Create a storage throughput alarm that sends email - Amazon CloudWatch
Setting up a storage throughput alarm using the Amazon Web Services Management ConsoleSetting up a storage throughput alarm using the Amazon CLI
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Create a storage throughput alarm that sends email

You can set up an SNS notification and configure an alarm that is triggered when Amazon EBS exceeds 100 MB throughput.

Setting up a storage throughput alarm using the Amazon Web Services Management Console

Use these steps to use the Amazon Web Services Management Console to create an alarm based on Amazon EBS throughput.

To create a storage throughput alarm

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

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Alarms, All Alarms.

  3. Choose Create alarm.

  4. Under EBS Metrics, choose a metric category.

  5. Select the row with the volume and the VolumeWriteBytes metric.

  6. For the statistic, choose Average. For the period, choose 5 Minutes. Choose Next.

  7. Under Alarm Threshold, enter a unique name for the alarm (for example, myHighWriteAlarm) and a description of the alarm (for example, VolumeWriteBytes exceeds 100,000 KiB/s). The name must contain only UTF-8 characters, and can't contain ASCII control characters. The description can include markdown formatting, which is displayed only in the alarm Details tab in the CloudWatch console. The markdown can be useful to add links to runbooks or other internal resources.

  8. Under Whenever, for is, choose > and enter 100000. For for, enter 15 consecutive periods.

    A graphical representation of the threshold is shown under Alarm Preview.

  9. Under Additional settings, for Treat missing data as, choose ignore (maintain alarm state) so that missing data points don't trigger alarm state changes.

  10. Under Actions, for Whenever this alarm, choose State is ALARM. For Send notification to, choose an existing SNS topic or create one.

    To create an SNS topic, choose New list. For Send notification to, enter a name for the SNS topic (for example, myHighCpuAlarm), and for Email list, enter a comma-separated list of email addresses to be notified when the alarm changes to the ALARM state. Each email address is sent a topic subscription confirmation email. You must confirm the subscription before notifications can be sent to an email address.

  11. Choose Create Alarm.

Setting up a storage throughput alarm using the Amazon CLI

Use these steps to use the Amazon CLI to create an alarm based on Amazon EBS throughput.

To create a storage throughput alarm

  1. Create an SNS topic. For more information, see Setting up Amazon SNS notifications.

  2. Create the alarm.

    aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name ebs-mon --alarm-description "Alarm when EBS volume exceeds 100MB throughput" --metric-name VolumeReadBytes --namespace AWS/EBS --statistic Average --period 300 --threshold 100000000 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold --dimensions Name=VolumeId,Value=my-volume-id --evaluation-periods 3 --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111122223333:my-alarm-topic --insufficient-data-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111122223333:my-insufficient-data-topic

  3. Test the alarm by forcing an alarm state change using the set-alarm-state command.

    1. Change the alarm state from INSUFFICIENT_DATA to OK.

      aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name ebs-mon --state-reason "initializing" --state-value OK

    2. Change the alarm state from OK to ALARM.

      aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name ebs-mon --state-reason "initializing" --state-value ALARM

    3. Change the alarm state from ALARM to INSUFFICIENT_DATA.

      aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name ebs-mon --state-reason "initializing" --state-value INSUFFICIENT_DATA

    4. Check that you have received an email notification about the alarm.