Using template variables in CloudWatch queries

Instead of hard-coding server, application, and sensor names in your metric queries, you can use variables. The variables are listed as dropdown select boxes at the top of the dashboard. These dropdowns make it easy to change the display of data in your dashboard.

For an introduction to templating and template variables, refer to the Templating documentation.

Query variable

You can use the following CloudWatch data source queries to specify the Query Type field in the Variable edit view. Use them to fill a variables options list with values like regions, namespaces, metric names, and dimension keys/values.

Read more about the available dimensions in the CloudWatch Metrics and Dimensions Reference.

NameDescription
RegionsReturns a list of all AWS regions
NamespacesReturns a list of all the namespaces CloudWatch supports.
MetricsReturns a list of metrics in the namespace. (specify region or use “default” for custom metrics)
Dimension KeysReturns a list of dimension keys in the namespace.
Dimension ValuesReturns a list of dimension values matching the specified region, namespace, metric, and dimension_key. You can use dimension filters to get more specific results.
EBS Volume IDsReturns a list of volume ids matching the specified region and instance_id.
EC2 Instance AttributesReturns a list of attributes matching the specified region, attribute_name, and filters.
Resource ARNsReturns a list of ARNs matching the specified region, resource_type and tags.
StatisticsReturns a list of all the standard statistics.
LogGroupsReturns a list of all log groups matching the specified region.

For details about the metrics CloudWatch provides, please refer to the CloudWatch documentation.

Using variables in queries

Variables can be used in the variable form. Refer to the variable syntax documentation.

ec2_instance_attribute examples

Filters

The ec2_instance_attribute query takes in filters as a filter name and a comma-separated list of values. You can specify pre-defined filters of ec2:DescribeInstances.

Selecting attributes

Only 1 attribute per instance can be returned. Any flat attribute can be selected (i.e. if the attribute has a single value and isn’t an object or array). Below is a list of available flat attributes:

  • AmiLaunchIndex
  • Architecture
  • ClientToken
  • EbsOptimized
  • EnaSupport
  • Hypervisor
  • IamInstanceProfile
  • ImageId
  • InstanceId
  • InstanceLifecycle
  • InstanceType
  • KernelId
  • KeyName
  • LaunchTime
  • Platform
  • PrivateDnsName
  • PrivateIpAddress
  • PublicDnsName
  • PublicIpAddress
  • RamdiskId
  • RootDeviceName
  • RootDeviceType
  • SourceDestCheck
  • SpotInstanceRequestId
  • SriovNetSupport
  • SubnetId
  • VirtualizationType
  • VpcId

You can select tags by prepending the tag name with Tags.. For example, the tag Name is selected with Tags.Name.