# ec2_metric_alarm – Create/update or delete AWS Cloudwatch ‘metric alarms’

- Synopsis
- Requirements
- Parameters
- Notes
- Examples
- Status

## Synopsis

- Can create or delete AWS metric alarms.
- Metrics you wish to alarm on must already exist.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- python >= 2.6
- boto

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
alarm_actions - |  | A list of the names action(s) taken when the alarm is in the 'alarm' status, denoted as Amazon Resource Name(s)
aws_access_key string |  | AWS access key. If not set then the value of the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_ACCESS_KEY or EC2_ACCESS_KEY environment variable is used. aliases: ec2_access_key, access_key
aws_secret_key string |  | AWS secret key. If not set then the value of the AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SECRET_KEY, or EC2_SECRET_KEY environment variable is used. aliases: ec2_secret_key, secret_key

comparison
-

Choices:
- <=
- <
- >
- >=

Determines how the threshold value is compared

debug_botocore_endpoint_logs
boolean
added in 2.8

Choices:
- no ←
- yes

Use a botocore.endpoint logger to parse the unique (rather than total) "resource:action" API calls made during a task, outputing the set to the resource_actions key in the task results. Use the aws_resource_action callback to output to total list made during a playbook. The ANSIBLE_DEBUG_BOTOCORE_LOGS environment variable may also be used.

description - |  | A longer description of the alarm
dimensions - |  | Describes to what the alarm is applied
ec2_url string |  | Url to use to connect to EC2 or your Eucalyptus cloud (by default the module will use EC2 endpoints). Ignored for modules where region is required. Must be specified for all other modules if region is not used. If not set then the value of the EC2_URL environment variable, if any, is used.
evaluation_periods - |  | The number of times in which the metric is evaluated before final calculation
insufficient_data_actions - |  | A list of the names of action(s) to take when the alarm is in the 'insufficient_data' status
metric - |  | Name of the monitored metric (e.g. CPUUtilization) Metric must already exist
name - / required |  | Unique name for the alarm
namespace - |  | Name of the appropriate namespace ('AWS/EC2', 'System/Linux', etc.), which determines the category it will appear under in cloudwatch
ok_actions - |  | A list of the names of action(s) to take when the alarm is in the 'ok' status, denoted as Amazon Resource Name(s)
period - |  | The time (in seconds) between metric evaluations
profile string |  | Uses a boto profile. Only works with boto >= 2.24.0.
region string |  | The AWS region to use. If not specified then the value of the AWS_REGION or EC2_REGION environment variable, if any, is used. See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#ec2_region aliases: aws_region, ec2_region
security_token string |  | AWS STS security token. If not set then the value of the AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN or EC2_SECURITY_TOKEN environment variable is used. aliases: access_token

state
- / required

Choices:
- present
- absent

register or deregister the alarm

statistic
-

Choices:
- SampleCount
- Average
- Sum
- Minimum
- Maximum

Operation applied to the metric
Works in conjunction with period and evaluation_periods to determine the comparison value

threshold - |  | Sets the min/max bound for triggering the alarm

unit
-

Choices:
- Seconds
- Microseconds
- Milliseconds
- Bytes
- Kilobytes
- Megabytes
- Gigabytes
- Terabytes
- Bits
- Kilobits
- Megabits
- Gigabits
- Terabits
- Percent
- Count
- Bytes/Second
- Kilobytes/Second
- Megabytes/Second
- Gigabytes/Second
- Terabytes/Second
- Bits/Second
- Kilobits/Second
- Megabits/Second
- Gigabits/Second
- Terabits/Second
- Count/Second
- None

The threshold's unit of measurement

validate_certs
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes ←

When set to "no", SSL certificates will not be validated for boto versions >= 2.6.0.

## Notes

Note

- If parameters are not set within the module, the following environment variables can be used in decreasing order of precedence `AWS_URL` or `EC2_URL`, `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` or `AWS_ACCESS_KEY` or `EC2_ACCESS_KEY`, `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` or `AWS_SECRET_KEY` or `EC2_SECRET_KEY`, `AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN` or `EC2_SECURITY_TOKEN`, `AWS_REGION` or `EC2_REGION`
- Ansible uses the boto configuration file (typically ~/.boto) if no credentials are provided. See https://boto.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boto_config_tut.html
- `AWS_REGION` or `EC2_REGION` can be typically be used to specify the AWS region, when required, but this can also be configured in the boto config file

## Examples

    - name: create alarm
      ec2_metric_alarm:
        state: present
        region: ap-southeast-2
        name: "cpu-low"
        metric: "CPUUtilization"
        namespace: "AWS/EC2"
        statistic: Average
        comparison: "<="
        threshold: 5.0
        period: 300
        evaluation_periods: 3
        unit: "Percent"
        description: "This will alarm when a bamboo slave's cpu usage average is lower than 5% for 15 minutes "
        dimensions: {'InstanceId':'i-XXX'}
        alarm_actions: ["action1","action2"]

    - name: Create an alarm to recover a failed instance
      ec2_metric_alarm:
        state: present
        region: us-west-1
        name: "recover-instance"
        metric: "StatusCheckFailed_System"
        namespace: "AWS/EC2"
        statistic: "Minimum"
        comparison: ">="
        threshold: 1.0
        period: 60
        evaluation_periods: 2
        unit: "Count"
        description: "This will recover an instance when it fails"
        dimensions: {"InstanceId":'i-XXX'}
        alarm_actions: ["arn:aws:automate:us-west-1:ec2:recover"]

## Status

- This module is guaranteed to have backward compatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Zacharie Eakin (@Zeekin)

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