PRTG Manual: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm Sensor
This sensor is in beta status. The operating methods and the available settings can change at any time. Do not expect that all functions work properly, or that this sensor works as expected at all. Be aware that this sensor can be removed from PRTG at any time.
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).
The sensor can show the following:
- Status of a configured alarm for a CloudWatch service
- Dutch: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm
- French: Alarme Amazon CloudWatch
- German: Amazon CloudWatch Alarm
- Japanese: Amazon CloudWatch アラーム
- Portuguese: Amazon CloudWatch Alarmes
- Russian: Сигнал тревоги Amazon CloudWatch
- Simplified Chinese: Amazon CloudWatch 报警
- Spanish: Alarma Amazon CloudWatch
- This sensor requires access rights for CloudWatch queries. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?
- This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later on the probe system.
- Define credentials for AWS in settings that are higher in the object hierarchy, for example, in the settings of the parent device.
- This sensor supports the IPv6 protocol.
- This sensor has a medium performance impact.
- Names of configured alarms that you want to monitor must not contain double spaces.
- 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.
Requirement |
Description |
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Permissions for the AWS API key |
This sensor requires sufficient rights to query data from the AWS API.
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.NET Framework |
This sensor requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. .NET 4.7.2 or later must be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe). If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.
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The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the setting fields that are required for creating the sensor. Therefore, you do not see all setting fields in this dialog. You can change (nearly) all settings in the sensor's Settings tab later.
PRTG looks for configured alarms on CloudWatch.
This can take up to several minutes.
Select the services that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each service that you select in the Add Sensor dialog. The settings you select are valid for all sensors that you create when you finish this dialog.
The following settings in the Add Sensor dialog differ in comparison to the sensor's Settings tab.
Amazon CloudWatch Specific
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Services |
Select the alarms that you want to add a sensor for. You see a list with the names of all items that you can monitor. Add check marks in front of the respective lines to select the desired items. You can also use the check box in the table header to select all items or cancel the selection.
To better find what you want to monitor, especially in large tables, use the search function in the upper-right corner. |
Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.
Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address or DNS Name of the parent device on which you created the sensor. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings. See below for details on available settings.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Sensor Name |
Enter a meaningful name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets.
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Parent Tags |
Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is shown for your information only and cannot be changed here. |
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.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
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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 ( |
Setting |
Description |
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Region |
Shows the region in which the monitored AWS instance runs. It is one of the following regions:
Once you have created the sensor, you cannot change this value. It is shown for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.
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Description |
Shows the description of the AWS service instance that this sensor monitors. Once you have created the sensor, you cannot change this value. It is shown 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. Once you have created the sensor, you cannot change this value. It is shown 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:
|
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.
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Graph Type |
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
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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. |
By default, all of the following settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. You should change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance. You then see the options described below.
For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.
Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Scanning Interval |
Select a scanning interval from the dropdown list. The scanning interval determines the amount of time that the sensor waits between two scans. Choose from:
|
If a Sensor Query Fails |
Select the number of scanning intervals that the sensor has time to reach and to check a device again if a sensor query fails. Depending on the option that you select, the sensor can try to reach and to check a device again several times before the sensor shows the Down status. This can avoid false alarms if the monitored device only has temporary issues. For previous scanning intervals with failed requests, the sensor shows the Warning status. Choose from:
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Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
You 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.
Setting |
Description |
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Schedule |
Select a schedule from the list. You can use schedules to monitor during a certain time span (days or hours) every week. Choose from:
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Maintenance Window |
Select if you want to set up a one-time maintenance window. During a maintenance window, monitoring stops for the selected object and all child objects. They show the Paused status instead. Choose between:
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Maintenance Begins |
This setting is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the start date and time of the one-time maintenance window. |
Maintenance Ends |
This setting is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the end date and time of the one-time maintenance window. |
Dependency Type |
Select a dependency type. You can use dependencies to pause monitoring for an object depending on the status of a different object. You can choose from:
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Dependency |
This setting is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Click |
Dependency Delay (Sec.) |
This setting is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Define a time span in seconds for the dependency delay. After the master sensor for this dependency returns to the Up status, PRTG additionally delays the monitoring of the dependent objects by the time span you define. This can prevent false alarms, for example, after a server restart or to give systems more time for all services to start. Enter an integer value.
|
Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
User Group Access |
Define the user groups that have access to the sensor. You see a table with user groups and group access rights. The table contains all user groups in your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following group access rights:
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Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
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Channel Unit Types |
For each type of channel, select the unit in which PRTG displays the data. If you define this setting on probe, group, or device level, these settings can be inherited to all sensors underneath. You can set units for the following channel types (if available):
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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 |
KNOWLEDGE 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?
For more information about sensor settings, see the following sections: