Create Custom Dashboard

Amazon EC2 provides instance-level metrics that measure CPU, disk, and network performance. These metrics include bytes and packets in/out and collected by default and can be viewed in Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon EC2 has recently announced additional high-resolution instance level network performance metrics for Elastic Network Adapter (ENA). With these new metrics you can gain insights into traffic drops when network allowances are exceeded. For more information, please see Amazon EC2 instance-level network performance metrics uncover new insights

In this section we will review the Network metrics in CloudWatch for the VPC A Private AZ1 Server instance in VPC A and create a custom dashboard with a widget showing the NetworkIn and NetworkOut metrics and another widget for the NetworkPacketsIn and NetworkPacketsOut metrics.

  1. Navigate to the CloudWatch console

  2. Under the All Metrics tab in the main screen click on EC2

    CloudWatch Metrics Page

  3. Click on Per-Instance Metrics.

    Per Instance Metrics

  4. Filter the list for metrics with network in the name by entering network in the search

    Network Metrics Search

  5. Select the metric NetworkIn and NetworkOut for the VPC A Private AZ1 Server

    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  6. Click on the pencil icon at the top left corner of the graph and enter a name of VPC A Private AZ1 Server Network In/Out
    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  7. Click on Actions and select Add to dashboard from the dropdown

    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  8. Click on Create new

    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  9. Enter NetworkingWorkshopEC2 and click Create

    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  10. Click Add to dashboard

    EC2 Instance Network Metrics

  11. The graph of Network In/Out statistics in bytes for the EC2 instance will be added to a new dashboard. To add Packets In/Out statistics click on the + in the top right corner to add another widget

    New dashboard created

  12. In the Add Widget screen select Number

    Widget Screen

  13. Click on EC2

    Widget Select EC2

  14. Click on Per-Instance Metrics

    Widget Select Per Instance

  15. Enter NetworkPackets in the Search box and select the two lines for VPC A Private AZ1 Server and click Create Widget

    Select Instance

  16. The new widget will then be placed on your dashboard, click Save to persist the dashboard.
    Widget Added