CloudWatch examples using Amazon CLI - Amazon Command Line Interface
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CloudWatch examples using Amazon CLI

The following code examples show you how to perform actions and implement common scenarios by using the Amazon Command Line Interface with CloudWatch.

Actions are code excerpts from larger programs and must be run in context. While actions show you how to call individual service functions, you can see actions in context in their related scenarios and cross-service examples.

Scenarios are code examples that show you how to accomplish a specific task by calling multiple functions within the same service.

Each example includes a link to GitHub, where you can find instructions on how to set up and run the code in context.

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Actions

The following code example shows how to use delete-alarms.

Amazon CLI

To delete an alarm

The following example uses the delete-alarms command to delete the Amazon CloudWatch alarm named "myalarm":

aws cloudwatch delete-alarms --alarm-names myalarm

Output:

This command returns to the prompt if successful.

  • For API details, see DeleteAlarms in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use describe-alarm-history.

Amazon CLI

To retrieve history for an alarm

The following example uses the describe-alarm-history command to retrieve history for the Amazon CloudWatch alarm named "myalarm":

aws cloudwatch describe-alarm-history --alarm-name "myalarm" --history-item-type StateUpdate

Output:

{
    "AlarmHistoryItems": [
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T18:59:06.442Z",
            "HistoryItemType": "StateUpdate",
            "AlarmName": "myalarm",
            "HistoryData": "{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"oldState\":{\"stateValue\":\"ALARM\",\"stateReason\":\"testing purposes\"},\"newState\":{\"stateValue\":\"OK\",\"stateReason\":\"Threshold Crossed: 2 datapoints were not greater than the threshold (70.0). The most recent datapoints: [38.958, 40.292].\",\"stateReasonData\":{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"queryDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:59:06.419+0000\",\"startDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:44:00.000+0000\",\"statistic\":\"Average\",\"period\":300,\"recentDatapoints\":[38.958,40.292],\"threshold\":70.0}}}",
            "HistorySummary": "Alarm updated from ALARM to OK"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T18:59:05.805Z",
            "HistoryItemType": "StateUpdate",
            "AlarmName": "myalarm",
            "HistoryData": "{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"oldState\":{\"stateValue\":\"OK\",\"stateReason\":\"Threshold Crossed: 2 datapoints were not greater than the threshold (70.0). The most recent datapoints: [38.839999999999996, 39.714].\",\"stateReasonData\":{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"queryDate\":\"2014-03-11T22:45:41.569+0000\",\"startDate\":\"2014-03-11T22:30:00.000+0000\",\"statistic\":\"Average\",\"period\":300,\"recentDatapoints\":[38.839999999999996,39.714],\"threshold\":70.0}},\"newState\":{\"stateValue\":\"ALARM\",\"stateReason\":\"testing purposes\"}}",
            "HistorySummary": "Alarm updated from OK to ALARM"
        }
    ]
}

The following code example shows how to use describe-alarms-for-metric.

Amazon CLI

To display information about alarms associated with a metric

The following example uses the describe-alarms-for-metric command to display information about any alarms associated with the Amazon EC2 CPUUtilization metric and the instance with the ID i-0c986c72.:

aws cloudwatch describe-alarms-for-metric --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-0c986c72

Output:

