Configuring an AWS CloudWatch data source

This section assumes that you have an AWS account with administrative privileges. You’ll also need to be logged into the AWS Management Console so that you can work through these steps. The basic process is straightforward:

1. Create a policy to grant access to CloudWatch.
2. Create a user and attach the policy to the user.
3. Capture the user credentials.
4. Configure an AWS data source with the user credentials.

Now, let’s look at each of these steps in more detail.

Creating the policy

The first step toward creating a policy to grant our data source access to CloudWatch is using AWS and its Identity and Access Management (IAM) service. To get to the service, simply type iam into the search box on the Management Console page:

Figure 17.1 – AWS IAM service

We will be creating a policy that allows Grafana to use the AWS CloudWatch API to get metrics data. Grafana has helpfully supplied a basic...