# Creating a customized CloudWatch dashboard
<a name="create_dashboard"></a>

 To get started, create a CloudWatch dashboard. You can create multiple dashboards, and you can add dashboards to a favorites list. You aren't limited to the number of dashboards that you can have in your AWS account. All dashboards are global. They are not Region-specific. 

 The following procedure shows you how to create a dashboard from the CloudWatch console. You can use the `PutDashboard` API operation to create a dashboard from the command line interface. The API operation contains a JSON string that defines your dashboard content. For more information about creating a dashboard with the `PutDashboard` API operation, see [PutDashboard](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/APIReference/API_PutDashboard.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch API Reference*. 

**Tip**  
 If you're creating a new dashboard with the `PutDashboard` API operation, you can use the JSON string from a dashboard that already exists. 

**To create a dashboard from the console**

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

1.  In the navigation pane, choose **Dashboards**, and then choose **Create dashboard**. 

1. In the **Create new dashboard** dialog box, enter a name for the dashboard, and then choose **Create dashboard**. 

    If you use the name **CloudWatch-Default** or **CloudWatch-Default-*ResourceGroupName***, the dashboard appears in the overview of the CloudWatch home page under **Default Dashboard**. For more information, see [Getting started with CloudWatch automatic dashboards](GettingStarted.md). 

1.  In the **Add to this dashboard** dialog box, do one of the following: 
   +  To add a graph to the dashboard, choose **Line** or **Stacked area**, and then choose **Configure**. In the **Add metric graph** dialog box, select the metric(s) to graph, and then choose **Create widget**. If a metric doesn't appear in the dialog box because it hasn't published data in more than 14 days, you can add it manually. For more information, see [Graph metrics manually on a CloudWatch dashboard](add_old_metrics_to_graph.md). 
   +  To add a number displaying a metric to the dashboard, choose **Number**, and then choose **Configure**. In the **Add metric graph** dialog box, select the metric(s) to graph, and then choose **Create widget**.
   +  To add a text block to the dashboard, choose **Text**, and then choose **Configure**. In the **New text widget** dialog box, for **Markdown**, format your text using [Markdown](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-markdown.html), and then choose **Create widget**. 

1.  (Optional) Choose **Add widget**, and then repeat step 4 to add another widget to the dashboard. You can repeat this step multiple times. 

   For each graph on the dashboard, there is an information icon at the upper right. Choose this icon to see the descriptions of the metrics in the graph.

1.  Choose **Save dashboard**.