Log Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API calls with AWS CloudTrail - Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Auto Scaling management events in CloudTrailAuto Scaling event examplesAuto Scaling RemoveAction calls on CloudWatch

Log Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API calls with AWS CloudTrail

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service. CloudTrail captures API calls for Auto Scaling as events. The calls captured include calls from the AWS Management Console and code calls to the Auto Scaling API operations. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to Auto Scaling, the IP address from which the request was made, when it was made, and additional details.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:

  • Whether the request was made with root user or user credentials.

  • Whether the request was made on behalf of an IAM Identity Center user.

  • Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user.

  • Whether the request was made by another AWS service.

CloudTrail is active in your AWS account when you create the account and you automatically have access to the CloudTrail Event history. The CloudTrail Event history provides a viewable, searchable, downloadable, and immutable record of the past 90 days of recorded management events in an AWS Region. For more information, see Working with CloudTrail Event history in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide. There are no CloudTrail charges for viewing the Event history.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account past 90 days, create a trail.

CloudTrail trails

A trail enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. All trails created using the AWS Management Console are multi-Region. You can create a single-Region or a multi-Region trail by using the AWS CLI. Creating a multi-Region trail is recommended because you capture activity in all AWS Regions in your account. If you create a single-Region trail, you can view only the events logged in the trail's AWS Region. For more information about trails, see Creating a trail for your AWS account and Creating a trail for an organization in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

You can deliver one copy of your ongoing management events to your Amazon S3 bucket at no charge from CloudTrail by creating a trail, however, there are Amazon S3 storage charges. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see AWS CloudTrail Pricing. For information about Amazon S3 pricing, see Amazon S3 Pricing.

Auto Scaling management events in CloudTrail

Management events provide information about management operations that are performed on resources in your AWS account. These are also known as control plane operations. By default, CloudTrail logs management events.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling logs all Auto Scaling control plane operations as management events. For a list of the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling control plane operations that Auto Scaling logs to CloudTrail, see the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API Reference.

Auto Scaling event examples

An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested API operation, the date and time of the operation, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so events don't appear in any specific order.

The following example shows a CloudTrail event that demonstrates the CreateLaunchConfiguration operation.

{
    "eventVersion": "1.05",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "Root",
        "principalId": "123456789012",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "attributes": {
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
                "creationDate": "2018-08-21T17:05:42Z"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-08-21T17:07:49Z",
    "eventSource": "autoscaling.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "CreateLaunchConfiguration",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "192.0.2.0",
    "userAgent": "Coral/Jakarta",
    "requestParameters": {
        "ebsOptimized": false,
        "instanceMonitoring": {
            "enabled": false
        },
        "instanceType": "t2.micro",
        "keyName": "EC2-key-pair-oregon",
        "blockDeviceMappings": [
            {
                "deviceName": "/dev/xvda",
                "ebs": {
                    "deleteOnTermination": true,
                    "volumeSize": 8,
                    "snapshotId": "snap-01676e0a2c3c7de9e",
                    "volumeType": "gp2"
                }
            }
        ],
        "launchConfigurationName": "launch_configuration_1",
        "imageId": "ami-6cd6f714d79675a5",
        "securityGroups": [
            "sg-00c429965fd921483"
        ]
    },
    "responseElements": null,
    "requestID": "0737e2ea-fb2d-11e3-bfd8-99133058e7bb",
    "eventID": "3fcfb182-98f8-4744-bd45-b38835ab61cb",
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}

For information about CloudTrail record contents, see CloudTrail record contents in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

Auto Scaling RemoveAction calls on CloudWatch

Your AWS CloudTrail log might show that Auto Scaling calls the CloudWatch RemoveAction API when Auto Scaling instructs CloudWatch to remove the automatic scaling action from an alarm. This could happen if you deregister a scalable target, delete a scaling policy, or if an alarm invokes a nonexistent scaling policy.