Get data from Amazon Web Services.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

  1. Send data from applications and services that run on your AWS account.
  2. Visualize data with preconfigured dashboards and charts.
  3. Set up and use a system alert.

It’s an easy setup. You don’t have to install anything or make changes to your application code.

screenshot of tutorial dashboards list screenshot tour pro dashboards list

Task 1: Set Up the Integration

In this task, we’ll set up a data ingestion pipeline with AWS.

Step 1: Start Integration Setup

  1. Click Integrations on the toolbar. An integration tile usually has:
    • A Setup tab which provides step-by-step instructions on setting up the integration.
    • A Dashboards tab to access the out-of-the-box dashboards. Popular integrations also have an Alerts tab with preconfigured alerts.
  2. Click the Amazon Web Services (AWS) tile.
  3. On the Setup tab, click Add Integration. Highlights the Add Integration button on the AWS integration's Setup tab.
  4. Click the How to get Role ARN link.

You’ll see Account ID and External ID under How to get Role ARN. You’ll need them to set up the integration.

Step 2: Create a Read-Only Role in Your AWS Account

Follow these steps:

  1. Open a web browser tab and log in to your AWS account.
  2. Search for the IAM (AWS Identity and Access Management) service and click it to open the service.
  3. In the left panel, click Roles, and click Create role.
  4. Create a trusted entity:
    1. Click the AWS Account tile and select the Another AWS account radio button.
    2. Copy the Account ID value shown in the AWS integration setup instructions.
    3. Paste it in the Account ID text box in the AWS UI. A diagram that shows where the account ID is on the Operations for Applications integration and an arrow pointing how to copy and paste on the AWS account.
    4. Select the Require external ID check box. A screenshot of the external ID option selected.
    5. Enter the External ID. Copy the External ID value shown in the AWS integration setup instructions and paste it here. A diagram that shows where the external ID is on the Operations for Applications integration and an arrow pointing how to copy and paste on the AWS account.
    6. Click Next.
  5. Set Permissions:
    1. Search for the ReadOnlyAccess permission and select it.

      A screenshot that shows the ReadOnlyAccess permission selected.

    2. Click Next.
  6. Set the Role name as example-role.
  7. Click Create role.
  8. Once the list of roles appears, click example-role (the role you just created), and copy the ARN value.

Step 3: Configure the AWS Integration

Go back to the product instance where you opened the AWS integration tile, and follow these steps:

  1. Paste the Role ARN value you copied in the previous step as the value for “Role ARN” from Amazon IAM.
  2. Click Register.
Screenshot of the AWS integration's configure section. The Register button is highlighted in red.

VMware Aria Operations for Applications can now connect to your AWS account and get data. Once the data starts flowing, you can visualize it. It will take a few minutes for the data to show.

Step 4: (Optional) Launch an EC2 Instance

Don’t have an application running on your AWS account? Follow the steps given below. If you already have an application running on the AWS account, move to the next task and see how you can visualize your data.

  1. Go back to your AWS account, search for the EC2 service, and click it to open the service.
  2. Follow the AWS documentation on Launching an Amazon EC2 Instance.

Once the instance is launched, you’ll see the data after a few minutes.

Learn More About Data Ingestion and the AWS Integration

Task 2: Explore Data with Out-of-the-Box Dashboards

With data flowing, you can start exploring dashboards and charts:

View Metrics

  1. In your product instance, navigate to the AWS integration.
  2. Click the Metrics tab.

You see charts with the metrics collected from your AWS account.

Example: Screenshot of the AWS metrics once the data starts to flow.


View Data on Dashboards

Our service includes system dashboards for the AWS integration that help you analyze and gather data.

  1. To see the list of the system dashboards, click the Dashboards tab. Screenshot of all the predefined dashboards available.
  2. Click AWS: Summary. From the Summary dashboard, you can easily navigate to all other AWS dashboards.

    Screenshot of the predefined AWS summary dashboard

Learn More About Dashboards and Charts

This 90-second video gives a great overview of how to interact with dashboards and charts.

Note that this video was created in 2020 and some of the information in it might have changed. It also uses the 2020 version of the UI.

Task 3: Set Up and Use an Out-of-the-Box Alert

Many integrations have preconfigured alerts for common use cases. All you have to do is:

  • Clone the alert.
  • Edit the thresholds (for most alerts).
  • Specify who should receive the alert notification, i.e. the recipient of the alert.
1. Navigate to the Integrations page.

2. Click the integration that you want to use.

A configured integration has a green tick in the top right. 		Screenshot of several integrations, icon with green tick in top right
3. On the Alerts tab, click Install All.

Here's an example screenshot from the AWS integration. Not all integrations have preconfigured alerts.



You can now edit the alert directly, but we recommend that you clone the alert so you don't lose your changes in case you reinstall the alerts. 		Screenshot that shows the Alerts tab of the AWS integration
4. From the toolbar, select Alerting > All Alerts and search for the alert by name.

In this example, we'll clone the EC2 Instance CPU Usage Too High alert. When you clone the alert, the new alert opens in Edit mode. 		Screenshot of the Alerts Browser, where we've searched for the ECS instance CPU usage too high alert
5. Customize the thresholds.

For example, you can set up the alert to be SEVERE when 97% of CPU utilization is reached.

6. Scroll down to the Recipients section. For the lowest severity level that you want notification for:
   a. Click the plus (+) icon.
   b. Enter your email address.
   c. Press Enter.

 Screenshot of the recipients section of the alert where we've entered the email address
When the threshold is exceeded, you'll receive an email that includes a link to the alert in the Alert Viewer.

The annotated screenshot on the right can help you get started with the Alert Viewer.

This short video shows what you can do. Note that this video was created in 2019 and some of the information in it might have changed. It also uses the 2019 version of the UI. 		Annotated screenshot of the alert viewer

Learn More About Alerts

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Success Value Engineering team shared some frequently asked questions – and where you can find the answers.

tutorials