Use GetMetricData with an AWS SDK or CLI

The following code examples show how to use GetMetricData.

Action examples are code excerpts from larger programs and must be run in context. You can see this action in context in the following code example:

• Learn the basics

.NET

AWS SDK for .NET

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

    /// <summary>
    /// Get data for CloudWatch metrics.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="minutesOfData">The number of minutes of data to include.</param>
    /// <param name="useDescendingTime">True to return the data descending by time.</param>
    /// <param name="endDateUtc">The end date for the data, in UTC.</param>
    /// <param name="maxDataPoints">The maximum data points to include.</param>
    /// <param name="dataQueries">Optional data queries to include.</param>
    /// <returns>A list of the requested metric data.</returns>
    public async Task<List<MetricDataResult>> GetMetricData(int minutesOfData, bool useDescendingTime, DateTime? endDateUtc = null,
        int maxDataPoints = 0, List<MetricDataQuery>? dataQueries = null)
    {
        var metricData = new List<MetricDataResult>();
        // If no end time is provided, use the current time for the end time.
        endDateUtc ??= DateTime.UtcNow;
        var timeZoneOffset = TimeZoneInfo.Local.GetUtcOffset(endDateUtc.Value.ToLocalTime());
        var startTimeUtc = endDateUtc.Value.AddMinutes(-minutesOfData);
        // The timezone string should be in the format +0000, so use the timezone offset to format it correctly.
        var timeZoneString = $"{timeZoneOffset.Hours:D2}{timeZoneOffset.Minutes:D2}";
        var paginatedMetricData = _amazonCloudWatch.Paginators.GetMetricData(
            new GetMetricDataRequest()
            {
                StartTimeUtc = startTimeUtc,
                EndTimeUtc = endDateUtc.Value,
                LabelOptions = new LabelOptions { Timezone = timeZoneString },
                ScanBy = useDescendingTime ? ScanBy.TimestampDescending : ScanBy.TimestampAscending,
                MaxDatapoints = maxDataPoints,
                MetricDataQueries = dataQueries,
            });

        await foreach (var data in paginatedMetricData.MetricDataResults)
        {
            metricData.Add(data);
        }
        return metricData;
    }

• For API details, see GetMetricData in AWS SDK for .NET API Reference.

CLI

AWS CLI

Example 1: To get the Average Total IOPS for the specified EC2 using math expression

The following get-metric-data example retrieves CloudWatch metric values for the EC2 instance with InstanceID i-abcdef using metric math exprssion that combines EBSReadOps and EBSWriteOps metrics.

aws cloudwatch get-metric-data \
    --metric-data-queries file://file.json \
    --start-time 2024-09-29T22:10:00Z \
    --end-time 2024-09-29T22:15:00Z

Contents of file.json:

[
    {
        "Id": "m3",
        "Expression": "(m1+m2)/300",
        "Label": "Avg Total IOPS"
    },
    {
        "Id": "m1",
        "MetricStat": {
            "Metric": {
                "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
                "MetricName": "EBSReadOps",
                "Dimensions": [
                    {
                        "Name": "InstanceId",
                        "Value": "i-abcdef"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "Period": 300,
            "Stat": "Sum",
            "Unit": "Count"
        },
        "ReturnData": false
    },
    {
        "Id": "m2",
        "MetricStat": {
            "Metric": {
                "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
                "MetricName": "EBSWriteOps",
                "Dimensions": [
                    {
                        "Name": "InstanceId",
                        "Value": "i-abcdef"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "Period": 300,
            "Stat": "Sum",
            "Unit": "Count"
        },
        "ReturnData": false
    }
]

Output:

{
    "MetricDataResults": [
        {
            "Id": "m3",
            "Label": "Avg Total IOPS",
            "Timestamps": [
                "2024-09-29T22:10:00+00:00"
            ],
            "Values": [
                96.85
            ],
            "StatusCode": "Complete"
        }
    ],
    "Messages": []
}

Example 2: To monitor the estimated AWS charges using CloudWatch billing metrics

The following get-metric-data example retrieves EstimatedCharges CloudWatch metric from AWS/Billing namespace.

aws cloudwatch get-metric-data \
    --metric-data-queries '[{"Id":"m1","MetricStat":{"Metric":{"Namespace":"AWS/Billing","MetricName":"EstimatedCharges","Dimensions":[{"Name":"Currency","Value":"USD"}]},"Period":21600,"Stat":"Maximum"}}]' \
    --start-time 2024-09-26T12:00:00Z \
    --end-time 2024-09-26T18:00:00Z \
    --region us-east-1

Output:

{
    "MetricDataResults": [
        {
            "Id": "m1",
            "Label": "EstimatedCharges",
            "Timestamps": [
                "2024-09-26T12:00:00+00:00"
            ],
            "Values": [
                542.38
            ],
            "StatusCode": "Complete"
        }
    ],
    "Messages": []
}

For more information, see Using math expressions with CloudWatch metrics in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

• For API details, see GetMetricData in AWS CLI Command Reference.

