AWS cloudwatch agent setup

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The following steps do not lead to working metric being captured in cloudwatch. One can use CentOS 8.x Zabbix instead of Cloudwatch to monitor memory, disk, etc. for various VMs / physical hosts

Create Role for cloudwatch agent

1. Login into AWS management console
2. Go to IAM
3. Go to Roles -> Create Role
4. Select type of trusted entity should be "AWS service"
5. Under "Choose a use case" select "EC2" from Common use cases
6. In permissions page search for and select "CloudWatchAgentServerPolicy"
7. Click next.
8. No need of any tags. Click next
9. Give Role name such as "CloudWatchAgentServerRole" and similar description.
10. Click create role

Refer:

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/create-iam-roles-for-cloudwatch-agent-commandline.html

Assign role to EC2 VM

1. Log into AWS management console
2. Go to EC2
3. Right click on VM and go to Security -> "Modify IAM Role"
4. Select the role created with CloudWatchAgentServicePolicy included
5. Click Save.

Using CloudWatch agent on CentOS

Install Cloudwatch agent on CentOS VM

1. Assuming required CloudWatch Agent role is already created and assigned to the VM
2. Get root access using:

   sudo su -

3. Based on OS and region get download link from: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/install-CloudWatch-Agent-commandline-fleet.html
4. Install wget and vim using:

   dnf -y install wget vim

5. wget the link of agent rpm file

   wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/amazoncloudwatch-agent/centos/amd64/latest/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.rpm

6. Install agent

   dnf -y localinstall ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent.rpm

Refer:

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/install-CloudWatch-Agent-commandline-fleet.html

Create CloudWatch agent configuration file on CentOS

1. Run the agent configuration file wizard using:

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

   For OS select

   (1) Linux

   Between EC2 and on-premise choose

   (1) EC2

   Which user are you planning to run the agent. Choose

   (1) root

   Do you want to turn on StatsD daemon

   Choose : (1) yes

   Which port do you want StatsD daemon to listen to

   Default 8125

   What is the collect interval for StatsD deamon

   1 (10s)

   What is the aggregate interval for StatsD daemon

   4 (60s)

   Do you want to monitor metrics from CollectD?

   (2 no)

   Do you want to monitor any host metrics? e.g. CPU, memory, etc.

   1 yes

   Do you want to monitor cpu metrics per core? Additional CloudWatch charges may apply.

   2 no

   Do you want to add ec2 dimensions (ImageId, InstanceId, InstanceType, AutoScalingGroupName) into all of your metrics if the info is available?

   1 yes

   Would you like to collect your metrics at high resolution (sub-minute resolution)? This enables sub-minute resolution for all metrics, but you can customize for specific metrics in the output json file.

   4. 60 sec

   Which default metrics config do you want

   1. Basic

   See the reference link for difference between Basic, Standard and Advanced

   Are you satisfied with the above config? Note

   it can be manually customized after the wizard completes to add additional items. : 1 yes

   Do you have any existing CloudWatch Log Agent (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/AgentReference.html) configuration file to import for migration?

   2 no

   Do you want to monitor any log files?

   2 no

   Do you want to store the config in the SSM parameter store?

   2 no

2. Edit the configuration file '/opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json as root user and Optionally remove:

   "AutoScalingGroupName": "${aws:AutoScalingGroupName}"

   under append_dimensions

Refer:

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/create-cloudwatch-agent-configuration-file-wizard.html

Run Cloudwatch agent on CentOS EC2 Linux VM

1. To run the cloudwatch agent use:

   sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a fetch-config -m ec2 -s -c file:/opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json

2. This creates service called "amazon-cloudwatch-agent". Later status can be checked using:

   systemctl status amazon-cloudwatch-agent

3. If you modify config file then you must run

   sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a fetch-config -m ec2 -s -c file:/opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json

   For changes to take effect. Restarting agent with systemctl will not help in config file changes taking effect.

4. Logs are avaialble at: /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/logs/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.log. To get more detailed logs edit config and under agent add

   "debug": true

   After this again fetch-config as specified above

Refer:

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/install-CloudWatch-Agent-commandline-fleet.html

Looking at metrics in cloudwatch

Go to cloudwatch and try to look at metrics for:

• disk_used_percent
• mem_used_percent

for EC2 instance with matching instance ID.

Unfortunately metric are not visible.

Troubleshooting metric not visible at cloudwatch

• Adding namespace: using:

  "namespace": "CWAgent",

  under metrics in the json configuration file is also not helping

• Installing awscli and setting region and access keys using https://www.sbarjatiya.com/notes_wiki/index.php/Installing_AWS_command-line_tools is also not helping

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