What Is DynamoDB Monitoring?

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability. DynamoDB monitoring refers to the process of monitoring the performance and usage of a DynamoDB database. This includes tracking metrics such as read and write throughput, response time, and error rates, as well as monitoring the usage of resources such as storage space and data transfer.

Monitoring can be done through Amazon CloudWatch, the AWS Management Console, and third-party monitoring tools. The goal of DynamoDB monitoring is to ensure the database is running efficiently and effectively, and to identify and resolve any issues that may arise.

This is part of a series of articles about serverless debugging

Monitoring DynamoDB with Amazon CloudWatch

Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring service provided by Amazon that allows you to monitor various metrics for various AWS resources, including DynamoDB. CloudWatch provides the following monitoring features for DynamoDB:

Metric monitoring: You can monitor various metrics for DynamoDB, such as read and write throughput, response time, error rates, and storage space usage.
Alarm monitoring: You can set up alarms to notify you when certain thresholds are exceeded for DynamoDB metrics, such as when read or write throughput exceeds a certain level or when error rates are above a certain threshold.
Dashboard monitoring: You can create custom dashboards in CloudWatch to view the metrics and alarms for DynamoDB in a single location.
Log monitoring: You can use CloudWatch to monitor log files generated by DynamoDB. This can be useful for troubleshooting issues with the database or identifying trends in usage patterns.
Event monitoring: You can use CloudWatch to monitor events related to DynamoDB, such as when a table is created or deleted.

Creating CloudWatch Alarms to Monitor DynamoDB

To create CloudWatch alarms to monitor capacity in DynamoDB:

Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudWatch console.
In the left navigation pane, under Alarms, choose Create alarm.
On the Create Alarm page, choose Select Metric.
In the Select Metric window, select DynamoDB from the All Metrics tab.
From the list of metrics, select ConsumedReadCapacityUnits or ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits.
Choose the table that you want to monitor and specify the period for the alarm to watch over the metric data.
On the Threshold page, set the threshold for the alarm. For example, you could set the threshold at 80% of your provisioned capacity to receive a notification before you reach your full capacity.
On the Actions page, choose New list for the Alarm actions field.
Enter a name for the list and choose Create.
Select the new list from the Alarm actions dropdown menu.
On the Configure actions page, choose Add action, and then select the type of action you want to take when the alarm is triggered. You can choose to receive a notification by email or SMS, or you can choose to execute an AWS Lambda function.
On the Additional options page, enter a name and description for the alarm, and then choose Create Alarm.

To create an alarm for system errors in DynamoDB, follow the same steps as above, but select the ThrottledRequests metric and set the threshold at a value of 1 or more. This will trigger the alarm whenever there is a system error in DynamoDB.

How to Use CloudWatch Metrics with DynamoDB

UserErrors

The UserErrors metric in CloudWatch measures the number of user errors that occurred when interacting with a DynamoDB table. A user error is an error that occurs due to a mistake made by the user, such as attempting to read an item that does not exist in the table. Monitoring this metric can be useful for identifying and troubleshooting issues with user interactions with the DynamoDB table.

SystemErrors

The SystemErrors metric in CloudWatch measures the number of system errors that occurred when interacting with a DynamoDB table. A system error is an error that is not caused by a mistake made by the user, but rather by an issue with the DynamoDB service itself. Monitoring this metric can be useful for identifying and troubleshooting issues with the DynamoDB service.

ConsumedReadCapacityUnits and ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits

The ConsumedReadCapacityUnits metric in CloudWatch measures the number of read capacity units that have been consumed when interacting with a DynamoDB table. Read capacity units are a measure of the number of reads per second that a DynamoDB table can handle.

The ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits metric in CloudWatch measures the number of write capacity units that have been consumed when interacting with a DynamoDB table. Write capacity units are a measure of the number of writes per second that a DynamoDB table can handle.

Monitoring these metrics can be useful for understanding the performance and usage of a DynamoDB table and for identifying potential issues with read and write capacity.

ThrottledRequests

The ThrottledRequests metric in CloudWatch measures the number of requests to a DynamoDB table that were throttled due to exceeding the table’s capacity limits. When a request is throttled, it is not processed and an error is returned to the user.

Monitoring this metric can be useful for identifying when capacity limits are being reached and for determining whether additional capacity is needed to meet demand. It can also be useful for identifying potential issues with the DynamoDB service itself.

Monitoring AWS Services with Dash0

Dash0 is an OpenTelemetry-native observability platform. Its AWS integration connects through a cross-account IAM role that CloudFormation deploys, so Dash0 does not store AWS credentials. Once connected, Dash0:

Scrapes CloudWatch metrics from the namespaces you choose, without a CloudWatch Metric Stream or Amazon Data Firehose.
Reads AWS resource tags, so you can limit scraping to tagged resources and filter telemetry by tags such as team or environment.
Discovers resources across the AWS regions you select.

CloudWatch metrics land in the same platform as the traces, logs, and metrics from your applications.

Start a free trial of Dash0, or read how to set up the AWS integration.