Log Application Auto Scaling API calls using Amazon CloudTrail - Application Auto Scaling
Application Auto Scaling information in CloudTrailUnderstand Application Auto Scaling log file entriesRelated resources
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Log Application Auto Scaling API calls using Amazon CloudTrail

Application Auto Scaling is integrated with Amazon CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an Amazon Web Service using the Application Auto Scaling API. CloudTrail captures all API calls for Application Auto Scaling as events. The calls captured include calls from the Amazon Web Services Management Console and code calls to the Application Auto Scaling API. If you create a trail, you can enable continuous delivery of CloudTrail events to an Amazon S3 bucket, including events for Application Auto Scaling. If you don't configure a trail, you can still view the most recent events in the CloudTrail console in Event history. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to Application Auto Scaling, the IP address from which the request was made, who made the request, when it was made, and additional details.

To learn more about CloudTrail, see the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.

Application Auto Scaling information in CloudTrail

CloudTrail is enabled on your Amazon Web Services account when you create the account. When Application Auto Scaling activity occurs, that activity is recorded in a CloudTrail event along with other Amazon service events in Event history. You can view, search, and download recent events in your Amazon Web Services account. For more information, see Viewing events with CloudTrail event history.

For an ongoing record of events in your Amazon Web Services account, including events for Application Auto Scaling, create a trail. A trail enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. By default, when you create a trail in the console, the trail applies to all Amazon Web Services Regions. The trail logs events from all Regions in the Amazon partition and delivers the log files to the Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. Additionally, you can configure other Amazon Web Services to further analyze and act upon the event data collected in CloudTrail logs. For more information, see the following:

All Application Auto Scaling actions are logged by CloudTrail and are documented in the Application Auto Scaling API Reference. For example, calls to the PutScalingPolicy, DeleteScalingPolicy, and DescribeScalingPolicies actions generate entries in the CloudTrail log files.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:

  • Whether the request was made with root or Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) user credentials.

  • Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user.

  • Whether the request was made by another Amazon service.

For more information, see the CloudTrail userIdentity element.

Understand Application Auto Scaling log file entries

A trail is a configuration that enables delivery of events as log files to an Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. CloudTrail log files contain one or more log entries. An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested action, the date and time of the action, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so they don't appear in any specific order.

The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry that demonstrates the DescribeScalableTargets action.

{
    "eventVersion": "1.05",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "Root",
        "principalId": "123456789012",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "attributes": {
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
                "creationDate": "2018-08-21T17:05:42Z"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-08-16T23:20:32Z",
    "eventSource": "autoscaling.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "DescribeScalableTargets",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "72.21.196.68",
    "userAgent": "EC2 Spot Console",
    "requestParameters": {
        "serviceNamespace": "ec2",
        "scalableDimension": "ec2:spot-fleet-request:TargetCapacity",
        "resourceIds": [
            "spot-fleet-request/sfr-05ceaf79-3ba2-405d-e87b-612857f1357a"
        ]
    },
    "responseElements": null,
    "additionalEventData": {
        "service": "application-autoscaling"
    },
    "requestID": "0737e2ea-fb2d-11e3-bfd8-99133058e7bb",
    "eventID": "3fcfb182-98f8-4744-bd45-b38835ab61cb",
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}

With CloudWatch Logs, you can monitor and receive alerts for specific events captured by CloudTrail. The events sent to CloudWatch Logs are those configured to be logged by your trail, so make sure you have configured your trail or trails to log the event types that you are interested in monitoring. CloudWatch Logs can monitor information in the log files and notify you when certain thresholds are met. You can also archive your log data in highly durable storage. For more information, see the Amazon CloudWatch Logs User Guide and the Monitoring CloudTrail log files with Amazon CloudWatch Logs topic in the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.