Create CloudWatch dashboards.

CloudWatch Dashboards allow you to create customizable views of the metrics and alarms for your AWS resources. You can create dashboards inside the CloudWatch console to display metrics about every AWS service you use and any custom metrics you create. Dashboards are highly useful for keeping an eye on resource utilization, application performance, and operational health.

Creating a New CloudWatch Dashboard

1. Navigation: Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon CloudWatch console. From the navigation pane, select ‘Dashboards’ and then click ‘Create Dashboard’.
2. Naming: Enter a name for your dashboard and click ‘Create Dashboard’.
3. Adding Widgets: Once you’ve created a dashboard, you can add different widgets. Click ‘Add widget’ to start. Widgets can be line charts, stacked area charts, numbers, or text, and they can display CloudWatch metrics, queries, or logs data.
4. Configuring Widgets: Configure the widgets to display the metrics you are interested in. You can select a metric by searching or navigating through the ‘Metrics’ menu, or by using the metric’s unique identifier.
5. Setting the Period: For each metric you can set the ‘Period’, which is the length of time represented by each data point on the chart.
6. Save Dashboard: After adding widgets to your dashboard and configuring them according to your preferences, click ‘Save dashboard’.

Example Dashboard Configuration

Suppose you are monitoring an EC2 instance and want to create a dashboard that shows CPU Utilization, Disk Reads/Writes, and Network In/Out:

1. Add a line chart widget for ‘EC2 > Per-Instance Metrics’.
2. Choose ‘CPU Utilization’ metric.
3. Set the period to ‘5 minutes’.
4. Repeat the process for ‘Disk Reads/Writes’ and ‘Network In/Out’ metrics.
5. Save the dashboard with the name ‘EC2 Monitoring’.

Best Practices for Dashboard Creation

When creating CloudWatch Dashboards, consider the following best practices:

• Organize by Function: Group related metrics together in a single widget or adjacent widgets, such as all metrics related to EC2 instances in one widget.
• Use Annotations: To highlight important events or thresholds on your graphs.
• Automatic Refresh: Set your dashboard to auto-refresh at an appropriate interval to ensure you are looking at the most current data.
• Alarm Visibility: Add widgets that show the status of alarms to get alerted when a metric crosses a threshold.

Sharing and Access Control

Dashboards can be shared with other team members or made public (view-only) with a shared link. You can control who has access to your dashboards by using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies.

To share a dashboard:

1. Open the dashboard you want to share.
2. Click on ‘Share dashboard’ and choose ‘Share with users in this account’ or ‘Share with other AWS accounts’.
3. Configure the permissions as required.

Conclusion

CloudWatch Dashboards are a powerful tool in a SysOps Administrator’s toolkit, offering real-time monitoring capabilities for proactive management of AWS environments. With customizable dashboards, effective monitoring, and the ability to share insights with the team, you can maintain a high level of operational excellence. Remember to align your dashboard creation process with your monitoring goals and AWS best practices for maximal efficiency and clarity.