{
    "MetricAlarms": [
        {
            "EvaluationPeriods": 10,
            "AlarmArn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch:us-east-1:111122223333:alarm:myHighCpuAlarm2",
            "StateUpdatedTimestamp": "2013-10-30T03:03:51.479Z",
            "AlarmConfigurationUpdatedTimestamp": "2013-10-30T03:03:50.865Z",
            "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold",
            "AlarmActions": [
                "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111122223333:NotifyMe"
            ],
            "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
            "AlarmDescription": "CPU usage exceeds 70 percent",
            "StateReasonData": "{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"queryDate\":\"2013-10-30T03:03:51.479+0000\",\"startDate\":\"2013-10-30T02:08:00.000+0000\",\"statistic\":\"Average\",\"period\":300,\"recentDatapoints\":[40.698,39.612,42.432,39.796,38.816,42.28,42.854,40.088,40.760000000000005,41.316],\"threshold\":70.0}",
            "Period": 300,
            "StateValue": "OK",
            "Threshold": 70.0,
            "AlarmName": "myHighCpuAlarm2",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "InstanceId",
                    "Value": "i-0c986c72"
                }
            ],
            "Statistic": "Average",
            "StateReason": "Threshold Crossed: 10 datapoints were not greater than or equal to the threshold (70.0). The most recent datapoints: [40.760000000000005, 41.316].",
            "InsufficientDataActions": [],
            "OKActions": [],
            "ActionsEnabled": true,
            "MetricName": "CPUUtilization"
        },
        {
            "EvaluationPeriods": 2,
            "AlarmArn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch:us-east-1:111122223333:alarm:myHighCpuAlarm",
            "StateUpdatedTimestamp": "2014-04-09T18:59:06.442Z",
            "AlarmConfigurationUpdatedTimestamp": "2014-04-09T22:26:05.958Z",
            "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanThreshold",
            "AlarmActions": [
                "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111122223333:HighCPUAlarm"
            ],
            "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
            "AlarmDescription": "CPU usage exceeds 70 percent",
            "StateReasonData": "{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"queryDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:59:06.419+0000\",\"startDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:44:00.000+0000\",\"statistic\":\"Average\",\"period\":300,\"recentDatapoints\":[38.958,40.292],\"threshold\":70.0}",
            "Period": 300,
            "StateValue": "OK",
            "Threshold": 70.0,
            "AlarmName": "myHighCpuAlarm",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "InstanceId",
                    "Value": "i-0c986c72"
                }
            ],
            "Statistic": "Average",
            "StateReason": "Threshold Crossed: 2 datapoints were not greater than the threshold (70.0). The most recent datapoints: [38.958, 40.292].",
            "InsufficientDataActions": [],
            "OKActions": [],
            "ActionsEnabled": false,
            "MetricName": "CPUUtilization"
        }
    ]
}

The following code example shows how to use describe-alarms.

Amazon CLI

To list information about an alarm

The following example uses the describe-alarms command to provide information about the alarm named "myalarm":

aws cloudwatch describe-alarms --alarm-names "myalarm"

Output:

{
    "MetricAlarms": [
        {
            "EvaluationPeriods": 2,
            "AlarmArn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch:us-east-1:123456789012:alarm:myalarm",
            "StateUpdatedTimestamp": "2014-04-09T18:59:06.442Z",
            "AlarmConfigurationUpdatedTimestamp": "2012-12-27T00:49:54.032Z",
            "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanThreshold",
            "AlarmActions": [
                "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:myHighCpuAlarm"
            ],
            "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
            "AlarmDescription": "CPU usage exceeds 70 percent",
            "StateReasonData": "{\"version\":\"1.0\",\"queryDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:59:06.419+0000\",\"startDate\":\"2014-04-09T18:44:00.000+0000\",\"statistic\":\"Average\",\"period\":300,\"recentDatapoints\":[38.958,40.292],\"threshold\":70.0}",
            "Period": 300,
            "StateValue": "OK",
            "Threshold": 70.0,
            "AlarmName": "myalarm",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "InstanceId",
                    "Value": "i-0c986c72"
                }
            ],
            "Statistic": "Average",
            "StateReason": "Threshold Crossed: 2 datapoints were not greater than the threshold (70.0). The most recent datapoints: [38.958, 40.292].",
            "InsufficientDataActions": [],
            "OKActions": [],
            "ActionsEnabled": true,
            "MetricName": "CPUUtilization"
        }
    ]
}

  • For API details, see DescribeAlarms in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use disable-alarm-actions.

Amazon CLI

To disable actions for an alarm

The following example uses the disable-alarm-actions command to disable all actions for the alarm named myalarm.:

aws cloudwatch disable-alarm-actions --alarm-names myalarm

This command returns to the prompt if successful.

The following code example shows how to use enable-alarm-actions.

Amazon CLI

To enable all actions for an alarm

The following example uses the enable-alarm-actions command to enable all actions for the alarm named myalarm.:

aws cloudwatch enable-alarm-actions --alarm-names myalarm

This command returns to the prompt if successful.

The following code example shows how to use get-metric-statistics.

Amazon CLI

To get the CPU utilization per EC2 instance

The following example uses the get-metric-statistics command to get the CPU utilization for an EC2 instance with the ID i-abcdef.

