AWS CloudWatch – Install CloudWatch on EC2 Instance

The CloudWatch agent will not work properly without the permissions configured.  This was the fastest way I found to get CloudWatch talking correctly.

• Create IAM Role – https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/create-iam-roles-for-cloudwatch-agent-commandline.html
• Attach Role to EC2 instance – https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/attach-iam-role.html

Install Cloudwatch on the EC2 instance

1. Install CloudWatch Agent
   sudo yum install amazon-cloudwatch-agent -y
2. Install collectd (optional)
   You probably want collectd installed – https://www.collectd.org/.
   It looks like it allows for a bunch of customizations.
   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch-Agent-custom-metrics-collectd.html
3. Navigate to the configuration wizard
   cd /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/
4. Run configuration wizard
   sudo ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent-config-wizard
5. Start CloudWatch Agent
   sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a fetch-config -m ec2 -s -c file:/opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json

Additional Commands

• tail CloudWatch agent logs
  tail -f /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/logs/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.log
• Restart CloudWatch agent
  sudo systemctl restart amazon-cloudwatch-agent