Overview
Amazon CloudWatch is AWS's native monitoring service – metrics, alarms, dashboards, anomaly detection. The Automize AWS CloudWatch connector covers metric publish + query, alarm CRUD, dashboard management, and anomaly detection model listing.
- Regions: CloudWatch is regional. Metrics are region-scoped; alarms reference metrics in their own region.
- Plans: Pay-per-metric + alarm + dashboard. Free tier covers basic AWS service metrics.
Setting up the connection
Auth type: aws_sigv4.
- AWS Console → IAM → user with programmatic access.
- Attach CloudWatchFullAccess (or scoped subset).
- In Automize, open Settings → Connectors → AWS CloudWatch → Add connection. Paste keys + region.
Find your credentials at https://us-east-1.console.aws.amazon.com/iam/home.
Rate limits
Per-region API limits – generous for normal usage. PutMetricData scales horizontally. Connector retries Throttling errors.
Data model
CloudWatch primitives:
Namespace ─── Metrics (dimension-keyed time series)
Alarm ── tracks a metric or metric-math expression, triggers actions
Dashboard ── visualisation composite
Anomaly Detector ── ML model for a metric, used by alarmsAvailable operations
16 operations available. Click any row to jump to its detail.
| Operation | Category | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Delete Alarms | General | Delete one or more alarms |
| Delete Dashboards | General | Delete one or more dashboards |
| Describe Alarm History | General | Get the history of an alarm |
| Describe Alarms | General | List CloudWatch alarms |
| Describe Anomaly Detectors | General | List anomaly detection models |
| Disable Alarm Actions | General | Disable actions for one or more alarms |
| Enable Alarm Actions | General | Enable actions for one or more alarms |
| Get Dashboard | General | Get the body of a dashboard |
| Get Metric Data | General | Retrieve metric data using metric math expressions |
| Get Metric Statistics | General | Get statistics for a metric (avg, sum, min, max, count) |
| List Dashboards | General | List CloudWatch dashboards |
| List Metrics | General | List available metrics |
| Put Dashboard | General | Create or update a dashboard |
| Put Metric Alarm | General | Create or update a metric alarm |
| Put Metric Data | General | Publish metric data points |
| Set Alarm State | General | Manually set the state of an alarm |
Operations
Delete Alarms
Delete one or more alarms
No input parameters.
Tips
- AlarmNames[] – bulk delete up to 100 per call.
Delete Dashboards
Delete one or more dashboards
No input parameters.
Tips
- DashboardNames[] – bulk delete.
Describe Alarm History
Get the history of an alarm
No input parameters.
Tips
- State changes over time. Filter by HistoryItemType (StateUpdate, Action, ConfigurationUpdate).
Describe Alarms
List CloudWatch alarms
No input parameters.
Tips
- Filter by StateValue (OK, ALARM, INSUFFICIENT_DATA), AlarmNamePrefix.
Describe Anomaly Detectors
List anomaly detection models
No input parameters.
Tips
- Anomaly detection models attached to metrics. Used by alarms with ThresholdMetricId.
Disable Alarm Actions
Disable actions for one or more alarms
No input parameters.
Tips
- Mute notifications without deleting alarms. Use for planned downtimes.
Enable Alarm Actions
Enable actions for one or more alarms
No input parameters.
Tips
- Re-enables alarm notifications after maintenance.
Get Dashboard
Get the body of a dashboard
No input parameters.
Tips
- Returns dashboard body as JSON (widget definitions).
Get Metric Data
Retrieve metric data using metric math expressions
No input parameters.
Tips
- Modern API – metric math expressions, multiple metrics in one call.
- MetricDataQueries[]: id + (MetricStat OR Expression) + Period.
Get Metric Statistics
Get statistics for a metric (avg, sum, min, max, count)
No input parameters.
Tips
- Legacy – single metric, single aggregation. Prefer Get Metric Data for new builds.
List Dashboards
List CloudWatch dashboards
No input parameters.
Tips
- Filter by DashboardNamePrefix.
List Metrics
List available metrics
No input parameters.
Tips
- Filter by Namespace, MetricName, Dimensions[]. Pages 500 per call (NextToken).
Put Dashboard
Create or update a dashboard
No input parameters.
Tips
- Create or update by name. body: JSON with widgets[].
Put Metric Alarm
Create or update a metric alarm
No input parameters.
Tips
- Create or update alarm. AlarmName + MetricName + Threshold + ComparisonOperator + EvaluationPeriods + Period.
- AlarmActions: SNS topic ARN for notifications.
Put Metric Data
Publish metric data points
No input parameters.
Tips
- Publish custom metrics. MetricData[]: each has MetricName + Dimensions + Value (or Values+Counts for compressed).
- Up to 20 metrics per call. Higher cadence than once per minute requires Storage Resolution=1.
Set Alarm State
Manually set the state of an alarm
No input parameters.
Tips
- Manually flip alarm state. Useful for testing notifications without waiting for metric thresholds.
FAQ
- Standard vs high-resolution metrics?
- Standard = 1-min granularity. High-res = down to 1-sec (StorageResolution=1 on put). High-res costs more but allows tighter alarms.
- CloudWatch Logs – covered?
- Not in this connector. CloudWatch Logs is a separate service. Use aws-logs (not currently exposed) or stream to your own log store.
- Why is my alarm not firing?
- Check Treat Missing Data setting – 'missing' (default) keeps state INSUFFICIENT_DATA. For zero-rate metrics, set treatMissingData='notBreaching' or 'breaching'.