AWS plugin

Monitor your AWS environment, including EC2, Lambda Functions, CloudWatch and more.

For more information about what this plugin does and the data streams it retrieves, see:

Adding a data source

To add a data source click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Configure data source page.

Before you start

Prerequisites

Choose your authentication method:
1. IAM role based using the Create IAM Role button to generate the necessary credentials in AWS (recommended).
2. IAM user based
Consider the permissions needed to access AWS resources and data:
SquaredUp will only show the AWS resources and data that are already enabled and available within your AWS account.
- CloudWatch metrics must be available in your AWS account for the resources you wish to visualize.
- Cost Explorer must be enabled in the AWS Billing settings if you want to visualize cost and usage data.

IAM role based authentication - Recommended

IAM role based authentication using the Create IAM Role button is the default and recommended method:

Full step-by-step instructions for using the Create IAM Role button to add the AWS plugin are below see Configuring the data source.

The Create IAM Role button creates an IAM role with only the required permissions, and the details of this output can then be then entered into the fields in SquaredUp on the Add data source page.

We strongly encourage you to use the Create IAM Role button when configuring the AWS data source as this automatically generates credentials which is the easiest method. If you choose to manually configure an IAM Role see Manually configuring an IAM Role for the AWS plugin

IAM user based authentication

Whilst IAM role based authentication is strongly encouraged, SquaredUp also supports IAM user based authentication. This requires The Access key ID and Secret access key of an IAM user with programmatic access.

See AWS credentials - Programmatic access, Creating an IAM user in your AWS account and Creating a role to delegate permissions to an IAM user.

If you choose to manually create a user, it must be granted a ReadOnlyAccess AWS managed policy. This policy provides the necessary rights for the plugin to work.

Some data streams also require additional access rights.

This policy can be used as a starting point for a custom policy if, for example, sensitive services need to be removed.

Warning: Restricting access using a custom policy can severely affect the usability of the plugin, such as preventing the use of scoped data streams and the ability to search for objects.

Configuring the data source

Display name:
Enter a name for your data source. This helps you to identify this data source in the list of your data sources.
Authentication type:
Select your chosen authentication method, IAM role based or IAM user based:
IAM role based (recommended):
This is the default authentication method and strongly recommended.
1. Click the Create IAM Role button to generate the necessary credentials in AWS.
2. The Quick create stack page of the AWS console opens, where a CloudFormation template is automatically populated with the information needed to create an IAM role with read access to your AWS environment.
3. Click the Create stack button to begin role creation. This may take a few moments to complete and progress can be viewed on the Events tab of the Stack details page.
4. Once role creation has completed, select the Outputs tab to view the rest of the credentials required for adding the data source to SquaredUp.
5. Back in SquaredUp use the information from the AWS Outputs tab to complete the fields on the Add data source page.
  1. Role ARN: Copy and paste the RoleArn from AWS.
  2. External ID: Copy and paste the ExternalId from AWS.
  3. Target regions: Copy and paste the Region from AWS.
  4. Account ID: Copy and paste the AccountId from AWS.
  5. Account name: Enter a name to help you remember which account and credentials you have used above. For example, enter Prod to remind you that you used the production account details.
IAM user based:
Supply the credentials for an IAM user with programmatic access.
1. Access Key ID: Enter the access key ID of the user.
2. Secret Access Key: Enter the secret access key of the user.
3. Target Regions: Specify the Target Regions for your AWS resources, i.e. us-east-2, eu-west-1.
4. Account ID: Enter your AWS Account ID.
5. Account Name: Enter a name to help you remember which account and credentials you have used above. For example, enter Prod to remind you that you used the production account details.
Install dashboards:
Select whether you would like to install pre-built dashboards and perspectives with the data source. By default, this is set to on.
(Optional) Restrict access to this data source:
You can enable this option if you only want certain users or groups to have access to the data source, or the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.
Click Test and add to validate the data source configuration. SquaredUp will now attempt to connect to SquaredUp using the provided authentication method.
- Testing passed – a success message will be displayed and then the configuration will be saved.
- Testing passed with warnings – warnings will be listed and potential fixes suggested. You can still use the data source with warnings. Select Save with warnings if you believe that you can still use the data source as required with the warnings listed. Alternatively, address the issues listed and then select Rerun tests to validate the data source configuration again. If the validation now passes, click Save.
- Testing Failed – errors will be listed and potential fixes suggested. You cannot use the data source with errors. You are able to select Save with errors if you believe that a system outside of SquaredUp is causing the error that you need to fix. Alternatively, address the issues listed and then select Rerun tests to validate the data source configuration again. If the validation now passes, click Save.
You can edit any data source configurations at any time from Settings > Data Sources.
The index time will depend on the size of your AWS environment.

