Monitor EC2 memory and disk with CloudWatch Agent🕵🏽

🚀 CloudWatch Agent Setup on AWS EC2: Collect Memory & Disk Metrics 🖥️📊

In this guide, you'll learn how to install and configure the CloudWatch Agent on an EC2 instance to collect custom memory and disk usage metrics.

📝 Step 1: Check EC2 Instance Architecture

• SSH into your EC2 instance.
• Run this command to check the architecture:

uname -m

This will return x86_64 or aarch64, depending on your instance type.

🔧 Step 2: Install CloudWatch Agent

Download the CloudWatch Agent as per the AWS Official Docs. If you’re running Ubuntu 24.04 on x86_64 architecture, here’s how to proceed:

cd ~
wget https://amazoncloudwatch-agent.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/amd64/latest/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.deb
sudo apt install ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent.deb
rm -f ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent.deb

Enable the service:

sudo systemctl enable amazon-cloudwatch-agent.service

⚙️ Step 3: Configure the CloudWatch Agent for Custom Metrics

Create a configuration file to specify which metrics to collect. Run:

sudo nano /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/etc/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.d/file_config.json

Copy and paste this JSON:

{
  "agent": {
    "metrics_collection_interval": 60,
    "run_as_user": "root"
  },
  "metrics": {
    "aggregation_dimensions": [
      [
        "InstanceId"
      ]
    ],
    "metrics_collected": {
      "mem": {
        "measurement": [
          "mem_used_percent"
        ]
      },
      "disk": {
        "measurement": [
          "disk_used_percent"
        ],
        "resources": [
          "/"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Save and exit.

🔄 Step 4: Restart CloudWatch Agent🕵🏽

Apply the changes by restarting the service:

sudo systemctl restart amazon-cloudwatch-agent.service

✅ Step 5: Verify the Agent Status

Make sure the CloudWatch Agent is running:

sudo systemctl status amazon-cloudwatch-agent.service

🔒 Step 6: Create EC2 IAM Role

• Create a new IAM role for your EC2 instance.
• Attach the CloudWatchAgentServerPolicy to the role.
• Assign the IAM role to your EC2 instance.

For a detailed step-by-step guide, check the official AWS docs.

🔧 Troubleshooting

• Check configuration syntax before restarting the agent.
• View agent logs for any errors:

cat /var/log/amazon/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.log

📚 Reference Docs

• CloudWatch Agent Configuration File Details

That's it! 🎉 Your EC2 instance should now be sending memory and disk usage metrics to CloudWatch!

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Comments

[Ankur K]

Very well documented 🤌

[DevOps Descent]

Thanks