cloudwatch_put_metric_alarm: Creates or updates an alarm and associates it with the specified metric or metric math expression

Description

Creates or updates an alarm and associates it with the specified metric or metric math expression.

Usage

cloudwatch_put_metric_alarm(AlarmName, AlarmDescription, ActionsEnabled,
  OKActions, AlarmActions, InsufficientDataActions, MetricName, Namespace,
  Statistic, ExtendedStatistic, Dimensions, Period, Unit,
  EvaluationPeriods, DatapointsToAlarm, Threshold, ComparisonOperator,
  TreatMissingData, EvaluateLowSampleCountPercentile, Metrics, Tags)

Arguments

AlarmName

[required] The name for the alarm. This name must be unique within your AWS account.

AlarmDescription

The description for the alarm.

ActionsEnabled

Indicates whether actions should be executed during any changes to the alarm state. The default is TRUE.

OKActions

The actions to execute when this alarm transitions to an OK state from any other state. Each action is specified as an Amazon Resource Name (ARN).

Valid Values: arn:aws:automate:region:ec2:stop \| arn:aws:automate:region:ec2:terminate \| arn:aws:automate:region:ec2:recover \| arn:aws:automate:region:ec2:reboot \| arn:aws:sns:region:account-id:sns-topic-name \| arn:aws:autoscaling:region:account-id:scalingPolicy:policy-idautoScalingGroupName/group-friendly-name:policyName/policy-friendly-name

Valid Values (for use with IAM roles): arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Stop/1.0 \| arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Terminate/1.0 \| arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Reboot/1.0

AlarmActions

The actions to execute when this alarm transitions to the ALARM state from any other state. Each action is specified as an Amazon Resource Name (ARN).

InsufficientDataActions

The actions to execute when this alarm transitions to the INSUFFICIENT_DATA state from any other state. Each action is specified as an Amazon Resource Name (ARN).

Valid Values (for use with IAM roles): >arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Stop/1.0 \| arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Terminate/1.0 \| arn:aws:swf:region:account-id:action/actions/AWS_EC2.InstanceId.Reboot/1.0

MetricName

The name for the metric associated with the alarm.

If you are creating an alarm based on a math expression, you cannot specify this parameter, or any of the Dimensions, Period, Namespace, Statistic, or ExtendedStatistic parameters. Instead, you specify all this information in the Metrics array.

Namespace

The namespace for the metric associated specified in MetricName.

Statistic

The statistic for the metric specified in MetricName, other than percentile. For percentile statistics, use ExtendedStatistic. When you call PutMetricAlarm and specify a MetricName, you must specify either Statistic or ExtendedStatistic, but not both.

ExtendedStatistic

The percentile statistic for the metric specified in MetricName. Specify a value between p0.0 and p100. When you call PutMetricAlarm and specify a MetricName, you must specify either Statistic or ExtendedStatistic, but not both.

Dimensions

The dimensions for the metric specified in MetricName.

Period

The length, in seconds, used each time the metric specified in MetricName is evaluated. Valid values are 10, 30, and any multiple of 60.

Be sure to specify 10 or 30 only for metrics that are stored by a PutMetricData call with a StorageResolution of 1. If you specify a period of 10 or 30 for a metric that does not have sub-minute resolution, the alarm still attempts to gather data at the period rate that you specify. In this case, it does not receive data for the attempts that do not correspond to a one-minute data resolution, and the alarm may often lapse into INSUFFICENT\_DATA status. Specifying 10 or 30 also sets this alarm as a high-resolution alarm, which has a higher charge than other alarms. For more information about pricing, see Amazon CloudWatch Pricing.

An alarm's total current evaluation period can be no longer than one day, so Period multiplied by EvaluationPeriods cannot be more than 86,400 seconds.

Unit

The unit of measure for the statistic. For example, the units for the Amazon EC2 NetworkIn metric are Bytes because NetworkIn tracks the number of bytes that an instance receives on all network interfaces. You can also specify a unit when you create a custom metric. Units help provide conceptual meaning to your data. Metric data points that specify a unit of measure, such as Percent, are aggregated separately.

If you specify a unit, you must use a unit that is appropriate for the metric. Otherwise, the CloudWatch alarm can get stuck in the INSUFFICIENT DATA state.

EvaluationPeriods

[required] The number of periods over which data is compared to the specified threshold. If you are setting an alarm that requires that a number of consecutive data points be breaching to trigger the alarm, this value specifies that number. If you are setting an "M out of N" alarm, this value is the N.

An alarm's total current evaluation period can be no longer than one day, so this number multiplied by Period cannot be more than 86,400 seconds.

DatapointsToAlarm

The number of datapoints that must be breaching to trigger the alarm. This is used only if you are setting an "M out of N" alarm. In that case, this value is the M. For more information, see Evaluating an Alarm in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

Threshold

[required] The value against which the specified statistic is compared.

ComparisonOperator

[required] The arithmetic operation to use when comparing the specified statistic and threshold. The specified statistic value is used as the first operand.

TreatMissingData

Sets how this alarm is to handle missing data points. If TreatMissingData is omitted, the default behavior of missing is used. For more information, see Configuring How CloudWatch Alarms Treats Missing Data.

