# Create a storage throughput alarm that sends email
<a name="US_AlarmAtThresholdEBS"></a>

You can set up an SNS notification and configure an alarm that is triggered when Amazon EBS exceeds 100 MB throughput.

## Setting up a storage throughput alarm using the AWS Management Console
<a name="storage-alarm-console"></a>

Use these steps to use the AWS Management Console to create an alarm based on Amazon EBS throughput.

**To create a storage throughput alarm**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Alarms**, **All Alarms**.

1. Choose **Create alarm**.

1. Under **EBS Metrics**, choose a metric category.

1. Select the row with the volume and the **VolumeWriteBytes** metric.

1. For the statistic, choose **Average**. For the period, choose **5 Minutes**. Choose **Next**.

1. Under **Alarm Threshold**, enter a unique name for the alarm (for example, **myHighWriteAlarm**) and a description of the alarm (for example, **VolumeWriteBytes exceeds 100,000 KiB/s**). The name must contain only UTF-8 characters, and can't contain ASCII control characters. The description can include markdown formatting, which is displayed only in the alarm **Details** tab in the CloudWatch console. The markdown can be useful to add links to runbooks or other internal resources.

1. Under **Whenever**, for **is**, choose **>** and enter **100000**. For **for**, enter **15** consecutive periods.

   A graphical representation of the threshold is shown under **Alarm Preview**.

1. Under **Additional settings**, for **Treat missing data as**, choose **ignore (maintain alarm state)** so that missing data points don't trigger alarm state changes.

1. Under **Actions**, for **Whenever this alarm**, choose **State is ALARM**. For **Send notification to**, choose an existing SNS topic or create one.

   To create an SNS topic, choose **New list**. For **Send notification to**, enter a name for the SNS topic (for example, **myHighCpuAlarm**), and for **Email list**, enter a comma-separated list of email addresses to be notified when the alarm changes to the `ALARM` state. Each email address is sent a topic subscription confirmation email. You must confirm the subscription before notifications can be sent to an email address.

1. Choose **Create Alarm**.

## Setting up a storage throughput alarm using the AWS CLI
<a name="storage-alarm-cli"></a>

Use these steps to use the AWS CLI to create an alarm based on Amazon EBS throughput.

**To create a storage throughput alarm**

1. Create an SNS topic. For more information, see [Setting up Amazon SNS notifications](Notify_Users_Alarm_Changes.md#US_SetupSNS).

1. Create the alarm.

   ```
   1. aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name {{ebs-mon}} --alarm-description "Alarm when EBS volume exceeds 100MB throughput" --metric-name VolumeReadBytes --namespace AWS/EBS --statistic Average --period 300 --threshold 100000000 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold --dimensions Name=VolumeId,Value={{my-volume-id}} --evaluation-periods 3 --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:{{us-east-1}}:{{111122223333}}:{{my-alarm-topic}} --insufficient-data-actions arn:aws:sns:{{us-east-1}}:{{111122223333}}:{{my-insufficient-data-topic}}
   ```

1. Test the alarm by forcing an alarm state change using the [set-alarm-state](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/cloudwatch/set-alarm-state.html) command.

   1. Change the alarm state from `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` to `OK`.

      ```
      1. aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name {{ebs-mon}} --state-reason "initializing" --state-value OK
      ```

   1. Change the alarm state from `OK` to `ALARM`.

      ```
      1. aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name {{ebs-mon}} --state-reason "initializing" --state-value ALARM
      ```

   1. Change the alarm state from `ALARM` to `INSUFFICIENT_DATA`.

      ```
      1. aws cloudwatch set-alarm-state --alarm-name {{ebs-mon}} --state-reason "initializing" --state-value INSUFFICIENT_DATA
      ```

   1. Check that you have received an email notification about the alarm.