DescribeAlarmsCommand

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Retrieves the specified alarms. You can filter the results by specifying a prefix for the alarm name, the alarm state, or a prefix for any action.

To use this operation and return information about composite alarms, you must be signed on with the cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms permission that is scoped to *. You can't return information about composite alarms if your cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms permission has a narrower scope.

Example Syntax

Use a bare-bones client and the command you need to make an API call.

import { CloudWatchClient, DescribeAlarmsCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-cloudwatch"; // ES Modules import
// const { CloudWatchClient, DescribeAlarmsCommand } = require("@aws-sdk/client-cloudwatch"); // CommonJS import
const client = new CloudWatchClient(config);
const input = { // DescribeAlarmsInput
  AlarmNames: [ // AlarmNames
    "STRING_VALUE",
  ],
  AlarmNamePrefix: "STRING_VALUE",
  AlarmTypes: [ // AlarmTypes
    "CompositeAlarm" || "MetricAlarm",
  ],
  ChildrenOfAlarmName: "STRING_VALUE",
  ParentsOfAlarmName: "STRING_VALUE",
  StateValue: "OK" || "ALARM" || "INSUFFICIENT_DATA",
  ActionPrefix: "STRING_VALUE",
  MaxRecords: Number("int"),
  NextToken: "STRING_VALUE",
};
const command = new DescribeAlarmsCommand(input);
const response = await client.send(command);
// { // DescribeAlarmsOutput
//   CompositeAlarms: [ // CompositeAlarms
//     { // CompositeAlarm
//       ActionsEnabled: true || false,
//       AlarmActions: [ // ResourceList
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       AlarmArn: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmConfigurationUpdatedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//       AlarmDescription: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmName: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmRule: "STRING_VALUE",
//       InsufficientDataActions: [
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       OKActions: [
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       StateReason: "STRING_VALUE",
//       StateReasonData: "STRING_VALUE",
//       StateUpdatedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//       StateValue: "OK" || "ALARM" || "INSUFFICIENT_DATA",
//       StateTransitionedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//       ActionsSuppressedBy: "WaitPeriod" || "ExtensionPeriod" || "Alarm",
//       ActionsSuppressedReason: "STRING_VALUE",
//       ActionsSuppressor: "STRING_VALUE",
//       ActionsSuppressorWaitPeriod: Number("int"),
//       ActionsSuppressorExtensionPeriod: Number("int"),
//     },
//   ],
//   MetricAlarms: [ // MetricAlarms
//     { // MetricAlarm
//       AlarmName: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmArn: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmDescription: "STRING_VALUE",
//       AlarmConfigurationUpdatedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//       ActionsEnabled: true || false,
//       OKActions: [
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       AlarmActions: [
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       InsufficientDataActions: "<ResourceList>",
//       StateValue: "OK" || "ALARM" || "INSUFFICIENT_DATA",
//       StateReason: "STRING_VALUE",
//       StateReasonData: "STRING_VALUE",
//       StateUpdatedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//       MetricName: "STRING_VALUE",
//       Namespace: "STRING_VALUE",
//       Statistic: "SampleCount" || "Average" || "Sum" || "Minimum" || "Maximum",
//       ExtendedStatistic: "STRING_VALUE",
//       Dimensions: [ // Dimensions
//         { // Dimension
//           Name: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//           Value: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//         },
//       ],
//       Period: Number("int"),
//       Unit: "Seconds" || "Microseconds" || "Milliseconds" || "Bytes" || "Kilobytes" || "Megabytes" || "Gigabytes" || "Terabytes" || "Bits" || "Kilobits" || "Megabits" || "Gigabits" || "Terabits" || "Percent" || "Count" || "Bytes/Second" || "Kilobytes/Second" || "Megabytes/Second" || "Gigabytes/Second" || "Terabytes/Second" || "Bits/Second" || "Kilobits/Second" || "Megabits/Second" || "Gigabits/Second" || "Terabits/Second" || "Count/Second" || "None",
//       EvaluationPeriods: Number("int"),
//       DatapointsToAlarm: Number("int"),
//       Threshold: Number("double"),
//       ComparisonOperator: "GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold" || "GreaterThanThreshold" || "LessThanThreshold" || "LessThanOrEqualToThreshold" || "LessThanLowerOrGreaterThanUpperThreshold" || "LessThanLowerThreshold" || "GreaterThanUpperThreshold",
//       TreatMissingData: "STRING_VALUE",
//       EvaluateLowSampleCountPercentile: "STRING_VALUE",
//       Metrics: [ // MetricDataQueries
//         { // MetricDataQuery
//           Id: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//           MetricStat: { // MetricStat
//             Metric: { // Metric
//               Namespace: "STRING_VALUE",
//               MetricName: "STRING_VALUE",
//               Dimensions: [
//                 {
//                   Name: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//                   Value: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//                 },
//               ],
//             },
//             Period: Number("int"), // required
//             Stat: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//             Unit: "Seconds" || "Microseconds" || "Milliseconds" || "Bytes" || "Kilobytes" || "Megabytes" || "Gigabytes" || "Terabytes" || "Bits" || "Kilobits" || "Megabits" || "Gigabits" || "Terabits" || "Percent" || "Count" || "Bytes/Second" || "Kilobytes/Second" || "Megabytes/Second" || "Gigabytes/Second" || "Terabytes/Second" || "Bits/Second" || "Kilobits/Second" || "Megabits/Second" || "Gigabits/Second" || "Terabits/Second" || "Count/Second" || "None",
//           },
//           Expression: "STRING_VALUE",
//           Label: "STRING_VALUE",
//           ReturnData: true || false,
//           Period: Number("int"),
//           AccountId: "STRING_VALUE",
//         },
//       ],
//       ThresholdMetricId: "STRING_VALUE",
//       EvaluationState: "PARTIAL_DATA",
//       StateTransitionedTimestamp: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//     },
//   ],
//   NextToken: "STRING_VALUE",
// };

