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AWS Documentation » Amazon CloudWatch » User Guide » Collect Metrics and Logs from Amazon EC2 Instances and On-Premises Servers with the CloudWatch Agent » Collect Process Metrics with the procstat Plugin

Collect Process Metrics with the procstat Plugin

The procstat plugin enables you to collect metrics from individual processes. It is supported on Linux servers, and servers running Windows Server 2008 or later.

Configuring the CloudWatch Agent for procstat

To use the procstat plugin, add a procstat section in the metrics_collected section of the CloudWatch agent configuration file. There are three ways to specify the processes to monitor. You can use only one of these methods, but you can use that method to specify one or more processes to monitor.

  • pid_file: Selects processes by the names of the process identification number (PID) files they create.

  • exe: Selects the processes that have process names that match the string that you specify, using regular expression matching rules. For more information, see Syntax.

  • pattern: Selects processes by the command lines used to start the processes. All processes are selected that have command lines matching the specified string using regular expression matching rules. The entire command line is checked, including parameters and options used with the command.

The CloudWatch agent uses only one of these methods, even if you include more than one of the above sections. If you specify more than one section, the CloudWatch agent uses the pid_file section if it is present. If not, it uses the exe section.

On Linux servers, the strings that you specify in an exe or pattern section are evaluated as regular expressions. On servers running Windows Server, these strings are evaluated as WMI queries. For more information, see LIKE Operator.

Whichever method you use, you can include an optional metrics_collection_interval parameter, which specifies how often in seconds to collect those metrics. If you omit this, the default of 60 seconds is used.

In the examples in the following sections, the procstat section is the only section included in the metrics_collected section of the agent configuration file. Actual configuration files can also include other sections in metrics_collected. For more information, see Manually Create or Edit the CloudWatch Agent Configuration File.

Configuring with pid_file

The following example procstat section monitors the processes that create the PID files example1.pid and example2.pid. Different metrics are collected from each process. Metrics collected from the process that creates example2.pid are collected every 10 seconds, while the metrics collected from the example1.pid process are collected every 60 seconds, the default. 

{
    "metrics": {
        "metrics_collected": {
            "procstat": [
                {
                    "pid_file": "/var/run/example1.pid",
                    "measurement": [
                        "cpu_usage",
                        "memory_rss"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "pid_file": "/var/run/example2.pid",
                    "measurement": [
                        "read_bytes",
                        "read_count",
                        "write_bytes"
                    ],
                    "metrics_collection_interval": 10
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Configuring with exe

The following example procstat section monitors all processes with names that match the strings agent or plugin. The same metrics are collected from each process. 

{
    "metrics": {
        "metrics_collected": {
            "procstat": [
                {
                    "exe": "agent",
                    "measurement": [
                        "cpu_time",
                        "cpu_time_system",
                        "cpu_time_user"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "exe": "plugin",
                    "measurement": [
                        "cpu_time",
                        "cpu_time_system",
                        "cpu_time_user"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Configuring with pattern

The following example procstat section monitors all processes with command lines that match the strings config or -c. The same metrics are collected from each process. 

{
    "metrics": {
        "metrics_collected": {
            "procstat": [
                {
                    "exe": "config",
                    "measurement": [
                        "rlimit_memory_data_hard",
                        "rlimit_memory_data_soft",
                        "rlimit_memory_stack_hard",
                        "rlimit_memory_stack_soft"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "exe": "-c",
                    "measurement": [
                        "rlimit_memory_data_hard",
                        "rlimit_memory_data_soft",
                        "rlimit_memory_stack_hard",
                        "rlimit_memory_stack_soft"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Metrics Collected by procstat

The following table lists the metrics that you can collect with the procstat plugin.

The CloudWatch agent adds procstat to the beginning of the following metric names. There is a different syntax depending on whether it was collected from a Linux server or a server running Windows Server. For example, the cpu_time metric appears as procstat_cpu_time when collected from Linux, and as procstat cpu_time when collected from Windows Server.

Metric Name Available On Description

cpu_time

Linux

The amount of time that the process uses the CPU. This metric is measured in hundredths of a second.

Unit: Count

cpu_time_system

Linux, Windows Server

The amount of time that the process is in system mode. This metric is measured in hundredths of a second.

Type: Float

Unit: Count

cpu_time_user

Linux, Windows Server

The amount of time that the process is in user mode. This metric is measured in hundredths of a second.

Unit: Count

cpu_usage

Linux, Windows Server

The percentage of time that the process is active in any capacity.

Unit: Percent

memory_data

Linux

The amount of memory the process uses for data.

Unit: Bytes

memory_locked

Linux

The amount of memory the process has locked.

Unit: Bytes

memory_rss

Linux, Windows Server

The amount of real memory (resident set) that the process is using.

Unit: Bytes

memory_stack

Linux

The amount of stack memory the process is using.

Unit: Bytes

memory_swap

Linux

The amount of swap memory the process is using.

Unit: Bytes

memory_vms

Linux, Windows Server

The amount of virtual memory the process is using.

Unit: Bytes

read_bytes

Linux, Windows Server

The number of bytes the process has read from disks.

Unit: Bytes

write_bytes

Linux, Windows Server

The number of bytes the process has written to disks.

Unit: Bytes

read_count

Linux, Windows Server

The number of disk read operations executed by the process.

Unit: Count

write_count

Linux, Windows Server

The number of disk write operations that the process has executed.

Unit: Count

involuntary_context_switches

Linux

The number of times the process was involuntarily context-switched.

Unit: Count

voluntary_context_switches

Linux

The number of times the process was context-switched voluntarily.

Unit: Count

realtime_priority

Linux

The current usage of realtime priority for the process.

Unit: Count

nice_priority

Linux

The current usage of nice priority for the process.

Unit: Count

signals_pending

Linux

The number of signals pending to be handled by the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_cpu_time_hard

Linux

The hard CPU time resource limit for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_cpu_time_soft

Linux

The soft CPU time resource limit for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_file_locks_hard

Linux

The hard file locks resource limit for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_file_locks_soft

Linux

The soft file locks resource limit for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_memory_data_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the process for memory used for data.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_data_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the process for memory used for data.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_locked_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the process for locked memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_locked_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the process for locked memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_rss_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the process for physical memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_rss_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the process for physical memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_stack_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the process stack.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_stack_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the process stack.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_vms_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the process for virtual memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_memory_vms_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the process for virtual memory.

Unit: Bytes

rlimit_nice_priority_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the ceiling for the process's nice priority value.

Unit: Count

rlimit_nice_priority_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the ceiling for the process's nice priority value.

Unit: Count

rlimit_num_fds_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the file descriptors for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_num_fds_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the file descriptors for the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_realtime_priority_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the ceiling for the process's real-time priority value.

Unit: Count

rlimit_realtime_priority_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the ceiling for the process's real-time priority value.

Unit: Count

rlimit_signals_pending_hard

Linux

The hard resource limit on the number of signals that are pending for delivery to the process.

Unit: Count

rlimit_signals_pending_soft

Linux

The soft resource limit on the number of signals that are pending for delivery to the process.

Unit: Count

num_fds

Linux

The number of file descriptors the process is using.

Unit: Count

num_threads

Linux, Windows Server

The number of threads in the process.

Unit: Count

pid

Linux, Windows Server

Process identifier (ID).

Unit: Count

pid_count

Linux, Windows Server

The number of process IDs associated with the process.

On Linux servers this metric is named procstat_lookup_pid_count and on Windows Server it is procstat_lookup pid_count.

Unit: Count