---
title: Telegraf Documentation
description: Telegraf plugin for sending metrics to Amazon CloudWatch
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1/output-plugins/cloudwatch/
estimated_tokens: 2430
product: Telegraf
version: v1
---

-   Telegraf v0.10.1+

# Amazon CloudWatch Output Plugin

This plugin writes metrics to the [Amazon CloudWatch](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch) service.

**Introduced in:** Telegraf v0.10.1 **Tags:** cloud **OS support:** all

## Amazon Authentication

This plugin uses a credential chain for Authentication with the CloudWatch API endpoint. In the following order the plugin will attempt to authenticate.

1. Web identity provider credentials via STS if `role_arn` and `web_identity_token_file` are specified
2. Assumed credentials via STS if `role_arn` attribute is specified (source credentials are evaluated from subsequent rules)
3. Explicit credentials from `access_key`, `secret_key`, and `token` attributes
4. Shared profile from `profile` attribute
5. [Environment Variables](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/wiki/configuring-sdk#environment-variables)
6. [Shared Credentials](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/wiki/configuring-sdk#shared-credentials-file)
7. [EC2 Instance Profile](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/iam-roles-for-amazon-ec2.html)

If you are using credentials from a web identity provider, you can specify the session name using `role_session_name`. If left empty, the current timestamp will be used.

The IAM user needs only the `cloudwatch:PutMetricData` permission.

## Global configuration options

Plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings for tasks such as modifying metrics, tags, and fields, creating aliases, and configuring plugin ordering. See [CONFIGURATION.md](/telegraf/v1/configuration/#plugins) for more details.

## Configuration

```toml
# Configuration for AWS CloudWatch output.
[[outputs.cloudwatch]]
  ## Amazon REGION
  region = "us-east-1"

  ## Amazon Credentials
  ## Credentials are loaded in the following order
  ## 1) Web identity provider credentials via STS if role_arn and
  ##    web_identity_token_file are specified
  ## 2) Assumed credentials via STS if role_arn is specified
  ## 3) explicit credentials from 'access_key' and 'secret_key'
  ## 4) shared profile from 'profile'
  ## 5) environment variables
  ## 6) shared credentials file
  ## 7) EC2 Instance Profile
  # access_key = ""
  # secret_key = ""
  # token = ""
  # role_arn = ""
  # web_identity_token_file = ""
  # role_session_name = ""
  # profile = ""
  # shared_credential_file = ""

  ## Override the auto-detected endpoint to make request against
  ##   ex: endpoint_url = "http://localhost:8000"
  # endpoint_url = ""

  ## Set http_proxy
  # use_system_proxy = false
  # http_proxy_url = "http://localhost:8888"

  ## Namespace for the CloudWatch MetricDatums
  namespace = "InfluxData/Telegraf"

  ## If you have a large amount of metrics, you should consider to send
  ## statistic values instead of raw metrics which could not only improve
  ## performance but also save AWS API cost. If enable this flag, this plugin
  ## would parse the required CloudWatch statistic fields (count, min, max, and
  ## sum) and send them to CloudWatch. You could use basicstats aggregator to
  ## calculate those fields. If not all statistic fields are available, all
  ## fields would still be sent as raw metrics.
  # write_statistics = false

  ## Enable high resolution metrics of 1 second (if not enabled, standard
  ## resolution are of 60 seconds precision)
  # high_resolution_metrics = false

  ## Maximum number of dimensions to include in the metric
  ## The default is ten for backward compatibility but Cloudwatch supports
  ## up to 30 dimensions in a metric according to
  ## https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/publishingMetrics.html#usingDimensions
  # max_dimensions = 10
```

For this output plugin to function correctly the following variables must be configured.

-   region
-   namespace

### region

The region is the Amazon region that you wish to connect to. Examples include but are not limited to:

-   us-west-1
-   us-west-2
-   us-east-1
-   ap-southeast-1
-   ap-southeast-2

### namespace

The namespace used for AWS CloudWatch metrics.

### write\_statistics

If you have a large amount of metrics, you should consider to send statistic values instead of raw metrics which could not only improve performance but also save AWS API cost. If enable this flag, this plugin would parse the required [CloudWatch statistic fields](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-go/api/service/cloudwatch/#StatisticSet) (count, min, max, and sum) and send them to CloudWatch. You could use `basicstats` aggregator to calculate those fields. If not all statistic fields are available, all fields would still be sent as raw metrics.

### high\_resolution\_metrics

Enable high resolution metrics (1 second precision) instead of standard ones (60 seconds precision).

#### Related

-   [Configure plugins](/telegraf/v1/configure_plugins/)
-   [Amazon CloudWatch Plugin Source](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/v1.38.4/plugins/outputs/cloudwatch/README.md)