Valid Values: breaching | notBreaching | ignore | missing

EvaluateLowSampleCountPercentile

Used only for alarms based on percentiles. If you specify ignore, the alarm state does not change during periods with too few data points to be statistically significant. If you specify evaluate or omit this parameter, the alarm is always evaluated and possibly changes state no matter how many data points are available. For more information, see Percentile-Based CloudWatch Alarms and Low Data Samples.

Valid Values: evaluate | ignore

Metrics

An array of MetricDataQuery structures that enable you to create an alarm based on the result of a metric math expression. Each item in the Metrics array either retrieves a metric or performs a math expression.

One item in the Metrics array is the expression that the alarm watches. You designate this expression by setting ReturnValue to true for this object in the array. For more information, see MetricDataQuery.

If you use the Metrics parameter, you cannot include the MetricName, Dimensions, Period, Namespace, Statistic, or ExtendedStatistic parameters of PutMetricAlarm in the same operation. Instead, you retrieve the metrics you are using in your math expression as part of the Metrics array.

Request syntax

svc$put_metric_alarm(
  AlarmName = "string",
  AlarmDescription = "string",
  ActionsEnabled = TRUE|FALSE,
  OKActions = list(
    "string"
  ),
  AlarmActions = list(
    "string"
  ),
  InsufficientDataActions = list(
    "string"
  ),
  MetricName = "string",
  Namespace = "string",
  Statistic = "SampleCount"|"Average"|"Sum"|"Minimum"|"Maximum",
  ExtendedStatistic = "string",
  Dimensions = list(
    list(
      Name = "string",
      Value = "string"
    )
  ),
  Period = 123,
  Unit = "Seconds"|"Microseconds"|"Milliseconds"|"Bytes"|"Kilobytes"|"Megabytes"|"Gigabytes"|"Terabytes"|"Bits"|"Kilobits"|"Megabits"|"Gigabits"|"Terabits"|"Percent"|"Count"|"Bytes/Second"|"Kilobytes/Second"|"Megabytes/Second"|"Gigabytes/Second"|"Terabytes/Second"|"Bits/Second"|"Kilobits/Second"|"Megabits/Second"|"Gigabits/Second"|"Terabits/Second"|"Count/Second"|"None",
  EvaluationPeriods = 123,
  DatapointsToAlarm = 123,
  Threshold = 123.0,
  ComparisonOperator = "GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold"|"GreaterThanThreshold"|"LessThanThreshold"|"LessThanOrEqualToThreshold",
  TreatMissingData = "string",
  EvaluateLowSampleCountPercentile = "string",
  Metrics = list(
    list(
      Id = "string",
      MetricStat = list(
        Metric = list(
          Namespace = "string",
          MetricName = "string",
          Dimensions = list(
            list(
              Name = "string",
              Value = "string"
            )
          )
        ),
        Period = 123,
        Stat = "string",
        Unit = "Seconds"|"Microseconds"|"Milliseconds"|"Bytes"|"Kilobytes"|"Megabytes"|"Gigabytes"|"Terabytes"|"Bits"|"Kilobits"|"Megabits"|"Gigabits"|"Terabits"|"Percent"|"Count"|"Bytes/Second"|"Kilobytes/Second"|"Megabytes/Second"|"Gigabytes/Second"|"Terabytes/Second"|"Bits/Second"|"Kilobits/Second"|"Megabits/Second"|"Gigabits/Second"|"Terabits/Second"|"Count/Second"|"None"
      ),
      Expression = "string",
      Label = "string",
      ReturnData = TRUE|FALSE
    )
  ),
  Tags = list(
    list(
      Key = "string",
      Value = "string"
    )
  )
)

Details

When this operation creates an alarm, the alarm state is immediately set to INSUFFICIENT_DATA. The alarm is then evaluated and its state is set appropriately. Any actions associated with the new state are then executed.

When you update an existing alarm, its state is left unchanged, but the update completely overwrites the previous configuration of the alarm.

If you are an IAM user, you must have Amazon EC2 permissions for some alarm operations:

iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole for all alarms with EC2 actions
ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus and ec2:DescribeInstances for all alarms on EC2 instance status metrics
ec2:StopInstances for alarms with stop actions
ec2:TerminateInstances for alarms with terminate actions
No specific permissions are needed for alarms with recover actions

If you have read/write permissions for Amazon CloudWatch but not for Amazon EC2, you can still create an alarm, but the stop or terminate actions are not performed. However, if you are later granted the required permissions, the alarm actions that you created earlier are performed.

If you are using an IAM role (for example, an EC2 instance profile), you cannot stop or terminate the instance using alarm actions. However, you can still see the alarm state and perform any other actions such as Amazon SNS notifications or Auto Scaling policies.

If you are using temporary security credentials granted using AWS STS, you cannot stop or terminate an EC2 instance using alarm actions.

The first time you create an alarm in the AWS Management Console, the CLI, or by using the PutMetricAlarm API, CloudWatch creates the necessary service-linked role for you. The service-linked role is called AWSServiceRoleForCloudWatchEvents. For more information, see AWS service-linked role.