Eyes on the Metrics
Explore how to monitor AWS resource metrics through tools such as CloudWatch and Compute Optimizer to identify rightsizing opportunities. Learn to interpret usage reports, apply cost-saving recommendations, and understand supplementary tools including Trusted Advisor and the Carbon Footprint Tool. This lesson helps you use data-driven approaches to optimize AWS workloads and control costs while improving performance.
Even when we take our best guess on sizing, not all things will be perfect. This is where the wealth of metrics that AWS provides can really help us narrow in on our baseline workload. Some are baked into the AWS platform itself, and others can be used with third-party tools.
Usage reports
A quick way to get raw usage data is via Usage Reports. You simply select the service you want to know about, the date range, and the format—either XML or CSV. Because this is raw data, interpreting the data is not very intuitive, and it takes some exploring to figure out which metrics to use. Additionally, if the dataset is very large, the tool just truncates and recommends using a smaller duration. Nonetheless, it may prove valuable.
Once on the AWS “Cost and Usage Reports” page, use the AWS “Usage Report” link. A variety of filter options are presented. Just be sure to carefully select filters that will not result in massive amounts of data, or it may be truncated.
The resulting data can be downloaded in either CSV or XML format, suitable for importing into any analytics tool.