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --metric-name CPUUtilization --start-time 2014-04-08T23:18:00Z --end-time 2014-04-09T23:18:00Z --period 3600 --namespace AWS/EC2 --statistics Maximum --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-abcdef

Output:

{
    "Datapoints": [
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T11:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 44.79,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T20:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T19:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 50.85,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T09:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T03:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 76.84,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T21:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 48.96,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T14:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T08:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T16:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 45.55,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T06:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T13:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 45.08,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T05:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T18:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 46.88,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T17:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 52.08,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T07:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.92,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T02:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 51.23,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T12:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.67,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-08T23:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 46.88,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T10:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 51.91,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T04:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 47.13,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T15:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 48.96,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T00:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 48.16,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        },
        {
            "Timestamp": "2014-04-09T01:18:00Z",
            "Maximum": 49.18,
            "Unit": "Percent"
        }
    ],
    "Label": "CPUUtilization"
}

Specifying multiple dimensions

The following example illustrates how to specify multiple dimensions. Each dimension is specified as a Name/Value pair, with a comma between the name and the value. Multiple dimensions are separated by a space. If a single metric includes multiple dimensions, you must specify a value for every defined dimension.

For more examples using the get-metric-statistics command, see Get Statistics for a Metric in the Amazon CloudWatch Developer Guide.

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --metric-name Buffers --namespace MyNameSpace --dimensions Name=InstanceID,Value=i-abcdef Name=InstanceType,Value=m1.small --start-time 2016-10-15T04:00:00Z --end-time 2016-10-19T07:00:00Z --statistics Average --period 60

The following code example shows how to use list-metrics.

Amazon CLI

To list the metrics for Amazon SNS

The following list-metrics example displays the metrics for Amazon SNS.

aws cloudwatch list-metrics \
    --namespace "AWS/SNS"

Output:

{
    "Metrics": [
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "NotifyMe"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "PublishSize"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "CFO"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "PublishSize"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "NotifyMe"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfNotificationsFailed"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "NotifyMe"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfNotificationsDelivered"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "NotifyMe"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfMessagesPublished"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "CFO"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfMessagesPublished"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "CFO"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfNotificationsDelivered"
        },
        {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SNS",
            "Dimensions": [
                {
                    "Name": "TopicName",
                    "Value": "CFO"
                }
            ],
            "MetricName": "NumberOfNotificationsFailed"
        }
    ]
}

  • For API details, see ListMetrics in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use put-metric-alarm.

Amazon CLI

To send an Amazon Simple Notification Service email message when CPU utilization exceeds 70 percent

The following example uses the put-metric-alarm command to send an Amazon Simple Notification Service email message when CPU utilization exceeds 70 percent:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name cpu-mon --alarm-description "Alarm when CPU exceeds 70 percent" --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --statistic Average --period 300 --threshold 70 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold  --dimensions "Name=InstanceId,Value=i-12345678" --evaluation-periods 2 --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111122223333:MyTopic --unit Percent

This command returns to the prompt if successful. If an alarm with the same name already exists, it will be overwritten by the new alarm.

To specify multiple dimensions

The following example illustrates how to specify multiple dimensions. Each dimension is specified as a Name/Value pair, with a comma between the name and the value. Multiple dimensions are separated by a space:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name "Default_Test_Alarm3" --alarm-description "The default example alarm" --namespace "CW EXAMPLE METRICS" --metric-name Default_Test --statistic Average --period 60 --evaluation-periods 3 --threshold 50 --comparison-operator GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold --dimensions Name=key1,Value=value1 Name=key2,Value=value2

  • For API details, see PutMetricAlarm in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use put-metric-data.

Amazon CLI

To publish a custom metric to Amazon CloudWatch

The following example uses the put-metric-data command to publish a custom metric to Amazon CloudWatch:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-data --namespace "Usage Metrics" --metric-data file://metric.json

The values for the metric itself are stored in the JSON file, metric.json.

Here are the contents of that file:

[
  {
    "MetricName": "New Posts",
    "Timestamp": "Wednesday, June 12, 2013 8:28:20 PM",
    "Value": 0.50,
    "Unit": "Count"
  }
]

For more information, see Publishing Custom Metrics in the Amazon CloudWatch Developer Guide.

To specify multiple dimensions

The following example illustrates how to specify multiple dimensions. Each dimension is specified as a Name=Value pair. Multiple dimensions are separated by a comma.:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-data --metric-name Buffers --namespace MyNameSpace --unit Bytes --value 231434333 --dimensions InstanceID=1-23456789,InstanceType=m1.small

  • For API details, see PutMetricData in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use set-alarm-state.

Amazon CLI

To temporarily change the state of an alarm

The following example uses the set-alarm-state command to temporarily change the state of an Amazon CloudWatch alarm named "myalarm" and set it to the ALARM state for testing purposes:

aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name "myalarm" --state-value ALARM --state-reason "testing purposes"

This command returns to the prompt if successful.

  • For API details, see SetAlarmState in Amazon CLI Command Reference.