DynamoDB Metrics and dimensions

When you interact with DynamoDB, it sends the following metrics and dimensions to CloudWatch. You can use the following procedures to view the metrics for DynamoDB.

To view metrics (console)

Metrics are grouped first by the service namespace, and then by the various dimension combinations within each namespace.

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

2. In the navigation pane, choose Metrics.

   Note

   You can also select Usage namespace to view DynamoDB usage metrics. For more information about usage metrics, see AWS usage metrics.

3. Select the DynamoDB namespace.

To view metrics (CLI)

• At a command prompt, use the following command:

  
                  aws cloudwatch list-metrics --namespace "AWS/DynamoDB"
              

Viewing metrics and dimensions

CloudWatch displays the following metrics for DynamoDB:

DynamoDB metrics

Note

Amazon CloudWatch aggregates these metrics at one-minute intervals:

• ConditionalCheckFailedRequests

• ConsumedReadCapacityUnits

• ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits

• ReadThrottleEvents

• ReturnedBytes

• ReturnedItemCount

• ReturnedRecordsCount

• SuccessfulRequestLatency

• SystemErrors

• TimeToLiveDeletedItemCount

• ThrottledRequests

• TransactionConflict

• UserErrors

• WriteThrottleEvents

For all other DynamoDB metrics, the aggregation granularity is five minutes.

Not all statistics, such as Average or Sum, are applicable for every metric. However, all of these values are available through the Amazon DynamoDB console, or by using the CloudWatch console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs for all metrics.

In the following list, each metric has a set of valid statistics that are applicable to that metric.

AccountMaxReads

The maximum number of read capacity units that can be used by an account. This limit does not apply to on-demand tables or global secondary indexes.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum number of read capacity units that can be used by an account.

AccountMaxTableLevelReads

The maximum number of read capacity units that can be used by a table or global secondary index of an account. For on-demand tables this limit caps the maximum read request units a table or a global secondary index can use.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum number of read capacity units that can be used by a table or global secondary index of the account.

AccountMaxTableLevelWrites

The maximum number of write capacity units that can be used by a table or global secondary index of an account. For on-demand tables this limit caps the maximum write request units a table or a global secondary index can use.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum number of write capacity units that can be used by a table or global secondary index of the account.

AccountMaxWrites

The maximum number of write capacity units that can be used by an account. This limit does not apply to on-demand tables or global secondary indexes.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum number of write capacity units that can be used by an account.

AccountProvisionedReadCapacityUtilization

The percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by an account.

Units: Percent

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the account.

• Minimum – The minimum percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the account.

• Average – The average percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the account. The metric is published for five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned read capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

AccountProvisionedWriteCapacityUtilization

The percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by an account.

Units: Percent

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the account.

• Minimum – The minimum percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the account.

• Average – The average percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the account. The metric is published for five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned write capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

AgeOfOldestUnreplicatedRecord

The elapsed time since a record yet to be replicated to the Kinesis data stream first appeared in the DynamoDB table.

Units: Milliseconds

Dimensions: TableName, DelegatedOperation

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum.

• Minimum.

• Average.

ConditionalCheckFailedRequests

The number of failed attempts to perform conditional writes. The PutItem, UpdateItem, and DeleteItem operations let you provide a logical condition that must evaluate to true before the operation can proceed. If this condition evaluates to false, ConditionalCheckFailedRequests is incremented by one. ConditionalCheckFailedRequests is also incremented by one for PartiQL Update and Delete statements where a logical condition is provided and that condition evaluates to false.

Note

A failed conditional write will result in an HTTP 400 error (Bad Request). These events are reflected in the ConditionalCheckFailedRequests metric, but not in the UserErrors metric.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

ConsumedChangeDataCaptureUnits

The number of consumed change data capture units.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, DelegatedOperation

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

ConsumedReadCapacityUnits

The number of read capacity units consumed over the specified time period, so you can track how much of your provisioned throughput is used. You can retrieve the total consumed read capacity for a table and all of its global secondary indexes, or for a particular global secondary index. For more information, see Read/Write Capacity Mode.

