# Entity
<a name="API_Entity"></a>

An entity associated with metrics, to allow for finding related telemetry. An entity is typically a resource or service within your system. For example, metrics from an Amazon EC2 instance could be associated with that instance as the entity. Similarly, metrics from a service that you own could be associated with that service as the entity.

## Contents
<a name="API_Entity_Contents"></a>

 ** Attributes **   <a name="ACW-Type-Entity-Attributes"></a>
Additional attributes of the entity that are not used to specify the identity of the entity. A list of key-value pairs.  
For details about how to use the attributes, see [How to add related information to telemetry](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/adding-your-own-related-telemetry.html) in the *CloudWatch User Guide*.  
Type: String to string map  
Map Entries: Minimum number of 0 items. Maximum number of 10 items.  
Key Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 256.  
Value Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 2048.  
Required: No

 ** KeyAttributes **   <a name="ACW-Type-Entity-KeyAttributes"></a>
The attributes of the entity which identify the specific entity, as a list of key-value pairs. Entities with the same `KeyAttributes` are considered to be the same entity. For an entity to be valid, the `KeyAttributes` must exist and be formatted correctly.  
There are five allowed attributes (key names): `Type`, `ResourceType`, `Identifier`, `Name`, and `Environment`.  
For details about how to use the key attributes to specify an entity, see [How to add related information to telemetry](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/adding-your-own-related-telemetry.html) in the *CloudWatch User Guide*.  
Type: String to string map  
Map Entries: Minimum number of 2 items. Maximum number of 4 items.  
Key Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 32.  
Value Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 2048.  
Required: No

## See Also
<a name="API_Entity_SeeAlso"></a>

For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following:
+  [AWS SDK for C\$1\$1](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForCpp/monitoring-2010-08-01/Entity) 
+  [AWS SDK for Java V2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForJavaV2/monitoring-2010-08-01/Entity) 
+  [AWS SDK for Ruby V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForRubyV3/monitoring-2010-08-01/Entity)