AWS CloudWatch Integration with AWS Managed Grafana

Introduction

AWS Managed Grafana is a cloud-based monitoring and visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards and graphs for their applications, infrastructure, and services. Check out my previous blog for additional information on AWS Managed Grafana.

Benefits of AWS Managed Grafana Integration with AWS CloudWatch

• Easy to Set Up: Setting up CloudWatch with Amazon Managed Grafana is simple and quick. To add CloudWatch as a data source, users can first build a Grafana workspace. Users may use the metrics from CloudWatch to build unique dashboards and visualizations after adding the data source.
• Real-time Monitoring and Alerting: The integration of Amazon Managed Grafana with CloudWatch enables real-time monitoring and alerting for AWS resources and applications. Users may use CloudWatch to monitor and gather metrics, including CPU utilization, network traffic, and database activities. Amazon Managed Grafana may then use these metrics to construct real-time dashboards. Users can also set up alerts to get notifications when metrics exceed specified points.
• Customizable Dashboards: Users can use Amazon Managed Grafana to generate customized dashboards and visualizations that match their needs. Users may select from visualization choices like graphs, tables, and heatmaps. Users may also personalize the layout, add annotations, and create alarms based on the parameters they are tracking.
• Scalability: Amazon Managed Grafana and Amazon CloudWatch are highly scalable systems capable of handling massive volumes of data. Users may quickly scale up and down based on their requirements without bothering about infrastructure administration. Because of its scalability, Amazon Managed Grafana with CloudWatch is an excellent choice for enterprises of all sizes.
• Cost-effective: Amazon Managed Grafana and CloudWatch are affordable solutions with pay-as-you-go pricing. Users pay for the resources they use with no upfront costs or commitments for long. Because of this price strategy, Amazon Managed Grafana with CloudWatch is an excellent choice for enterprises looking to reduce expenditures.

Prerequisites

To integrate Amazon CloudWatch with Amazon Managed Grafana, you’ll need the following prerequisites:

• AWS account: You will need an AWS account to access and configure CloudWatch and Managed Grafana.
• Permissions: Ensure your AWS user account has the necessary permissions to access CloudWatch and Managed Grafana. You will need permissions to create, modify, and delete CloudWatch metrics, as well as permissions to access Managed Grafana.
• IAM Identity Center: Ensure to create an IAM Identity Center user (SSO User).
• CloudWatch Metrics: You must have some CloudWatch metrics available to visualize them in Managed Grafana.
• Managed Grafana workspace: You must create a Managed Grafana workspace in the AWS console.
• Managed Grafana data source: You must configure a data source in Managed Grafana to connect to CloudWatch.

Once you have these prerequisites, you can start configuring your CloudWatch integration with Managed Grafana.

Steps to integrate Amazon CloudWatch with Amazon Managed Grafana

• Create a Managed Grafana workspace: First, create a Managed Grafana workspace in the AWS console. You can do this by navigating to the Amazon Managed Grafana service in the AWS console, clicking “Create workspace,” and following the prompts. While creating a workspace, we must choose “Authentication access” and choose either SSO or SAML. Choose Amazon CloudWatch as a data source so that it will create a role having permission to access Amazon CloudWatch. After successfully creating a workspace dashboard will look like the image below.

• We have to assign a user to this workspace. When you click “Assign new user or group,” a list of SSO users will appear. Select a user and click on assign user, then select the user again and make the user an “Admin” by clicking on “Actions” and selecting “Make admin.”

• On the main dashboard, we can see a Grafana Workspace URL. Click on that and log in using your SSO user credentials to see the Grafana dashboard. Now in the left menu, select data source by clicking the AWS icon. Choose the service “CloudWatch” and the region containing the CloudWatch logs, then add the data source.

• Now that the data source name is displayed at the bottom click “Go to settings” and then scroll down and select “Save and Test.” A pop-up message stating “Data Source is working” should appear. Now import the Amazon CloudWatch logs dashboard from the top navigation bar of the same page by clicking on dashboards.
• To view the CloudWatch metrics data in this dashboard, click on the imported dashboard and choose a time range.

Conclusion

AWS Managed Grafana integration with CloudWatch provides users with a powerful monitoring and visualization solution that can help them optimize their infrastructure and services. It enables users to create customized dashboards and graphs based on real-time data from CloudWatch, providing a comprehensive view of their applications and services. With its ease of use, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, AWS Managed Grafana integration with CloudWatch is an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes.

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Drop a query if you have any questions regarding AWS Managed Grafana, AWS CloudWatch and I will get back to you quickly.

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