The TableName dimension returns the ConsumedReadCapacityUnits for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view ConsumedReadCapacityUnits for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Note

Use the Sum statistic to calculate the consumed throughput. For example, get the Sum value over a span of one minute, and divide it by the number of seconds in a minute (60) to calculate the average ConsumedReadCapacityUnits per second (recognizing that this average does not highlight any large but brief spikes in read activity that occurred during that minute). You can compare the calculated value to the provisioned throughput value that you provide DynamoDB.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The minimum number of read capacity units consumed by any individual request to the table or index.

• Maximum – The maximum number of read capacity units consumed by any individual request to the table or index.

• Average – The average per-request read capacity consumed.

  Note

  The Average value is influenced by periods of inactivity where the sample value will be zero.

• Sum – The total read capacity units consumed. This is the most useful statistic for the ConsumedReadCapacityUnits metric.

• SampleCount – The number of read requests to DynamoDB, even if no read capacity was consumed.

  Note

  The SampleCount value is influenced by periods of inactivity where the sample value will be zero.

ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits

The number of write capacity units consumed over the specified time period, so you can track how much of your provisioned throughput is used. You can retrieve the total consumed write capacity for a table and all of its global secondary indexes, or for a particular global secondary index. For more information, see Read/Write Capacity Mode.

The TableName dimension returns the ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Note

Use the Sum statistic to calculate the consumed throughput. For example, get the Sum value over a span of one minute, and divide it by the number of seconds in a minute (60) to calculate the average ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits per second (recognizing that this average does not highlight any large but brief spikes in write activity that occurred during that minute). You can compare the calculated value to the provisioned throughput value that you provide DynamoDB.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The minimum number of write capacity units consumed by any individual request to the table or index.

• Maximum – The maximum number of write capacity units consumed by any individual request to the table or index.

• Average – The average per-request write capacity consumed.

  Note

  The Average value is influenced by periods of inactivity where the sample value will be zero.

• Sum – The total write capacity units consumed. This is the most useful statistic for the ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits metric.

• SampleCount – The number of write requests to DynamoDB, even if no write capacity was consumed.

  Note

  The SampleCount value is influenced by periods of inactivity where the sample value will be zero.

FailedToReplicateRecordCount

The number of records that DynamoDB failed to replicate to your Kinesis data stream.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, DelegatedOperation

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

MaxProvisionedTableReadCapacityUtilization

The percentage of provisioned read capacity utilized by the highest provisioned read table or global secondary index of an account.

Units: Percent

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned read table or global secondary index of an account.

• Minimum – The minimum percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned read table or global secondary index of an account.

• Average – The average percentage of provisioned read capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned read table or global secondary index of the account. The metric is published for five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned read capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

MaxProvisionedTableWriteCapacityUtilization

The percentage of provisioned write capacity utilized by the highest provisioned write table or global secondary index of an account.

Units: Percent

Valid Statistics:

• Maximum – The maximum percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned write table or global secondary index of an account.

• Minimum – The minimum percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned write table or global secondary index of an account.

• Average – The average percentage of provisioned write capacity units utilized by the highest provisioned write table or global secondary index of the account. The metric is published for five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned write capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

OnlineIndexConsumedWriteCapacity

The number of write capacity units consumed when adding a new global secondary index to a table. If the write capacity of the index is too low, incoming write activity during the backfill phase might be throttled. This can increase the time it takes to create the index. You should monitor this statistic while the index is being built to determine whether the write capacity of the index is underprovisioned.

You can adjust the write capacity of the index using the UpdateTable operation, even while the index is still being built.

The ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits metric for the index does not include the write throughput consumed during index creation.