Testing and troubleshooting

The following errors or warnings may be displayed while using the data source. If you encounter an error, refer to the guidance below or contact [email protected] for assistance.

Error	What to do
Check AWS Access Credentials	Ensure that the AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key you are using are correct. Double-check for any typos or formatting issues.
Validate IAM Role Permissions	Ensure that the IAM role associated with your AWS account has the necessary permissions to access the AWS services and resources required. If you are using an External ID, confirm that it has been configured correctly in both the IAM role and the data source definition.
Review IAM Role Trust Relationships	Verify that the IAM role's trust relationship policy allows the correct AWS account to assume the role. This is especially important as cross-account access is being used

Next steps

Getting started with AWS dashboards

The installed dashboards are a great place to start, you can also edit or clone tiles to add to your own dashboards.

See Getting started with AWS dashboards

Objects indexed

SquaredUp indexes the following objects. These objects are used to build dashboards and are visible when searching across SquaredUp. Drilling down into an object will provide useful metrics and properties.

Object	Description
Account	An AWS account is an entity that you create to use AWS services.
Cognito User Pool	Amazon Cognito user pools provide a secure user directory that scales to millions of users.
WAF WebACL	AWS WAF Web ACLs help protect web applications from common web exploits.
CloudWatch Alarm	CloudWatch Alarms send notifications or automatically make changes based on rules.
MWAA Workspace	Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (MWAA) is a managed orchestration service for Apache Airflow.
ELB Target Group	Target groups are used to route requests to one or more registered targets (such as EC2 instances) in a load balancer.
ElastiCache Redis	Amazon ElastiCache for Redis is a blazing fast in-memory data store that provides sub-millisecond latency.
ElastiCache Memcached	Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached is a Memcached-compatible in-memory key-value store service.
Budget	AWS Budgets allows you to set custom cost and usage budgets and receive alerts when you exceed them.
Backup Job	AWS Backup enables you to centralize and automate data protection across AWS services.
Backup Plan	AWS Backup Plan enables you to define your backup requirements and then backup and restore across AWS services.

Data streams

You can use these data streams to create new tiles to show data, or if there are preconfigured dashboards installed you can copy or edit those.

Data streams standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format.

While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns.

Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.

Data streams can be either global or scoped:

Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. "Get the current number of unused hosts").
A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. "Get the current session count for these hosts").

See Data Streams for more information.

The following data streams are installed with this plugin.

Some data streams will only work if your AWS account has the required permissions.

SquaredUp will only show the AWS resources and data that are already enabled and available within your AWS account.

CloudWatch metrics must be available in your AWS account for the resources you wish to visualize.
Cost Explorer must be enabled in the AWS Billing settings if you want to visualize cost and usage data.

