PRTG Manual: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm Sensor

Important Notice

This sensor type is deprecated. The sensor still works but you cannot add it anew as of PRTG 22.x.78.

Alternative Sensor Type

Use the AWS Alarm v2 sensor instead.

The Amazon CloudWatch Alarm sensor monitors the status of an Amazon CloudWatch alarm. It reads the data via the Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudWatch application programming interface (API).

Amazon CloudWatch Alarm Sensor

Amazon CloudWatch Alarm Sensor

z_i_square_cyanFor a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

  • Dutch: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm
  • French: Amazon CloudWatch Alarme
  • German: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm
  • Japanese: Amazon CloudWatch アラーム
  • Portuguese: Alarmes Amazon CloudWatch
  • Russian: Сигнал тревоги Amazon CloudWatch
  • Simplified Chinese: Amazon CloudWatch 报警
  • Spanish: Alarma Amazon CloudWatch

Remarks

  • The data you see in the sensor message is not necessarily the most recent data. It merely shows the reason for the current status and why the sensor changed to it. This means for the Up status, for example, that this data is as old as the amount of time that has passed since the last alarm disappeared.
  • Amazon charges you for each AWS API request that the sensor sends to the Amazon servers. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How much does Amazon charge for using Amazon CloudWatch sensors in PRTG?
  • This sensor uses lookups to determine the status values of one or more channels. This means that possible states are defined in a lookup file. You can change the behavior of a channel by editing the lookup file that the channel uses. For details, see section Define Lookups.

Detailed Requirements

Requirement

Description

Permissions for the AWS API key

This sensor requires sufficient rights to query data from the AWS API

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe).

z_i_round_redIf the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

PRTG looks for configured alarms on CloudWatch.

z_i_round_blueThis can take up to several minutes.

z_i_round_blueThe settings that you select in the Add Sensor dialog are valid for all sensors that you create when you finish the dialog.

Amazon CloudWatch Specific

Setting

Description

Services

Select the services that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each service that you select.

z_i_round_blueEnable check boxes in front of the respective lines to select the items. Use the check box in the table header to select all items or to cancel the selection. In large tables, use the search function in the upper-right corner.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting

Description

Sensor Name

Enter a name to identify the sensor.

Parent Tags

Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.

z_i_round_blueThis setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.

z_i_round_blueIt is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).

z_i_round_blueFor performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:

  • cloudwatchsensor
  • alarm

Priority

Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority (z_i_priority_1) to the highest priority (z_i_priority_5).

z_i_round_blueUsually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.

Amazon CloudWatch Specific

Amazon CloudWatch Specific

Amazon CloudWatch Specific

Setting

Description

Region

Shows the region in which the AWS instance runs. It is one of the following regions:

  • US East (Northern Virginia)
  • US East (Ohio)
  • US West (Northern California)
  • US West (Oregon)
  • Europe (Stockholm)
  • Europe (Ireland)
  • Europe (London)
  • Europe (Paris)
  • Europe (Frankfurt)
  • Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
  • Asia Pacific (Seoul)
  • Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
  • Asia Pacific (Singapore)
  • Asia Pacific (Sydney)
  • South America (São Paulo)
  • Canada (Central)

z_i_round_bluePRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Supported Regions and Their Codes.

Description

Shows the description of the AWS service instance that this sensor monitors.

z_i_round_bluePRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.

ID

Shows the ID of the AWS instance that this sensor monitors.

z_i_round_bluePRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

  • Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.
  • Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

z_i_podThis option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.

z_i_round_blueIn a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Sensor Display

Sensor Display

Sensor Display

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

z_i_round_blueYou can set a different primary channel later by clicking b_channel_primary below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

  • Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
  • Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
    z_i_round_redYou cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click z_b_inherited_enabled under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

Scanning Interval

Scanning Interval

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

z_i_round_blueYou cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

Access Rights

Access Rights

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel Unit Configuration

z_i_round_blueWhich channel units are available depends on the sensor type and the available parameters. If no configurable channels are available, this field shows No configurable channels.

Channel Unit Configuration

Channel Unit Configuration

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Channel Unit Configuration.

Supported Regions and Their Codes

Region

Code

US East (Northern Virginia)

us-east-1

US East (Ohio)

us-east-2

US West (Northern California)

us-west-1

US West (Oregon)

us-west-2

Europe (Stockholm)

eu-north-1

Europe (Ireland)

eu-west-1

Europe (London)

eu-west-2

Europe (Paris)

eu-west-3

Europe (Frankfurt)

eu-central-1

Asia Pacific (Tokyo)

ap-northeast-1

Asia Pacific (Seoul)

ap-northeast-2

Asia Pacific (Mumbai)

ap-south-1

Asia Pacific (Singapore)

ap-southeast-1

Asia Pacific (Sydney)

ap-southeast-2

South America (São Paulo)

sa-east-1

Canada (Central)

ca-central-1

Channel List

z_i_round_blueWhich channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel

Description

Alarm State

The status of an alarm for a CloudWatch service

  • Up status: Ok
  • Warning status: Insufficient Data
  • Down status: Failed

z_i_round_blueThis channel is the primary channel by default.

Downtime

In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status in percent.

More

z_i_square_blueKnowledge Base

How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?

How much does Amazon charge for using Amazon CloudWatch sensors in PRTG?

Which .NET version does PRTG require?

What security features does PRTG include?