Java

SDK for Java 2.x

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

    /**
     * Retrieves custom metric data from the AWS CloudWatch service.
     *
     * @param fileName the name of the file containing the custom metric information
     * @return a {@link CompletableFuture} that completes when the metric data has been retrieved
     */
    public CompletableFuture<Void> getCustomMetricDataAsync(String fileName) {
        CompletableFuture<String> readFileFuture = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> {
            try {
                // Read values from the JSON file.
                JsonParser parser = new JsonFactory().createParser(new File(fileName));
                com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode rootNode = new ObjectMapper().readTree(parser);
                return rootNode.toString(); // Return JSON as a string for further processing
            } catch (IOException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException("Failed to read file", e);
            }
        });

        return readFileFuture.thenCompose(jsonContent -> {
            try {
                // Parse the JSON string to extract relevant values.
                com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode rootNode = new ObjectMapper().readTree(jsonContent);
                String customMetricNamespace = rootNode.findValue("customMetricNamespace").asText();
                String customMetricName = rootNode.findValue("customMetricName").asText();

                // Set the current time and date range for metric query.
                Instant nowDate = Instant.now();
                long hours = 1;
                long minutes = 30;
                Instant endTime = nowDate.plus(hours, ChronoUnit.HOURS).plus(minutes, ChronoUnit.MINUTES);

                Metric met = Metric.builder()
                    .metricName(customMetricName)
                    .namespace(customMetricNamespace)
                    .build();

                MetricStat metStat = MetricStat.builder()
                    .stat("Maximum")
                    .period(60)  // Assuming period in seconds
                    .metric(met)
                    .build();

                MetricDataQuery dataQuery = MetricDataQuery.builder()
                    .metricStat(metStat)
                    .id("foo2")
                    .returnData(true)
                    .build();

                List<MetricDataQuery> dq = new ArrayList<>();
                dq.add(dataQuery);

                GetMetricDataRequest getMetricDataRequest = GetMetricDataRequest.builder()
                    .maxDatapoints(10)
                    .scanBy(ScanBy.TIMESTAMP_DESCENDING)
                    .startTime(nowDate)
                    .endTime(endTime)
                    .metricDataQueries(dq)
                    .build();

                // Call the async method for CloudWatch data retrieval.
                return getAsyncClient().getMetricData(getMetricDataRequest);

            } catch (IOException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException("Failed to parse JSON content", e);
            }
        }).thenAccept(response -> {
            List<MetricDataResult> data = response.metricDataResults();
            for (MetricDataResult item : data) {
                logger.info("The label is: {}", item.label());
                logger.info("The status code is: {}", item.statusCode().toString());
            }
        }).exceptionally(exception -> {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to get metric data", exception);
        });
    }

• For API details, see GetMetricData in AWS SDK for Java 2.x API Reference.

Kotlin

SDK for Kotlin

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

suspend fun getCustomMetricData(fileName: String) {
    // Read values from the JSON file.
    val parser = JsonFactory().createParser(File(fileName))
    val rootNode = ObjectMapper().readTree<JsonNode>(parser)
    val customMetricNamespace = rootNode.findValue("customMetricNamespace").asText()
    val customMetricName = rootNode.findValue("customMetricName").asText()

    // Set the date.
    val nowDate = Instant.now()
    val hours: Long = 1
    val minutes: Long = 30
    val date2 =
        nowDate.plus(hours, ChronoUnit.HOURS).plus(
            minutes,
            ChronoUnit.MINUTES,
        )

    val met =
        Metric {
            metricName = customMetricName
            namespace = customMetricNamespace
        }

    val metStat =
        MetricStat {
            stat = "Maximum"
            period = 1
            metric = met
        }

    val dataQUery =
        MetricDataQuery {
            metricStat = metStat
            id = "foo2"
            returnData = true
        }

    val dq = ArrayList<MetricDataQuery>()
    dq.add(dataQUery)
    val getMetReq =
        GetMetricDataRequest {
            maxDatapoints = 10
            scanBy = ScanBy.TimestampDescending
            startTime =
                aws.smithy.kotlin.runtime.time
                    .Instant(nowDate)
            endTime =
                aws.smithy.kotlin.runtime.time
                    .Instant(date2)
            metricDataQueries = dq
        }

    CloudWatchClient { region = "us-east-1" }.use { cwClient ->
        val response = cwClient.getMetricData(getMetReq)
        response.metricDataResults?.forEach { item ->
            println("The label is ${item.label}")
            println("The status code is ${item.statusCode}")
        }
    }
}

• For API details, see GetMetricData in AWS SDK for Kotlin API reference.

For a complete list of AWS SDK developer guides and code examples, see Using CloudWatch with an AWS SDK. This topic also includes information about getting started and details about previous SDK versions.