Note

This metric may not be emitted if the new global secondary index’s backfill phase completes quickly (less than a few minutes), which may occur if the base table has few or no items to backfill in the index.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

OnlineIndexPercentageProgress

The percentage of completion when a new global secondary index is being added to a table. DynamoDB must first allocate resources for the new index, and then backfill attributes from the table into the index. For large tables, this process might take a long time. You should monitor this statistic to view the relative progress as DynamoDB builds the index.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

OnlineIndexThrottleEvents

The number of write throttle events that occur when adding a new global secondary index to a table. These events indicate that the index creation will take longer to complete, because incoming write activity is exceeding the provisioned write throughput of the index.

You can adjust the write capacity of the index using the UpdateTable operation, even while the index is still being built.

The WriteThrottleEvents metric for the index does not include any throttle events that occur during index creation.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

PendingReplicationCount

Metric for Version 2017.11.29 (Legacy) (global tables only). The number of item updates that are written to one replica table, but that have not yet been written to another replica in the global table.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, ReceivingRegion

Valid Statistics:

• Average

• Sample Count

• Sum

ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits

The number of provisioned read capacity units for a table or a global secondary index. The TableName dimension returns the ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Units:Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The lowest setting for provisioned read capacity. If you use UpdateTable to increase read capacity, this metric shows the lowest value of provisioned ReadCapacityUnits during this time period.

• Maximum – The highest setting for provisioned read capacity. If you use UpdateTable to decrease read capacity, this metric shows the highest value of provisioned ReadCapacityUnits during this time period.

• Average – The average provisioned read capacity. The ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits metric is published at five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned read capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits

The number of provisioned write capacity units for a table or a global secondary index.

The TableName dimension returns the ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The lowest setting for provisioned write capacity. If you use UpdateTable to increase write capacity, this metric shows the lowest value of provisioned WriteCapacityUnits during this time period.

• Maximum – The highest setting for provisioned write capacity. If you use UpdateTable to decrease write capacity, this metric shows the highest value of provisioned WriteCapacityUnits during this time period.

• Average – The average provisioned write capacity. The ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits metric is published at five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned write capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

ReadThrottleEvents

Requests to DynamoDB that exceed the provisioned read capacity units for a table or a global secondary index.

A single request can result in multiple events. For example, a BatchGetItem that reads 10 items is processed as 10 GetItem events. For each event, ReadThrottleEvents is incremented by one if that event is throttled. The ThrottledRequests metric for the entire BatchGetItem is not incremented unless all 10 of the GetItem events are throttled.

The TableName dimension returns the ReadThrottleEvents for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view ReadThrottleEvents for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• SampleCount

• Sum

ReplicationLatency

(This metric is for DynamoDB global tables.) The elapsed time between an updated item appearing in the DynamoDB stream for one replica table, and that item appearing in another replica in the global table.

Units: Milliseconds

Dimensions: TableName, ReceivingRegion

Valid Statistics:

• Average

• Minimum

• Maximum

ReturnedBytes

The number of bytes returned by GetRecords operations (Amazon DynamoDB Streams) during the specified time period.

Units: Bytes

Dimensions: Operation, StreamLabel, TableName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

ReturnedItemCount

The number of items returned by Query, Scan or ExecuteStatement (select) operations during the specified time period.

The number of items returned is not necessarily the same as the number of items that were evaluated. For example, suppose that you requested a Scan on a table or an index that had 100 items, but specified a FilterExpression that narrowed the results so that only 15 items were returned. In this case, the response from Scan would contain a ScanCount of 100 and a Count of 15 returned items.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, Operation

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

ReturnedRecordsCount

The number of stream records returned by GetRecords operations (Amazon DynamoDB Streams) during the specified time period.

Units: Count

Dimensions: Operation, StreamLabel, TableName

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

• Sum

SuccessfulRequestLatency

The latency of successful requests to DynamoDB or Amazon DynamoDB Streams during the specified time period. SuccessfulRequestLatency can provide two different kinds of information:

• The elapsed time for successful requests (Minimum, Maximum, Sum, or Average).

• The number of successful requests (SampleCount).

SuccessfulRequestLatency reflects activity only within DynamoDB or Amazon DynamoDB Streams, and does not take into account network latency or client-side activity.

Units: Milliseconds

Dimensions: TableName, Operation

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

SystemErrors

The requests to DynamoDB or Amazon DynamoDB Streams that generate an HTTP 500 status code during the specified time period. An HTTP 500 usually indicates an internal service error.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, Operation

Valid Statistics:

• Sum

• SampleCount

TimeToLiveDeletedItemCount

The number of items deleted by Time to Live (TTL) during the specified time period. This metric helps you monitor the rate of TTL deletions on your table.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName

Valid Statistics:

• Sum

ThrottledPutRecordCount

The number of records that were throttled by your Kinesis data stream due to insufficient Kinesis Data Streams capacity.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, DelegatedOperation

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum

• Maximum

• Average

• SampleCount

ThrottledRequests

Requests to DynamoDB that exceed the provisioned throughput limits on a resource (such as a table or an index).

ThrottledRequests is incremented by one if any event within a request exceeds a provisioned throughput limit. For example, if you update an item in a table with global secondary indexes, there are multiple events—a write to the table, and a write to each index. If one or more of these events are throttled, then ThrottledRequests is incremented by one.

Note

In a batch request (BatchGetItem or BatchWriteItem), ThrottledRequests is incremented only if every request in the batch is throttled.

If any individual request within the batch is throttled, one of the following metrics is incremented:

• ReadThrottleEvents – For a throttled GetItem event within BatchGetItem.

• WriteThrottleEvents – For a throttled PutItem or DeleteItem event within BatchWriteItem.

To gain insight into which event is throttling a request, compare ThrottledRequests with the ReadThrottleEvents and WriteThrottleEvents for the table and its indexes.

Note

A throttled request will result in an HTTP 400 status code. All such events are reflected in the ThrottledRequests metric, but not in the UserErrors metric.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, Operation

Valid Statistics:

• Sum

• SampleCount

TransactionConflict

Rejected item-level requests due to transactional conflicts between concurrent requests on the same items. For more information, see Transaction Conflict Handling in DynamoDB.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName

Valid Statistics:

• Sum – The number of rejected item-level requests due to transaction conflicts.

  Note

  If multiple item-level requests within a call to TransactWriteItems or TransactGetItems were rejected, Sum is incremented by one for each item-level Put, Update, Delete, or Get request.

• SampleCount – The number of rejected requests due to transaction conflicts.

  Note

  If multiple item-level requests within a call to TransactWriteItems or TransactGetItems are rejected, SampleCount is only incremented by one.

• Min – The minimum number of rejected item-level requests within a call to TransactWriteItems, TransactGetItems, PutItem, UpdateItem, or DeleteItem.

• Max – The maximum number of rejected item-level requests within a call to TransactWriteItems, TransactGetItems, PutItem, UpdateItem, or DeleteItem.

• Average – The average number of rejected item-level requests within a call to TransactWriteItems, TransactGetItems, PutItem, UpdateItem, or DeleteItem.

UserErrors

Requests to DynamoDB or Amazon DynamoDB Streams that generate an HTTP 400 status code during the specified time period. An HTTP 400 usually indicates a client-side error, such as an invalid combination of parameters, an attempt to update a nonexistent table, or an incorrect request signature.

All such events are reflected in the UserErrors metric, except for the following:

• ProvisionedThroughputExceededException – See the ThrottledRequests metric in this section.

• ConditionalCheckFailedException – See the ConditionalCheckFailedRequests metric in this section.

UserErrors represents the aggregate of HTTP 400 errors for DynamoDB or Amazon DynamoDB Streams requests for the current AWS Region and the current AWS account.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Sum

• SampleCount

WriteThrottleEvents

Requests to DynamoDB that exceed the provisioned write capacity units for a table or a global secondary index.

A single request can result in multiple events. For example, a PutItem request on a table with three global secondary indexes would result in four events—the table write, and each of the three index writes. For each event, the WriteThrottleEvents metric is incremented by one if that event is throttled. For single PutItem requests, if any of the events are throttled, ThrottledRequests is also incremented by one. For BatchWriteItem, the ThrottledRequests metric for the entire BatchWriteItem is not incremented unless all of the individual PutItem or DeleteItem events are throttled.

