EC2 - Instance Resources Test

Tracking the CPU usage, disk and network I/O of every instance launched by a configured AWS user account in a region will provide administrators with valuable insights into how well the instances are utilizing the allocated resources. The - Instance Resources test does just that. This test auto-discovers the instances available for the configured AWS user account in a region, and reports the resource usage of each instance so that, administrators can quickly compare the usage metrics across instances and pinpoint which instance is resource-hungry.

Target of the test: Amazon Region

Agent deploying the test: A remote agent

Output of the test: One set of results for each instance launched by the configured AWS user account in the monitored region

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
AWS Access Key, AWS Secret Key, Confirm AWS Access Key, Confirm AWS Secret Key	To monitor an Amazon instance, the eG agent has to be configured with the access key and secret key of a user with a valid AWS account. For this purpose, we recommend that you create a special user on the AWS cloud, obtain the access and secret keys of this user, and configure this test with these keys. The procedure for this has been detailed in the Obtaining an Access key and Secret key topic. Make sure you reconfirm the access and secret keys you provide here by retyping it in the corresponding Confirm text boxes.
Proxy Host and Proxy Port	In some environments, all communication with the AWS cloud and its regions could be routed through a proxy server. In such environments, you should make sure that the eG agent connects to the cloud via the proxy server and collects metrics. To enable metrics collection via a proxy, specify the IP address of the proxy server and the port at which the server listens against the Proxy Host and Proxy Port parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none , indicating that the eG agent is not configured to communicate via a proxy, by default.
Proxy User Name, Proxy Password, and Confirm Password	If the proxy server requires authentication, then, specify a valid proxy user name and password in the proxy user name and proxy password parameters, respectively. Then, confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.
Proxy Domain and Proxy Workstation	If a Windows NTLM proxy is to be configured for use, then additionally, you will have to configure the Windows domain name and the Windows workstation name required for the same against the proxy domain and proxy workstation parameters. If the environment does not support a Windows NTLM proxy, set these parameters to none.
Cloudwatch Enabled	This parameter only applies to the -Aggregated Resource Usage test. This test reports critical metrics pertaining to the resource usage of the server instances launched in the cloud. If you want this test to report resource usage metrics very frequently - say, once every minute or lesser - you will have to configure the tests to use the AWS CloudWatch service. This is a paid web service that enables you to monitor, manage, and publish various metrics, as well as configure alarm actions based on data from metrics. To enable is test to use this service, set the CloudWatch Enabled flag to Yes. On the other hand, to report resource usage metrics less frequently - say, once in 5 minutes or more - this test does not require the AWS CloudWatch service; in this case therefore, set the cloudwatch enabled flag to No. Note that for enabling CloudWatch, you will have to pay CloudWatch fees. For the fee details, refer to the AWS web site.
Exclude Instance	This parameter applies only to - Instance Connectivity, - Instance Resources , and - Instance Uptime tests. In the Exclude Instance text box, provide a comma-separated list of instance names or instance name patterns that you do not wish to monitor. For example: i-b0c3e,7dbe56d. By default, this parameter is set to none.

Measures reported by the test:
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
CPU utilization:	Indicates the percentage of allocated CPU consumed by this instance.	Percent	A high value for this measure indicates that an instance is utilizing CPU excessively - this could be because of one/more resource-intensive processes executing on that instance. Compare the value of this measure across instances to identify the CPU-intensive instances.
Incoming network traffic:	Indicates the rate of incoming network traffic i.e., the rate at which the bytes are received by all the network interfaces connected to this instance.	KB/Sec	Compare the values of these measures across instances to quickly identify the instance that is utilizing the network bandwidth excessively.
Outgoing network traffic:	Indicates the volume of outgoing network traffic i.e., the rate at which the bytes are transferred from all the network interfaces connected to this instance.	KB/Sec
Disk reads:	Indicates the rate at which data is read from the disks of this instance.	KB/Sec	These measures are good indicators of the level of disk I/O activity on an instance. By comparing the values of these measures across instances, you can accurately determine which instance is performing I/O-intensive operations.
Disk writes:	Indicates the rate at which data is written to the disks of this instance.	KB/Sec
Disk read operations:	Indicates the rate at which disk read operations are performed on this instance.	Operations/Sec	These measures are good indicators of the level of disk I/O activity on an instance type. By comparing the values of these measures across types, you can accurately determine the type of instances that is performing I/O-intensive operations.
Disk write operations:	Indicates the rate at which disk write operations were performed on this instance.	Operations/Sec