Amazon CloudWatch template snippets

Use these sample template snippets to help describe your Amazon CloudWatch resources in AWS CloudFormation. For more information, see the Amazon CloudWatch resource type reference.

Billing alarm

In the following sample, Amazon CloudWatch sends an email notification when charges to your AWS account exceed the alarm threshold. To receive usage notifications, enable billing alerts. For more information, see Create a billing alarm to monitor your estimated AWS charges in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.>

"SpendingAlarm": {
  "Type": "AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm",
  "Properties": {
    "AlarmDescription": { "Fn::Join": ["", [
      "Alarm if AWS spending is over $",
      { "Ref": "AlarmThreshold" }
    ]]},
    "Namespace": "AWS/Billing",
    "MetricName": "EstimatedCharges",
    "Dimensions": [{
      "Name": "Currency",
      "Value" : "USD"
    }],
    "Statistic": "Maximum",
    "Period": "21600",
    "EvaluationPeriods": "1",
    "Threshold": { "Ref": "AlarmThreshold" },
    "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanThreshold",
    "AlarmActions": [{
      "Ref": "BillingAlarmNotification"
    }],
    "InsufficientDataActions": [{
      "Ref": "BillingAlarmNotification"
    }]
  }
}

SpendingAlarm:
  Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm
  Properties:
    AlarmDescription: 
      'Fn::Join':
        - ''
        - - Alarm if AWS spending is over $
          - !Ref: AlarmThreshold
    Namespace: AWS/Billing
    MetricName: EstimatedCharges
    Dimensions:
    - Name: Currency
      Value: USD
    Statistic: Maximum
    Period: '21600'
    EvaluationPeriods: '1'
    Threshold:
      !Ref: "AlarmThreshold"
    ComparisonOperator: GreaterThanThreshold
    AlarmActions:
    - !Ref: "BillingAlarmNotification"
    InsufficientDataActions:
    - !Ref: "BillingAlarmNotification"

CPU utilization alarm

The following sample snippet creates an alarm that sends a notification when the average CPU utilization of an Amazon EC2 instance exceeds 90 percent for more than 60 seconds over three evaluation periods.

"CPUAlarm" : {
  "Type" : "AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm",
  "Properties" : {
    "AlarmDescription" : "CPU alarm for my instance",
    "AlarmActions" : [ { "Ref" : "logical name of an AWS::SNS::Topic resource" } ],
    "MetricName" : "CPUUtilization",
    "Namespace" : "AWS/EC2",
    "Statistic" : "Average",
    "Period" : "60",
    "EvaluationPeriods" : "3",
    "Threshold" : "90",
    "ComparisonOperator" : "GreaterThanThreshold",
    "Dimensions" : [ {
      "Name" : "InstanceId",
      "Value" : { "Ref" : "logical name of an AWS::EC2::Instance resource" }
    } ]
  }
}

CPUAlarm:
  Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm
  Properties:
    AlarmDescription: CPU alarm for my instance
    AlarmActions:
    - !Ref: "logical name of an AWS::SNS::Topic resource"
    MetricName: CPUUtilization
    Namespace: AWS/EC2
    Statistic: Average
    Period: '60'
    EvaluationPeriods: '3'
    Threshold: '90'
    ComparisonOperator: GreaterThanThreshold
    Dimensions:
    - Name: InstanceId
      Value: !Ref: "logical name of an AWS::EC2::Instance resource"

Recover an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instance

The following CloudWatch alarm recovers an EC2 instance when it has status check failures for 15 consecutive minutes. For more information about alarm actions, see Create alarms to stop, terminate, reboot, or recover an EC2 instance in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
  "Parameters" : {
    "RecoveryInstance" : {
      "Description" : "The EC2 instance ID to associate this alarm with.",
      "Type" : "AWS::EC2::Instance::Id"
    }
  },
  "Resources": {
    "RecoveryTestAlarm": {
      "Type": "AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm",
      "Properties": {
        "AlarmDescription": "Trigger a recovery when instance status check fails for 15 consecutive minutes.",
        "Namespace": "AWS/EC2" ,
        "MetricName": "StatusCheckFailed_System",
        "Statistic": "Minimum",
        "Period": "60",
        "EvaluationPeriods": "15",
        "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanThreshold",
        "Threshold": "0",
        "AlarmActions": [ {"Fn::Join" : ["", ["arn:aws:automate:", { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" }, ":ec2:recover" ]]} ],
        "Dimensions": [{"Name": "InstanceId","Value": {"Ref": "RecoveryInstance"}}]
      }
    }
  }
}

