CloudWatch

Send monitoring events from CloudWatch to BigPanda.

Supported VersionsTypeAuthentication Type
SaaS DeploymentsCloudFormation, WebhookOrg Bearer Token

The core of this integration works by creating an SNS topic and subscribing to a BigPanda alerts endpoint. BigPanda then processes and correlates the data from CloudWatch to create and maintain up-to-date incidents in BigPanda. When an alarm closes in CloudWatch, the alert is closed in BigPanda. BigPanda can set the SNS topic for all configured alarms if desired upon initial configuration.

If the automatic sync is enabled, BigPanda periodically updates all alarms with the SNS topic to ensure that BigPanda receives data for any alarms created after the system was first integrated.

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Open Integration Manager

The Open Integration Manager is available for use with Cloudwatch. For more information, see the Open Integration Manager documentation.

Key Features

  • Uses the Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) to send CloudWatch Alarm data to BigPanda.
  • Correlates alarms from CloudWatch to help you understand and respond faster to issues with your AWS resources and applications.
  • Provides the option to automatically sync CloudWatch Alarms created after the initial configuration with BigPanda.

Data Model

BigPanda normalizes Alarm data from CloudWatch into tags. You can use tag values to filter the incident feed and to define filter conditions for Environments.

Default Tags

BigPanda TagCloudWatch PropertyAttributes
objectAlarmNamePrimary Property
checkTrigger.MetricNameSecondary Property (Default).
descriptionNewStateReason
alarm_descriptionAlarmDescriptionSecondary Property if check is not present
timestampStateChangeTime
trigger_{{property}}Trigger and Trigger.DimensionsTrigger is an object of key, value pairs.

Trigger.Dimensions is an array of objects with name and value as the only two properties in each object.

Each key will have a prefix of trigger_

Manage the Integration

The integration leverages a CloudFormation template to create a CloudFormation Stack that deploys the necessary resources directly in your AWS instance

Install the Integration

Administrators can install the integration by following the on-screen instructions in BigPanda.

Before You Integrate

  • Obtain a BigPanda Bearer Token
  • Obtain a CloudWatch Integration app key
  • The CloudFormation Stack requires an AWS User with permissions to create various resources across AWS for the Stack deployment to be successful.

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AWS Permissions

These resources may include:

  • Lambda with IAM Role and Policy
  • CloudWatch Event Rule
  • AWS Custom Resource (invokes the Lambda that is created during Stack deployment)

Using the CloudFormation Designer, you can see what the BigPanda CloudFormation template will create.

Uninstall the Integration

Deleting an integration requires changes to both the integrated system and BigPanda. You must uninstall the integration on the integrated system and then delete the integration from BigPanda.

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When replacing an existing integration with a new tool or system, we recommend configuring the new integration first to ensure no data is lost.

Stop Sending Data to BigPanda

Since the resources for the integration are being managed by CloudFormation, we can uninstall the integration by deleting the CloudFormation Stack.

  1. Go to CloudFormation in your AWS Account.
  2. Locate and Select the BigPanda CloudWatch Stack that was deployed.
  3. Click on the Delete button in the upper right of the AWS Console.
    note: You may be prompted to keep some resources like the IAM Role or Policy, this can be skipped so that All Resources are deleted.
  4. Select Delete Stack.
  5. Confirm all resources were deleted.

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CloudWatch Alarms

When the CloudFormation Stack is deleted and if the Lambda resource to add the BigPanda Topic to all Alarms is enabled, the function is invoked one last time to remove the BigPanda Topic from all CloudWatch Alarms

Delete the Integration from BigPanda

  1. In BigPanda, navigate to the Integrations tab and select the desired integration from the list.
  2. In the integration details on the right, click Delete Integration. A support message opens, pre-populated with a request to delete the selected integration.
  3. Press Enter to send the request.
  4. The BigPanda support team will remove the integration from the UI.

This procedure does not remove any data from BigPanda or the integrated system. As needed, remove data from each system before deleting the integration.