Create the CloudWatch agent configuration file with the wizard - Amazon CloudWatch
Required credentialsRun the CloudWatch agent configuration wizardCloudWatch agent predefined metric sets

Create the CloudWatch agent configuration file with the wizard

The agent configuration file wizard, amazon-cloudwatch-agent-config-wizard, asks a series of questions to help you configure the CloudWatch agent for your needs. This section describes the credentials required for the configuration file. It describes how to run the CloudWatch agent configuration wizard. It also describes the metrics that are predenfined in the wizard.

Required credentials

The wizard can autodetect the credentials and AWS Region to use if you have the AWS credentials and configuration files in place before you start the wizard. For more information about these files, see Configuration and Credential Files in the AWS Systems Manager User Guide.

In the AWS credentials file, the wizard checks for default credentials and also looks for an AmazonCloudWatchAgent section such as the following:

[AmazonCloudWatchAgent]
aws_access_key_id = my_access_key
aws_secret_access_key = my_secret_key

The wizard displays the default credentials, the credentials from the AmazonCloudWatchAgent, and an Others option. You can select which credentials to use. If you choose Others, you can input credentials.

For my_access_key and my_secret_key, use the keys from the IAM user that has the permissions to write to Systems Manager Parameter Store. For more information about the IAM users needed for the CloudWatch agent, see Create IAM users to use with the CloudWatch agent on on-premises servers.

In the AWS configuration file, you can specify the Region that the agent sends metrics to if it's different than the [default] section. The default is to publish the metrics to the Region where the Amazon EC2 instance is located. If the metrics should be published to a different Region, specify the Region here. In the following example, the metrics are published to the us-west-1 Region.

[AmazonCloudWatchAgent]
region = us-west-1

Run the CloudWatch agent configuration wizard

To create the CloudWatch agent configuration file

  1. Start the CloudWatch agent configuration wizard by entering the following:

    sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-config-wizard

    On a server running Windows Server, run the following commands to launch the wizard:

    cd "C:\Program Files\Amazon\AmazonCloudWatchAgent"
    .\amazon-cloudwatch-agent-config-wizard.exe

  2. Answer the questions to customize the configuration file for your server.

  3. If you're storing the configuration file locally, the configuration file config.json is stored in /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/ on Linux servers, and is stored in C:\Program Files\Amazon\AmazonCloudWatchAgent on Windows Server. You can then copy this file to other servers where you want to install the agent.

    If you're going to use Systems Manager to install and configure the agent, be sure to answer Yes when prompted whether to store the file in Systems Manager Parameter Store. You can also choose to store the file in Parameter Store even if you aren't using the SSM Agent to install the CloudWatch agent. To be able to store the file in Parameter Store, you must use an IAM role with sufficient permissions. For more information, see Create IAM roles and users for use with the CloudWatch agent.

CloudWatch agent predefined metric sets

The wizard is configured with predefined sets of metrics, with different detail levels. These sets of metrics are shown in the following tables. For more information about these metrics, see Metrics collected by the CloudWatch agent.

Note

Parameter Store supports parameters in Standard and Advanced tiers. These parameter tiers are not related to the Basic, Standard, and Advanced levels of metric details that are described in these tables.

Amazon EC2 instances running Linux

Detail level Metrics included

Basic

Mem: mem_used_percent

Disk: disk_used_percent

The disk metrics such as disk_used_percent have a dimension for Partition, which means that the number of custom metrics generated is dependent on the number of partitions associated with your instance. The number of disk partitions you have depends on which AMI you are using and the number of Amazon EBS volumes you attach to the server.