The TableName dimension returns the WriteThrottleEvents for the table, but not for any global secondary indexes. To view WriteThrottleEvents for a global secondary index, you must specify both TableName and GlobalSecondaryIndexName.

Units: Count

Dimensions: TableName, GlobalSecondaryIndexName

Valid Statistics:

• Sum

• SampleCount

Usage metrics

Usage metrics in CloudWatch allow you to proactively manage usage by visualizing metrics in the CloudWatch console, creating custom dashboards, detecting changes in activity with CloudWatch anomaly detection, and configuring alarms that alert you when usage approaches a threshold.

DynamoDB also integrates these usage metrics with Service Quotas. You can use CloudWatch to manage your account's use of your service quotas. For more information, see Visualizing your service quotas and setting alarms

List of Available Usage Metrics

• AccountProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits
• AccountProvisionedReadCapacityUnits
• TableCount

AccountProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits

The sum of write capacity units provisioned for all tables and global secondary indexes of an account.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The lowest number of provisioned write capacity units during a time period.

• Maximum – The highest number of provisioned write capacity units during a time period.

• Average - The average number provisioned write capacity units account during a time period.

This metric is published at five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned write capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

AccountProvisionedReadCapacityUnits

The sum of read capacity units provisioned for all tables and global secondary indexes of an account.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The lowest number of provisioned read capacity units during a time period.

• Maximum – The highest number of provisioned read capacity units during a time period.

• Average - The average number provisioned read capacity units account during a time period.

This metric is published at five-minute intervals. Therefore, if you rapidly adjust the provisioned read capacity units, this statistic might not reflect the true average.

TableCount

The number of active tables of an account.

Units: Count

Valid Statistics:

• Minimum – The lowest number of tables during a time period.

• Maximum – The highest number of tables during a time period.

• Average - The average number tables during a time period.

Understanding metrics and dimensions for DynamoDB

The metrics for DynamoDB are qualified by the values for the account, table name, global secondary index name, or operation. You can use the CloudWatch console to retrieve DynamoDB data along any of the dimensions in the table below.

List of Available Dimensions

• DelegatedOperation
• GlobalSecondaryIndexName
• Operation
• OperationType
• Verb
• ReceivingRegion
• StreamLabel
• TableName

DelegatedOperation

This dimension limits the data to operations DynamoDB performs on your behalf. The following operations are captured:

• Change data capture for Kinesis Data Streams.

GlobalSecondaryIndexName

This dimension limits the data to a global secondary index on a table. If you specify GlobalSecondaryIndexName, you must also specify TableName.

Operation

This dimension limits the data to one of the following DynamoDB operations:

• PutItem

• DeleteItem

• UpdateItem

• GetItem

• BatchGetItem

• Scan

• Query

• BatchWriteItem

• TransactWriteItems

• TransactGetItems

• ExecuteTransaction

• BatchExecuteStatement

• ExecuteStatement

In addition, you can limit the data to the following Amazon DynamoDB Streams operation:

• GetRecords

OperationType

This dimension limits the data to one of the following operation types:

• Read

• Write

This dimension is emitted for ExecuteTransaction and BatchExecuteStatement requests.

Verb

This dimension limits the data to one of the following DynamoDB PartiQL verbs:

• Insert: PartiQLInsert

• Select: PartiQLSelect

• Update: PartiQLUpdate

• Delete: PartiQLDelete

This dimension is emitted for the ExecuteStatement operation.

ReceivingRegion

This dimension limits the data to a particular AWS region. It is used with metrics originating from replica tables within a DynamoDB global table.

StreamLabel

This dimension limits the data to a specific stream label. It is used with metrics originating from Amazon DynamoDB Streams GetRecords operations.

TableName

This dimension limits the data to a specific table. This value can be any table name in the current region and the current AWS account.