EC2 Large Instance Changes Alarm

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Cloudwatch dashboard at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.

03 In the left navigation panel select Alarms.

04 Open the dashboard Show/Hide Columns dialog box by clicking the configuration icon:

then select the Metric Name checkbox.

05 In the Metric Name column, verify each alarm available for the EC2LargeInstanceEventCount metric parameter name. If the EC2LargeInstanceEventCount metric is not used by any of your existing alarms, the provisioning process for AWS EC2 4xlarge/8xlarge instances is not monitored using Amazon CloudWatch.

06 Change the AWS region from the navigation bar and repeat the audit process for other regions.

01 Run describe-alarms-for-metric command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to list all AWS CloudWatch alarms that are currently associated with the EC2LargeInstanceEventCount metric, available in the selected region:

aws cloudwatch describe-alarms-for-metric
    --region us-east-1
    --metric-name EC2InstanceEventCount
    --namespace CloudTrailMetrics

02The command output should return an array with the requested CloudWatch alarm(s) metadata:

{
    "MetricAlarms": []
}

03 Perform step no. 1 and 2 to repeat the audit process for other AWS regions.

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to SNS dashboard at https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/v2/.

03 In the navigation panel, select Topics and click the Create new topic button.

04 In the Create new topic dialog box, enter a name and a display name for your topic then click Create Topic.

05 Open the newly created SNS topic configuration page by clicking on its Amazon Resource Name (ARN):

06 Under Subscription section click Create Subscription.

07 Select Email as subscription protocol from the Protocol dropdown list.

08 In the Endpoint box, enter the email address where you want to receive the CloudWatch alarm notifications then click Create Subscription to create the required subscription.

09 Use your preferred email client application to open the message received from AWS Notifications, then click on the appropriate link to confirm your new subscription.

01 Run create-topic command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to create a new SNS topic for sending email notifications whenever your AWS CloudWatch alarm is triggered:

aws sns create-topic
    --name CloudWatchAlarmSNSTopic

02The command output should return the new SNS topic Amazon Resource Name (ARN):

{
  "TopicArn": "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:CloudWatchAlarmSNSTopic"
}

03Run subscribe command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to send the subscription confirmation message to the notification endpoint (i.e. the email address provided):

aws sns subscribe
    --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:CloudWatchAlarmSNSTopic
    --protocol email
    --notification-endpoint no-reply@cloudconformity.com

04Run confirm-subscription command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to confirm the email subscription by validating the token sent to the notification endpoint selected (the command does not return an output):

aws sns confirm-subscription
    --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:CloudWatchAlarmSNSTopic
    --token 5f32e92f37fb687f5d51e6e241d7700ae02f7124d8268910b858cb4db727ceeb2474bb937929d3bdd7ce5d0cce19325d036bc858d3c217426bcafa9c501a2cace93b83f1dd3797627467553dc438a8c974119496fc3eff026eaa5d14472ded6f9a5c43aec62d83ef5f49109da71d8012

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Cloudwatch dashboard at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.

03 In the left navigation panel, select Logs.

04 Select the log group created for your CloudTrail trail event logs and click Create Metric Filter button.

05 On the Define Logs Metric Filter page, paste the following pattern inside the Filter Pattern box: { ($.eventName = RunInstances) && (($.requestParameters.instanceType = *.8xlarge) || ($.requestParameters.instanceType = *.4xlarge)) }. This pattern will be used for scanning the AWS CloudTrail logs for any “RunInstances” event name entries that match the required instance type.

06 Review the metric filter config details then click Assign Metric.

07 On the Create Metric Filter and Assign a Metric page, perform the following:

1. In the Filter Name box, enter a unique name for the new filter, e.g. LaunchEC2LargeInstances.
2. In the Metric Namespace box, type CloudTrailMetrics.
3. In the Metric Name box, type EC2LargeInstanceEventCount for the metric identifier.
4. Click Show advanced metric settings to slide down the advanced settings section.
5. In the Metric Value box, enter 1.

08 Review the details then click Create Filter to generate your new CloudWatch Logs metric filter.

09 On the current page click Create Alarm: .

10 In the Create Alarm dialog box, provide the following information:

1. Within the Alarm Threshold section, in the Name and Description fields, enter a unique name and a short description for the new CloudWatch alarm.
2. Under Whenever: <Metric Name>, select >= (greater than or equal to) from the is dropdown list and enter 1 as the threshold value in the box next to the dropdown list to trigger the alarm every time an EC2 4xlarge or 8xlarge instance is provisioned in your AWS account.
3. In the Actions section, click the + Notification button, select State is ALARM from the Whenever this alarm dropdown menu and choose the AWS SNS topic name created at Step 1 from Send notification to.
4. In the Alarm Preview section, select 5 Minutes from the Period dropdown list and Sum from the Statistic list.
5. Review the CloudWatch alarm configuration details then click Create Alarm. Once created, the new alarm will be listed on the Alarms page.

01 Run put-metric-filter command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to create the necessary CloudWatch metric filter and associate it with your appropriate Amazon CloudTrail log group (the command does not return an output):

aws logs put-metric-filter
    --region us-east-1
    --log-group-name CloudTrail/CloudWatchLogGroup
    --filter-name LaunchEC2LargeInstance
    --filter-pattern '{ ($.eventName = RunInstances) && (($.requestParameters.instanceType = *.8xlarge) || ($.requestParameters.instanceType = *.4xlarge)) }'
    --metric-transformations metricName=EC2LargeInstanceEventCount,metricNamespace=CloudTrailMetrics,metricValue=1

02 Run put-metric-alarm command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to create the AWS CloudWatch alarm that will fire whenever an EC2 4xlarge/8xlarge instance is launched within your AWS account (the command does not return an output):

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm
    --region us-east-1
    --alarm-name EC2LargeInstanceLaunchAlarm
    --alarm-description "Triggered by large EC2 instances launch events."
    --metric-name EC2LargeInstanceEventCount
    --namespace CloudTrailMetrics
    --statistic Sum
    --comparison-operator GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold
    --evaluation-periods 1
    --period 300
    --threshold 1
    --actions-enabled
    --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:CloudWatchAlarmSNSTopic