Standard

CPU: cpu_usage_idle, cpu_usage_iowait, cpu_usage_user, cpu_usage_system

Disk: disk_used_percent, disk_inodes_free

Diskio: diskio_io_time

Mem: mem_used_percent

Swap: swap_used_percent

Advanced

CPU: cpu_usage_idle, cpu_usage_iowait, cpu_usage_user, cpu_usage_system

Disk: disk_used_percent, disk_inodes_free

Diskio: diskio_io_time, diskio_write_bytes, diskio_read_bytes, diskio_writes, diskio_reads

Mem: mem_used_percent

Netstat: netstat_tcp_established, netstat_tcp_time_wait

Swap: swap_used_percent

On-premises servers running Linux

Detail level Metrics included

Basic

Disk: disk_used_percent

Diskio: diskio_write_bytes, diskio_read_bytes, diskio_writes, diskio_reads

Mem: mem_used_percent

Net: net_bytes_sent, net_bytes_recv, net_packets_sent, net_packets_recv

Swap: swap_used_percent

Standard

CPU: cpu_usage_idle, cpu_usage_iowait

Disk: disk_used_percent, disk_inodes_free

Diskio: diskio_io_time, diskio_write_bytes, diskio_read_bytes, diskio_writes, diskio_reads

Mem: mem_used_percent

Net: net_bytes_sent, net_bytes_recv, net_packets_sent, net_packets_recv

Swap: swap_used_percent

Advanced

CPU: cpu_usage_guest, cpu_usage_idle, cpu_usage_iowait, cpu_usage_steal, cpu_usage_user, cpu_usage_system

Disk: disk_used_percent, disk_inodes_free

Diskio: diskio_io_time, diskio_write_bytes, diskio_read_bytes, diskio_writes, diskio_reads

Mem: mem_used_percent

Net: net_bytes_sent, net_bytes_recv, net_packets_sent, net_packets_recv

Netstat: netstat_tcp_established, netstat_tcp_time_wait

Swap: swap_used_percent

Amazon EC2 instances running Windows Server

Note

The metric names listed in this table display how the metric appears when viewed in the console. The actual metric name might not include the first word. For example, the actual metric name for LogicalDisk % Free Space is just % Free Space.

Detail level Metrics included

Basic

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

LogicalDisk: LogicalDisk % Free Space

Standard

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

Paging: Paging File % Usage

Processor: Processor % Idle Time, Processor % Interrupt Time, Processor % User Time

PhysicalDisk: PhysicalDisk % Disk Time

LogicalDisk: LogicalDisk % Free Space

Advanced

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

Paging: Paging File % Usage

Processor: Processor % Idle Time, Processor % Interrupt Time, Processor % User Time

LogicalDisk: LogicalDisk % Free Space

PhysicalDisk: PhysicalDisk % Disk Time, PhysicalDisk Disk Write Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Read Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Writes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Reads/sec

TCP: TCPv4 Connections Established, TCPv6 Connections Established

On-premises server running Windows Server

Note

The metric names listed in this table display how the metric appears when viewed in the console. The actual metric name might not include the first word. For example, the actual metric name for LogicalDisk % Free Space is just % Free Space.

Detail level Metrics included

Basic

Paging: Paging File % Usage

Processor: Processor % Processor Time

LogicalDisk:LogicalDisk % Free Space

PhysicalDisk: PhysicalDisk Disk Write Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Read Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Writes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Reads/sec

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

Network Interface: Network Interface Bytes Sent/sec, Network Interface Bytes Received/sec, Network Interface Packets Sent/sec, Network Interface Packets Received/sec

Standard

Paging: Paging File % Usage

Processor: Processor % Processor Time, Processor % Idle Time, Processor % Interrupt Time

LogicalDisk: LogicalDisk % Free Space

PhysicalDisk: PhysicalDisk % Disk Time, PhysicalDisk Disk Write Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Read Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Writes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Reads/sec

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

Network Interface: Network Interface Bytes Sent/sec, Network Interface Bytes Received/sec, Network Interface Packets Sent/sec, Network Interface Packets Received/sec

Advanced

Paging:Paging File % Usage

Processor: Processor % Processor Time, Processor % Idle Time, Processor % Interrupt Time, Processor % User Time

LogicalDisk: LogicalDisk % Free Space

PhysicalDisk: PhysicalDisk % Disk Time, PhysicalDisk Disk Write Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Read Bytes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Writes/sec, PhysicalDisk Disk Reads/sec

Memory: Memory % Committed Bytes In Use

Network Interface: Network Interface Bytes Sent/sec, Network Interface Bytes Received/sec, Network Interface Packets Sent/sec, Network Interface Packets Received/sec

TCP: TCPv4 Connections Established, TCPv6 Connections Established