Slide 6 of 11

CloudWatch

CloudWatch: Native AWS monitoring

What it’s for: AWS resources including EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, ECS, and many other AWS services.

Good to know

  • Connects to AWS services like EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, and ECS, with no collection agents to deploy
  • Requires AWS authentication configured in Grafana
  • AWS bills the GetMetricData API that Grafana uses per metric retrieved, so dashboards that pull many metrics on frequent refreshes can add cost.

Best for

  • AWS infrastructure monitoring
  • Services only available via CloudWatch
  • Quick visibility into AWS resources

Cost Tip: Monitor your CloudWatch costs. GetMetricData is billed per metric retrieved, so more metrics and more frequent refreshes mean higher bills.

Documentation

View the full documentation.

CloudWatch data source

Script

If you’re running infrastructure on AWS, CloudWatch is your built-in monitoring service. Most AWS services (EC2 instances, RDS databases, Lambda functions, S3 buckets) publish basic metrics to CloudWatch automatically. No agents to deploy for those service metrics, but you will need to configure AWS authentication in Grafana.

The CloudWatch data source brings all that data into Grafana. You can visualize EC2 CPU alongside RDS connections alongside Lambda invocations, bringing all the AWS operational data into your Grafana dashboards.

One important note on cost: Grafana queries CloudWatch through the GetMetricData API, which AWS bills per metric you retrieve, not per call, and it isn’t covered by the free tier. Every dashboard refresh pulls metrics, so dashboards with many panels on a short refresh interval add up.

Monitor your CloudWatch costs, especially on frequently-viewed dashboards.

But for AWS visibility without deploying additional collection agents, CloudWatch is the straightforward path.

Previous Next