This lab is currently in Beta, content may be updated as we refine the material
LABINTERMEDIATE

Custom Metrics and CloudWatch Agent on EC2

Install the CloudWatch Agent on an EC2 instance, publish custom memory and disk metrics, alarm on memory pressure via SNS, and visualize everything on a CloudWatch dashboard.

50 minutes
aws/devops
Custom Metrics and CloudWatch Agent on EC2 - Platform Engineering Hands-On Lab Icon

Lab Overview

EC2 instances do not publish memory or disk utilization to CloudWatch by default. Operators routinely need these metrics to troubleshoot capacity issues, set capacity alarms, and feed dashboards.

In this lab you will:

  • Launch a t3.small Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 instance with an IAM instance profile that grants CloudWatch Agent permissions
  • Install and configure the CloudWatch Agent to publish memory and disk metrics under the CWAgent namespace and ship `/var/log/messages` to CloudWatch Logs
  • Create an SNS topic and a CloudWatch alarm on `mem_used_percent` that publishes when memory pressure crosses 80%
  • Build a CloudWatch dashboard combining the new custom metrics and an alarm-history widget

Everything runs inside a TeKanAid-provisioned AWS lab account using only confirmed-tier services (EC2 t3.small, CloudWatch, CloudWatch Logs, SNS, IAM, SSM Run Command).

What You'll Learn

Launch an EC2 instance with an IAM instance profile granting CloudWatch Agent permissions

Install and configure the CloudWatch Agent to publish memory and disk metrics

Stream EC2 system logs to CloudWatch Logs via the agent

Create a CloudWatch alarm on a custom metric with SNS notification

Build a CloudWatch dashboard combining custom metrics and alarm history

Prerequisites

aws-devops-cli-operations-baseline

basic-iam-and-ec2-familiarity

Technologies Covered

awscloudwatchcloudwatch-agentec2snsalarmsdashboardsdop-c02monitoring

Part of a Course

This lab is part of the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02) course

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