Setting up custom metrics with Cloudwatch and Windows Server 2008/2012

Just some quick notes on how to monitor custom  performance monitor metrics with CloudWatch.

We will firstly need to download the EC2Config service (if not already installed) from:

http://aws.amazon.com/developertools/5562082477397515

We need to create an in-line IAM Policy (IAM >> Users >> Select User >> 'Permissions' >> Inline Policies:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "UZ1000",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:PutMetricData"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Sid": "UZ1000",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:CreateLogStream",
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups",
        "logs:DescribeLogStreams",
        "logs:PutLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

We will now need to enable CloudWatch intergration by going to:

C:\Program Files\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Ec2ConfigServiceSettings.exe

and ensure 'Enable CloudWatch logs integration' is ticked.

The CloudWatch configuration can be found in:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Settings\AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.json

In my case I wish to monitor a performace counter that monitors active RDP / RDS sessions:

{
    "EngineConfiguration": {
        "PollInterval": "00:00:15",
        "Components": [
            {
                "Id": "ApplicationEventLog",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.EventLog.EventLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "LogName": "Application",
                    "Levels": "1"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "SystemEventLog",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.EventLog.EventLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "LogName": "System",
                    "Levels": "7"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "SecurityEventLog",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.EventLog.EventLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                "LogName": "Security",
                "Levels": "7"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "ETW",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.EventLog.EventLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "LogName": "Microsoft-Windows-WinINet/Analytic",
                    "Levels": "7"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "IISLog",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.IisLog.IisLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "LogDirectoryPath": "C:\\inetpub\\logs\\LogFiles\\W3SVC1"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "CustomLogs",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.CustomLog.CustomLogInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "LogDirectoryPath": "C:\\CustomLogs\\",
                    "TimestampFormat": "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss",
                    "Encoding": "UTF-8",
                    "Filter": "",
                    "CultureName": "en-US",
                    "TimeZoneKind": "Local"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "PerformanceCounter",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.PerformanceCounterComponent.PerformanceCounterInputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "CategoryName": "Terminal Services",
                    "CounterName": "Active Sessions",
                    "InstanceName": "",
                    "MetricName": "Active Sessions",
                    "Unit": "Count",
                    "DimensionName": "",
                    "DimensionValue": ""
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "CloudWatchLogs",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.CloudWatchLogsOutput,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters": {
                    "AccessKey": "",
                    "SecretKey": "",
                    "Region": "eu-west-1",
                    "LogGroup": "Default-Log-Group",
                    "LogStream": "{instance_id}"
                }
            },
            {
                "Id": "CloudWatch",
                "FullName": "AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch.CloudWatch.CloudWatchOutputComponent,AWS.EC2.Windows.CloudWatch",
                "Parameters":
                {
                    "AccessKey": "",
                    "SecretKey": "",
                    "Region": "eu-west-1",
                    "NameSpace": "Windows/RDS"
                }
            }
        ],
        "Flows": {
            "Flows":
            [
                "PerformanceCounter,CloudWatch"
            ]
        }
    }
}

We should then restart the ec2config service with:

net stop ec2config

net start ec2config

We should now review the logs by going to AWS Console >> CloudWatch >> Logs >> Custom Logs >> 'Windows/RDS'