actions, to create a monitor, view events, and so on, see Examples of using the CLI with Amazon CloudWatch Internet Monitor.

To create a monitor using the console

  1. Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/cloudwatch/.

  2. In the left navigation pane, under Network monitoring, choose Internet Monitor.

  3. Choose Create monitor.

  4. For Monitor name, enter the name you want to use for this monitor in Internet Monitor.

  5. Choose Add resources, and then select the resources to set the monitoring boundaries for Internet Monitor to use for this monitor.

    Note

    Be aware of the following:

    • To generate meaningful output with Internet Monitor, VPCs that you add must be connected to the internet by having an Internet Gateway configured.

    • You can add a combination of VPCs and CloudFront distributions, or you can add WorkSpaces directories, or you can add Network Load Balancers. You can't add Network Load Balancers or WorkSpaces directories together with other types of resources.

  6. Choose a percentage of your internet traffic to monitor.

  7. Optionally, specify additional options under Advanced settings.

    • For City-networks maximum, you can select a limit for the number of city-networks (locations and ASNs, or internet service providers) that Internet Monitor will monitor traffic for. You can change this at any time by editing your monitor. See Choosing a city-networks maximum limit.

      To reset to the default, enter 500000.

      If you set a city-networks maximum limit, it sets a cap for the number of city-networks that Internet Monitor monitors for your application, regardless of the percentage of traffic that you choose to monitor.

    • Optionally, you can specify an Amazon S3 bucket name and custom prefix to publish internet measurements to Amazon S3 for all monitored city-networks.

      Internet Monitor publishes the top 500 (by traffic volume) internet measurements for your application to CloudWatch Logs every five minutes. If you choose to publish measurements to S3, measurements are still published to CloudWatch Logs. For more information, see Publishing internet measurements to Amazon S3 in Amazon CloudWatch Internet Monitor.

    • Optionally, you can add a tag for your monitor.

  8. Choose Create monitor.

After you create a monitor, you can edit the monitor at any time, for example, to change the application traffic percentage, update the maximum city-networks limit or add or remove resources. You can also delete the monitor. To do these tasks in the Internet Monitor console, choose a monitor, and then choose an option in the Action menu. Note that you can’t change the name of a monitor.

To view the Internet Monitor dashboard

  1. Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/cloudwatch/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Network monitoring, then Internet Monitor.

    The Monitors tab displays a list of the monitors that you have created.

To see more information about a specific monitor, choose a monitor.