Data stream	Description
Actions	Shows the execution of actions within stages of pipelines.
All AWS Support Cases	Retrieves all support cases created in the specified time frame.
Budgets	Retrieves the details and states of the specified budgets.
Budget Alerts/Notifications	Retrieves the alerts and notifications for the specified budgets.
CloudWatch Logs	Displays CloudWatch Log data.
CloudWatch Alarms	Retrieves AWS CloudWatch alarm details.
CloudWatch Metric	Retrieves AWS metrics information for one or more objects.
CloudWatch Metric List	List of CloudWatch metrics.
CloudWatch Metrics Query	Query CloudWatch Metric data using an Insights SQL query or raw metric source JSON.
Concurrent Executions	The number of function instances that are processing events.
Cost (Account)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service.
Cost (Account - Configurable)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service.
Cost Anomalies (Account)	Displays Cost Explorer Anomalies.
Cost Anomalies (Global)	Displays Cost Explorer Anomalies (un-scoped).
Cost (Global)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service (un-scoped).
Cost (Global - Configurable)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service (un-scoped).
Count	The total number of API requests in a given period.
Data Processed	The amount of data processed in bytes.
Duration	The amount of time that your function code spends processing an event.
DynamoDB Metric	Retrieves AWS DynamoDB CloudWatch metrics information for one or more DynamoDB tables.
ELB Health	Retrieves the status of the specified Elastic Load Balancers.
Environment Status	Retrieves the status of the specified MWAA environments.
Errors	The number of invocations that result in a function error.
Executions	Returns the most recent executions of pipelines.
Instance Status Checks	Retrieves the instance status checks for the provided objects.
Instance Health	Retrieves the instance health for the provided objects.
Invocations	The number of times that your function code is invoked.
Logs	Displays CloudWatch Log data for the selected lambda functions.
Open AWS Support Cases (Anytime)	Retrieves open support cases.
Regions List	List of AWS Regions.
S3 Metric	Retrieves AWS S3 CloudWatch metrics information for one or more S3 buckets.
State History	Retrieves AWS CloudWatch alarm state changes over time.
Stages	Shows the status of stages within a pipeline.
Status	Returns the status of scoped pipelines.
Synthetics Runs	Displays CloudWatch Synthetics historical runs.
Throttles	The number of invocation requests that are throttled.
Volume Health	Retrieves the instance health for the provided objects.

Configurable data streams

The following data streams installed with this plugin have configurable Parameters.

Data stream	Description	Parameters
CloudWatch Logs	Displays CloudWatch Log data.	Region: Enter the AWS region to target. Log Groups: For each log group you wish to query, paste or type its name or ARN and then hit return. Limit: Enter the number of results per query returned. Query: Use a log insights query (using the syntax supported by the CloudWatch > Logs Insights page in the AWS console).
CloudWatch Metric	Retrieves AWS metrics information for one or more objects.	Metric: Enter the metric name from CloudWatch. Statistic: Specify the required statistic. Note that the list of valid statistics varies from metric to metric; consult the AWS documentation page for the metric you are querying to find the list of valid statistics. Period: Enter the aggregation period for metric query; optionally with unit suffix, 's' for seconds (default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours.
CloudWatch Metrics Query	Query CloudWatch Metric data using an Insights SQL query or raw metric source JSON.	Region: Specify the AWS region to target. Query: Enter a CloudWatch Metric Insights SQL Query (or copy the JSON from CloudWatch Metrics source tab). A `region` value must be supplied for each expression that refers to a row that is not in the default Region which you previously selected.
Cost (Account - Configurable)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service.	Metric: Enter the metric name from the Cost Explorer. Granularity: Select the data granularity. Group By: Add grouping for the cost request by DIMENSION, TAG, or COST. Filter By: Add filtering for the cost request using an expression.
Cost (Global - Configurable)	Retrieves AWS account cost/usage by service (un-scoped).	Metric: Enter the metric name from the Cost Explorer. Granularity: Select the data granularity. Group By: Add grouping for the cost request by DIMENSION, TAG, or COST. Filter By: Add filtering for the cost request using an expression.
DynamoDB Metric	Retrieves AWS DynamoDB CloudWatch metrics information for one or more DynamoDB tables.	Metric: Enter the metric name from CloudWatch. Statistic: Specify the required statistic. The list of valid statistics varies from metric to metric- consult the AWS documentation page for the metric you are querying to find the list of valid statistics. Operation (optional): Enter the operation name from CloudWatch (only required for Table Operation metrics).
S3 Metric	Retrieves AWS S3 CloudWatch metrics information for one or more S3 buckets.	Metric: Enter the metric name from CloudWatch. Statistic: Specify the required statistic. The list of valid statistics varies from metric to metric- consult the AWS documentation page for the metric you are querying to find the list of valid statistics. Storage type: Choose between which storage type you want to use as a dimension in your CloudWatch query. Other Storage type: Choose between which storage type you want to use as a dimension in your CloudWatch query if not specified above.

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