Amazon CloudWatch Events for Amazon EBS - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
EBS volume eventsEBS snapshot eventsEBS volume modification eventsEBS fast snapshot restore eventsUsing AWS Lambda to handle CloudWatch events

Amazon CloudWatch Events for Amazon EBS

Amazon EBS emits notifications based on Amazon CloudWatch Events for a variety of volume, snapshot, and encryption status changes. With CloudWatch Events, you can establish rules that trigger programmatic actions in response to a change in volume, snapshot, or encryption key state. For example, when a snapshot is created, you can trigger an AWS Lambda function to share the completed snapshot with another account or copy it to another Region for disaster-recovery purposes.

Events in CloudWatch are represented as JSON objects. The fields that are unique to the event are contained in the "detail" section of the JSON object. The "event" field contains the event name. The "result" field contains the completed status of the action that triggered the event. For more information, see Event Patterns in CloudWatch Events in the Amazon CloudWatch Events User Guide.

For more information, see Using Events in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

EBS volume events

Amazon EBS sends events to CloudWatch Events when the following volume events occur.

Create volume (createVolume)

The createVolume event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a volume completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either available or failed. Creation will fail if an invalid AWS KMS key was provided, as shown in the examples below.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createVolume event. 

{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-01234567"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "available",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "createVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed createVolume event. The cause for the failure was a disabled KMS key. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "sa-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is disabled.",
    "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  }
}

The following is an example of a JSON object that is emitted by EBS after a failed createVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending import. 

{  
  "version": "0",  
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",  
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",  
  "source": "aws.ec2",  
  "account": "012345678901",  
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",  
  "region": "sa-east-1",  
  "resources": [    
    "arn:aws:ec2:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",  
  ],  
  "detail": {    
    "event": "createVolume",    
    "result": "failed",    
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending import.",    
    "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",  
  }
}

Delete volume (deleteVolume)

The deleteVolume event is sent to your AWS account when an action to delete a volume completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event has the result deleted. If the deletion does not complete, the event is never sent.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful deleteVolume event. 

{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-01234567"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "deleted",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "deleteVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

Volume attach or reattach (attachVolume, reattachVolume)

The attachVolume or reattachVolume event is sent to your AWS account if a volume fails to attach or reattach to an instance. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. If you use a KMS key to encrypt an EBS volume and the KMS key becomes invalid, EBS will emit an event if that KMS key is later used to attach or reattach to an instance, as shown in the examples below.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed attachVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending deletion.

Note

AWS may attempt to reattach to a volume following routine server maintenance. 

{
  "version": "0",    
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
  "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "attachVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending deletion.",
    "request-id": ""
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed reattachVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending deletion. 

{
  "version": "0",    
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
  "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "reattachVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending deletion.",
    "request-id": ""
  }
}

EBS snapshot events

Amazon EBS sends events to CloudWatch Events when the following volume events occur.

Create snapshot (createSnapshot)

The createSnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a snapshot completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createSnapshot event. In the detail section, the source field contains the ARN of the source volume. The startTime and endTime fields indicate when creation of the snapshot started and completed. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
     "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::volume/vol-01234567",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"  }
}

Create snapshots (createSnapshots)

The createSnapshots event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a multi-volume snapshot completes. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createSnapshots event. In the detail section, the source field contains the ARNs of the source volumes of the multi-volume snapshot set. The startTime and endTime fields indicate when creation of the snapshot started and completed. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Multi-Volume Snapshots Completion Status",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshots",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "snapshots": [
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-01234567",
        "status": "completed"
      },
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-012345678",
        "status": "completed"
      }
    ]
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed createSnapshots event. The cause for the failure was one or more snapshots for the multi-volume snapshot set failed to complete. The values of snapshot_id are the ARNs of the failed snapshots. startTime and endTime represent when the create-snapshots action started and ended. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Multi-Volume Snapshots Completion Status",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678"
  ],
"detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshots",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "Snapshot snap-01234567 is in status error",
   "request-id": "",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "snapshots": [
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-01234567",
        "status": "error"
      },
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-012345678",
        "status": "error"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Copy snapshot (copySnapshot)

The copySnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when an action to copy a snapshot completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a successful copySnapshot event. The value of snapshot_id is the ARN of the newly created snapshot. In the detail section, the value of source is the ARN of the source snapshot. startTime and endTime represent when the copy-snapshot action started and ended. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "123456789012",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "copySnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:eu-west-1::snapshot/snap-76543210",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "Incremental": "True"
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed copySnapshot event. The cause for the failure was an invalid source snapshot ID. The value of snapshot_id is the ARN of the failed snapshot. In the detail section, the value of source is the ARN of the source snapshot. startTime and endTime represent when the copy-snapshot action started and ended. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "123456789012",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "copySnapshot",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "Source snapshot ID is not valid",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:eu-west-1::snapshot/snap-76543210",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"
  }
}

Share snapshot (shareSnapshot)

The shareSnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when another account shares a snapshot with it. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. The result is always succeeded.

Event data

The following is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a completed shareSnapshot event. In the detail section, the value of source is the AWS account number of the user that shared the snapshot with you. startTime and endTime represent when the share-snapshot action started and ended. The shareSnapshot event is emitted only when a private snapshot is shared with another user. Sharing a public snapshot does not trigger the event. 