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Parameters:
  RecoveryInstance:
    Description: The EC2 instance ID to associate this alarm with.
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance::Id
Resources:
  RecoveryTestAlarm:
    Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm
    Properties:
      AlarmDescription: Trigger a recovery when instance status check fails for 15
        consecutive minutes.
      Namespace: AWS/EC2
      MetricName: StatusCheckFailed_System
      Statistic: Minimum
      Period: '60'
      EvaluationPeriods: '15'
      ComparisonOperator: GreaterThanThreshold
      Threshold: '0'
      AlarmActions: [ !Sub "arn:aws:automate:${AWS::Region}:ec2:recover" ]
      Dimensions:
      - Name: InstanceId
        Value: !Ref: RecoveryInstance

Create a basic dashboard

The following example creates a simple CloudWatch dashboard with one metric widget displaying CPU utilization, and one text widget displaying a message.

{
    "BasicDashboard": {
        "Type": "AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard",
        "Properties": {
            "DashboardName": "Dashboard1",
            "DashboardBody": "{\"widgets\":[{\"type\":\"metric\",\"x\":0,\"y\":0,\"width\":12,\"height\":6,\"properties\":{\"metrics\":[[\"AWS/EC2\",\"CPUUtilization\",\"InstanceId\",\"i-012345\"]],\"period\":300,\"stat\":\"Average\",\"region\":\"us-east-1\",\"title\":\"EC2 Instance CPU\"}},{\"type\":\"text\",\"x\":0,\"y\":7,\"width\":3,\"height\":3,\"properties\":{\"markdown\":\"Hello world\"}}]}"
        }
    }
}
    

BasicDashboard:
  Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard
  Properties:
    DashboardName: Dashboard1
    DashboardBody: '{"widgets":[{"type":"metric","x":0,"y":0,"width":12,"height":6,"properties":{"metrics":[["AWS/EC2","CPUUtilization","InstanceId","i-012345"]],"period":300,"stat":"Average","region":"us-east-1","title":"EC2 Instance CPU"}},{"type":"text","x":0,"y":7,"width":3,"height":3,"properties":{"markdown":"Hello world"}}]}'

Create a dashboard with side-by-side widgets

The following example creates a dashboard with two metric widgets that appear side by side.

{
    "DashboardSideBySide": {
        "Type": "AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard",
        "Properties": {
            "DashboardName": "Dashboard1",
            "DashboardBody": "{\"widgets\":[{\"type\":\"metric\",\"x\":0,\"y\":0,\"width\":12,\"height\":6,\"properties\":{\"metrics\":[[\"AWS/EC2\",\"CPUUtilization\",\"InstanceId\",\"i-012345\"]],\"period\":300,\"stat\":\"Average\",\"region\":\"us-east-1\",\"title\":\"EC2 Instance CPU\"}},{\"type\":\"metric\",\"x\":12,\"y\":0,\"width\":12,\"height\":6,\"properties\":{\"metrics\":[[\"AWS/S3\",\"BucketSizeBytes\",\"BucketName\",\"amzn-s3-demo-bucket\"]],\"period\":86400,\"stat\":\"Maximum\",\"region\":\"us-east-1\",\"title\":\"amzn-s3-demo-bucket bytes\"}}]}"
        }
    }
}

DashboardSideBySide:
  Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard
  Properties:
    DashboardName: Dashboard1
    DashboardBody: '{"widgets":[{"type":"metric","x":0,"y":0,"width":12,"height":6,"properties":{"metrics":[["AWS/EC2","CPUUtilization","InstanceId","i-012345"]],"period":300,"stat":"Average","region":"us-east-1","title":"EC2 Instance CPU"}},{"type":"metric","x":12,"y":0,"width":12,"height":6,"properties":{"metrics":[["AWS/S3","BucketSizeBytes","BucketName","amzn-s3-demo-bucket"]],"period":86400,"stat":"Maximum","region":"us-east-1","title":"amzn-s3-demo-bucket bytes"}}]}'