DescribeAlarmsCommand Input

See DescribeAlarmsCommandInput for more details

Parameter
Type
Description
ActionPrefix
string | undefined

Use this parameter to filter the results of the operation to only those alarms that use a certain alarm action. For example, you could specify the ARN of an SNS topic to find all alarms that send notifications to that topic.

AlarmNamePrefix
string | undefined

An alarm name prefix. If you specify this parameter, you receive information about all alarms that have names that start with this prefix.

If this parameter is specified, you cannot specify AlarmNames.

AlarmNames
string[] | undefined

The names of the alarms to retrieve information about.

AlarmTypes
AlarmType[] | undefined

Use this parameter to specify whether you want the operation to return metric alarms or composite alarms. If you omit this parameter, only metric alarms are returned, even if composite alarms exist in the account.

For example, if you omit this parameter or specify MetricAlarms, the operation returns only a list of metric alarms. It does not return any composite alarms, even if composite alarms exist in the account.

If you specify CompositeAlarms, the operation returns only a list of composite alarms, and does not return any metric alarms.

ChildrenOfAlarmName
string | undefined

If you use this parameter and specify the name of a composite alarm, the operation returns information about the "children" alarms of the alarm you specify. These are the metric alarms and composite alarms referenced in the AlarmRule field of the composite alarm that you specify in ChildrenOfAlarmName. Information about the composite alarm that you name in ChildrenOfAlarmName is not returned.

If you specify ChildrenOfAlarmName, you cannot specify any other parameters in the request except for MaxRecords and NextToken. If you do so, you receive a validation error.

Only the Alarm Name, ARN, StateValue (OK/ALARM/INSUFFICIENT_DATA), and StateUpdatedTimestamp information are returned by this operation when you use this parameter. To get complete information about these alarms, perform another DescribeAlarms operation and specify the parent alarm names in the AlarmNames parameter.

MaxRecords
number | undefined

The maximum number of alarm descriptions to retrieve.

NextToken
string | undefined

The token returned by a previous call to indicate that there is more data available.

ParentsOfAlarmName
string | undefined

If you use this parameter and specify the name of a metric or composite alarm, the operation returns information about the "parent" alarms of the alarm you specify. These are the composite alarms that have AlarmRule parameters that reference the alarm named in ParentsOfAlarmName. Information about the alarm that you specify in ParentsOfAlarmName is not returned.

If you specify ParentsOfAlarmName, you cannot specify any other parameters in the request except for MaxRecords and NextToken. If you do so, you receive a validation error.

Only the Alarm Name and ARN are returned by this operation when you use this parameter. To get complete information about these alarms, perform another DescribeAlarms operation and specify the parent alarm names in the AlarmNames parameter.

StateValue
StateValue | undefined

Specify this parameter to receive information only about alarms that are currently in the state that you specify.

DescribeAlarmsCommand Output

See DescribeAlarmsCommandOutput for details

Parameter
Type
Description
$metadata
Required
ResponseMetadata
Metadata pertaining to this request.
CompositeAlarms
CompositeAlarm[] | undefined

The information about any composite alarms returned by the operation.

MetricAlarms
MetricAlarm[] | undefined

The information about any metric alarms returned by the operation.

NextToken
string | undefined

The token that marks the start of the next batch of returned results.

Throws

Name
Fault
Details
InvalidNextToken
client

The next token specified is invalid.

CloudWatchServiceException
Base exception class for all service exceptions from CloudWatch service.