{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-01234-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "shareSnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": 012345678901,
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"
  }
}

EBS volume modification events

Amazon EBS sends modifyVolume events to CloudWatch Events when a volume is modified. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. 

{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-03a55cf56513fa1b6"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "optimizing",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "modifyVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

EBS fast snapshot restore events

Amazon EBS sends events to CloudWatch Events when the state of fast snapshot restore for a snapshot changes. Events are emitted on a best effort basis.

The following is example data for this event.

{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Fast Snapshot Restore State-change Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "123456789012",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1::snapshot/snap-03a55cf56513fa1b6"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "snapshot-id": "snap-1234567890abcdef0",
      "state": "optimizing",
      "zone": "us-east-1a",
      "message": "Client.UserInitiated - Lifecycle state transition",
   }
}

The possible values for state are enabling, optimizing, enabled, disabling, and disabled.

The possible values for message are as follows:

Client.InvalidSnapshot.InvalidState - The requested snapshot transitioned to an invalid state (Error)

A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Fast snapshot restore cannot be enabled for this snapshot.

Client.UserInitiated

The state successfully transitioned to enabling or disabling.

Client.UserInitiated - Lifecycle state transition

The state successfully transitioned to optimizing, enabled, or disabled.

Server.InsufficientCapacity - There was insufficient capacity available to satisfy the request

A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed due to insufficient capacity, and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Wait and then try again.

Server.InternalError - An internal error caused the operation to fail

A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed due to an internal error, and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Wait and then try again.

Client.InvalidSnapshot.InvalidState - The requested snapshot was deleted or access permissions were revoked

The fast snapshot restore state for the snapshot has transitioned to disabling or disabled because the snapshot was deleted or unshared by the snapshot owner. Fast snapshot restore cannot be enabled for a snapshot that has been deleted or is no longer shared with you.

Using AWS Lambda to handle CloudWatch events

You can use Amazon EBS and CloudWatch Events to automate your data-backup workflow. This requires you to create an IAM policy, a AWS Lambda function to handle the event, and an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule that matches incoming events and routes them to the Lambda function.

The following procedure uses the createSnapshot event to automatically copy a completed snapshot to another Region for disaster recovery.

To copy a completed snapshot to another Region

  1. Create an IAM policy, such as the one shown in the following example, to provide permissions to use the CopySnapshot action and write to the CloudWatch Events log. Assign the policy to the IAM user that will handle the CloudWatch event. 

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:CreateLogStream",
        "logs:PutLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:CopySnapshot"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

  2. Define a function in Lambda that will be available from the CloudWatch console. The sample Lambda function below, written in Node.js, is invoked by CloudWatch when a matching createSnapshot event is emitted by Amazon EBS (signifying that a snapshot was completed). When invoked, the function copies the snapshot from us-east-2 to us-east-1. 

    // Sample Lambda function to copy an EBS snapshot to a different Region
 
var AWS = require('aws-sdk');
var ec2 = new AWS.EC2();
 
// define variables
var destinationRegion = 'us-east-1';
var sourceRegion = 'us-east-2';
console.log ('Loading function');
 
//main function
exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
 
    // Get the EBS snapshot ID from the CloudWatch event details
    var snapshotArn = event.detail.snapshot_id.split('/');
    const snapshotId = snapshotArn[1];
    const description = `Snapshot copy from ${snapshotId} in ${sourceRegion}.`;
    console.log ("snapshotId:", snapshotId);

    // Load EC2 class and update the configuration to use destination Region to initiate the snapshot.
    AWS.config.update({region: destinationRegion});
    var ec2 = new AWS.EC2();

    // Prepare variables for ec2.modifySnapshotAttribute call
    const copySnapshotParams = {
        Description: description,
        DestinationRegion: destinationRegion,
        SourceRegion: sourceRegion,
        SourceSnapshotId: snapshotId
    };
 
    // Execute the copy snapshot and log any errors
    ec2.copySnapshot(copySnapshotParams, (err, data) => {
        if (err) {
            const errorMessage = `Error copying snapshot ${snapshotId} to Region ${destinationRegion}.`;
            console.log(errorMessage);
            console.log(err);
            callback(errorMessage);
        } else {
            const successMessage = `Successfully started copy of snapshot ${snapshotId} to Region ${destinationRegion}.`;
            console.log(successMessage);
            console.log(data);
            callback(null, successMessage);
        }
    });
};

    To ensure that your Lambda function is available from the CloudWatch console, create it in the Region where the CloudWatch event will occur. For more information, see the AWS Lambda Developer Guide.

  3. Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.

  4. Choose Events, Create rule, Select event source, and Amazon EBS Snapshots.

  5. For Specific Event(s), choose createSnapshot and for Specific Result(s), choose succeeded.

  6. For Rule target, find and choose the sample function that you previously created.

  7. Choose Target, Add Target.

  8. For Lambda function, select the Lambda function that you previously created and choose Configure details.

  9. On the Configure rule details page, type values for Name and Description. Select the State check box to activate the function (setting it to Enabled).

  10. Choose Create rule.

Your rule should now appear on the Rules tab. In the example shown, the event that you configured should be emitted by EBS the next time you copy a snapshot.