StackMetrics

StackMetrics macro

When the StackMetrics macro is used in a CloudFormation template, any CloudFormation stack deployed from that template will output custom CloudWatch metrics for the stack.

• CloudFormation stack operations
  • Creates
  • Updates
  • Deletes
• CloudFormation resources created

Metrics are provided both per stack and overall across all stacks that are using the macro.

The macro.template template also creates a simple dashboard for viewing the aggregated data from these metrics.

See example.template for example usage.

How to install and use the CloudFormation macro in your AWS account

Deploying

1. You will need an S3 bucket to store the CloudFormation artifacts:

   • If you don't have one already, create one with aws s3 mb s3://<bucket name>

2. Package the CloudFormation template. The provided template uses the AWS Serverless Application Model so must be transformed before you can deploy it.

   aws cloudformation package \
       --template-file macro.template \
       --s3-bucket <your bucket name here> \
       --output-template-file packaged.template

3. Deploy the packaged CloudFormation template to a CloudFormation stack:

   aws cloudformation deploy \
       --stack-name stackmetrics-macro \
       --template-file packaged.template \
       --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM

4. To test out the macro's capabilities, try launching two stacks from the provided example template:

   aws cloudformation deploy \
       --stack-name stackmetrics-macro-example-1 \
       --template-file example.template \
       --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM
   
   aws cloudformation deploy \
       --stack-name stackmetrics-macro-example-2 \
       --template-file example.template \
       --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM

Usage

To make use of the macro, add Transform: StackMetrics to the top level of your CloudFormation template.

Here is a trivial example template:

Transform: StackMetrics
Resources:
  Bucket:
    Type: S3::Bucket

To see the stack metrics, you can check the CloudFormation-Stacks dashboard in the CloudWatch console.

Authors

Steve Engledow
Senior Solutions Builder
Amazon Web Services

Jason Gregson
Global Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services