CloudWatch template variables

Instead of hard-coding details such as server, application, and sensor names in metric queries, you can use variables. Grafana lists these variables in dropdown select boxes at the top of the dashboard to help you change the data displayed in your dashboard. Grafana refers to such variables as template variables.

For an introduction to templating and template variables, refer to the Templating and Add and manage variables documentation.

Use query variables

You can specify these CloudWatch data source queries in the Variable edit view’s Query Type field. Use them to fill a variable’s options list with values like regions, namespaces, metric names, and dimension keys/values.

Name	List returned
Regions	All AWS regions.
Namespaces	All namespaces CloudWatch supports.
Metrics	Metrics in the namespace. (Specify region or use “default” for custom metrics.)
Dimension Keys	Dimension keys in the namespace.
Dimension Values	Dimension values matching the specified `region`, `namespace`, `metric`, and `dimension_key`. Use dimension `filters` for more specific results.
EBS Volume IDs	Volume ids matching the specified `region` and `instance_id`.
EC2 Instance Attributes	Attributes matching the specified `region`, `attribute_name`, and `filters`.
Resource ARNs	ARNs matching the specified `region`, `resource_type`, and `tags`.
Statistics	All standard statistics.
LogGroups	All log groups matching the specified `region`.

For details on the available dimensions, refer to the CloudWatch Metrics and Dimensions Reference.

For details about the metrics CloudWatch provides, refer to the CloudWatch documentation.

Use variables in queries

Use Grafana’s variable syntax to include variables in queries. For details, refer to the variable syntax documentation.

Use ec2_instance_attribute

Filters

The ec2_instance_attribute query takes filters as a filter name and a comma-separated list of values. You can specify pre-defined filters of ec2:DescribeInstances.

Select attributes

A query returns only one attribute per instance. You can select any attribute that has a single value and isn’t an object or array, also known as a flat attribute: