Configure an open data stream to send metric data to AWS Cloudwatch

In the following steps, you will configure the host, port, and authentication method for an HTTP open data stream target.

1. Log in to the ExtraHop system that you want to send data from with an account that has system and access administration privileges.
2. Click the System Settings icon, and then click All Administration.
3. From the System Configuration section, click Open Data Streams.
4. Click Add Target.
5. Select HTTP from the Target Type drop-down list.
6. In the Name field, type CloudWatch.
7. In the Host field, type the IP address or hostname of the Amazon web server you want to send data to.
8. In the Port field, type 443 for the port number you want to send data through.
9. In the Type field, select HTTPS as the transfer protocol you want to send data through.
10. In the Authentication field, select Amazon AWS.
11. In the Access Key ID field, type the access key for your AWS account.
12. In the Secret Key field, type the secret key for your AWS account.
13. In the Service field, type the entry point for the CloudWatch service, such as monitoring.
14. In the Region field, type the region for the CloudWatch service, such as us-west-2.
15. In the Method field, select POST as the REST method the trigger will call when sending data.
16. Click Save.

The target is added to the HTTP table on the Open Data Stream page, similar to the following figure:

In the following steps, you will write an HTTP REST request to test the transmission of data from the ExtraHop system to the AWS account.

1. In the HTTP table, click Edit to open the CloudWatch target.
2. In the Options field, copy and paste the following HTTP REST request code to send a metric called "Test" with a value of 4 bytes to the CloudWatch service:

   {
       "path": "/",
           "payload": "Action=PutMetricData&Version=2010-08-01&Namespace=test&MetricData.member.1.MetricName=Test&MetricData.member.1.Unit=Bytes&MetricData.member.1.Value=4",
               "headers": {
                   "Content-Type": [
                       "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
                   ]
               }
   }

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   Tip:	To learn more about the syntax for the HTTP REST request, see the Remote.HTTP section of the ExtraHop Trigger API Reference.

3. Click Save.
4. In the HTTP table, hover over the status of the target to display connection activity.
   If the test is successful, the window displays the number of messages and bytes sent and received and the number of connection attempts, similar to the following figure:

   

In the following steps, you will write a trigger that specifies which metrics to send to the CloudWatch service and contains the command to send metric data through the open data stream.

1. Click the ExtraHop logo in the upper left corner to return to the ExtraHop system.
2. Click the System Settings icon , and then click Triggers.
3. Click Create.
4. In the Name field, type Metrics to CloudWatch.
5. Click Enable debug log.
6. In the Events field, select HTTP_RESPONSE.
7. In the right pane, add the following trigger code to the editor to specify "ExtraHop" as a custom namespace for the metric data that will be displayed by the CloudWatch service:

   let namespace = 'ExtraHop';

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   Note:

   The namespace value cannot be "AWS".

8. Add the following trigger code to the existing script to specify the name of the ODS target that you configured earlier:

   let target = 'CloudWatch';

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9. Add the following trigger code to the existing script to specify which metrics to will be transmitted to the CloudWatch service:

   let metrics = [
       {
           'MetricName': 'processingTime',
           'Unit': 'Milliseconds',
           'Value' : HTTP.processingTime
       },
       {
           'MetricName': 'rspSize',
           'Unit': 'Bytes',
           'Value' : HTTP.rspSize
       }
   ];

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10. Add the following trigger code to the existing script to specify the structure of the payload, which is defined by the PutMetricData method in the Amazon CloudWatch API:

    let payload = 'Action=PutMetricData&Version=2010-08-01&Namespace=' + namespace;
    
    let i,
        count = 0;
    
    for (i = 0; i < metrics.length; i++) {
        let idx = i + 1,
            metric = metrics[i],
            val = metric.Value,
            attr;
    
        // If the metric value is NaN, do not publish.
        if (Number.isNaN(val)) {
            continue;
        }
    
        for (attr in metric) {
            payload += '&MetricData.member.' + idx + '.' +
                encodeURIComponent(attr) + '=' +
                encodeURIComponent(metric[attr]);
        }
        count++;
    }
    
    if (count == 0) {
        // No metrics to publish.
        return;
    }
    

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11. Add the following trigger code to the existing script to define the HTTP REST request that specifies the request path, headers, and payload:

    let req = {
        'path': '/',
        'headers': {
            'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
        },
        'payload': payload
    };

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    This code is similar to the test request you performed in the previous procedure.

12. Add the following trigger code to the existing script to specify the ODS target and initiate the request to transmit metric data to that target:

    Remote.HTTP(target).post(req);

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13. Click Save.

Before the trigger can send metric data to the CloudWatch service, you must assign the trigger to at least one device. For this walkthrough, you will assign the trigger to a single HTTP server in a device group.

1. Click Assets from the top menu.
2. From the left pane, click Devices.
3. From the table, select the checkbox for a single device that you know has web traffic.
4. From the icon menu at the top of the page, click the Assign Trigger icon.
5. Click the checkbox next to the Metrics to CloudWatch trigger, and then click Assign Triggers.

After the trigger has run, verify that data has been received by the ODS target, and then disable the trigger.

1. Let the trigger run for 10-15 minutes.
2. Click the System Settings icon , and then click All Administration.
3. From the System Configuration section, click Open Data Streams.
4. In the HTTP table, hover over the status of the CloudWatch target to display activity over the connection.
   If the trigger is successful, the window displays the number of messages and bytes sent and received, and the number of connection attempts.
5. Close the Administration settings window.
6. Click the System Settings icon , and then click Triggers.
7. In the Triggers table, click Metrics to CloudWatch.
8. Click Disable trigger.
9. Click Save and Close.

After you have verified that metric data was sent to the ODS target, you can view the data with the CloudWatch service. In the following steps, you will find the metrics in CloudWatch and view the metric data on a graph.

1. Go to the Amazon Web Services site.
2. Click Sign In to the Console and enter your AWS login credentials.
3. From the list of AWS services, click CloudWatch.
4. From the left-hand menu, click Assets.
   The All metrics tab displays the "ExtraHop" namespace created by the trigger and the "test" namespace created by the test request.
5. Click ExtraHop, and then click Metrics with no dimensions.
   The tab displays the two metrics specified in the trigger, "processingTime" and "rspSize".
6. Select the checkbox next to each metric to display metric data on the graph, similar to the following figure: