Metadata in Cloudwatch metrics (alternative to dimensions?)

1
votes

I'm logging custom metric data into AWS Cloudwatch and trying to graph it. I assumed that Dimensions in Cloudwatch were metadata for enriching my data, but it seems that once you add dimensions you can no longer query across different combinations of dimensions. So for one I don't really see the point of dimensions as any unique combination is basically just a new metric. But more importantly, is there a way to log one set of data with different labels or dimensions and then slice and dice that data (e.g., in Grafana).

To make it more concrete, I am logging cache load times in my application. I have one metric called "cache-miss", with several dimensions, for example:

  1. the cached collection
  2. the customer associated with the cached data

I want to several different graphs:

  • Total cache misses (i.e., ignore dimensions, just see a count over time)
  • Total cache misses per collection (aggregate by first dimension)
  • Total cache misses per customer (aggregate by second dimension)

Is there some way to achieve this with Cloudwatch metrics and/or Grafana (or alternate tool)?

1
grafanaamazon-cloudwatchamazon-cloudwatchlogs

1 Answers

1
votes

As you have mentioned - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/cloudwatch_concepts.html :

CloudWatch treats each unique combination of dimensions as a separate metric, even if the metrics have the same metric name. You can only retrieve statistics using combinations of dimensions that you specifically published. When you retrieve statistics, specify the same values for the namespace, metric name, and dimension parameters that were used when the metrics were created.

So if you have pushed Total cache misses with 2 dimensions, you can query this metric only with 2 dimensions. So you really can't just see a count over time.

Possible workarounds:

Or you can switch from the CloudWatch to better TSDB for your use case.