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What steps should I take to monitor logs and metrics for Global Accelerator


To effectively monitor logs and metrics for AWS Global Accelerator, you should use a combination of Amazon CloudWatch, Global Accelerator flow logs, and AWS CloudTrail. Here are the detailed steps and considerations:

1. Use Amazon CloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

- As soon as you deploy your Global Accelerator, CloudWatch automatically starts collecting real-time metrics related to your accelerator’s traffic and endpoints.
- These metrics help you verify that traffic is flowing correctly through the accelerator to your endpoints and back to clients.
- You can monitor metrics such as healthy endpoint counts, client connections, and traffic volume.
- Set up CloudWatch alarms on key metrics to get notified or trigger automated responses when thresholds are breached, helping you quickly detect and respond to production issues.
- Note that CloudWatch metrics and logs for Global Accelerator are available only in the US West (Oregon) Region (us-west-2), so ensure you specify this region when using the AWS CLI or console[1][2][5].

2. Enable and Configure Global Accelerator Flow Logs

- Flow logs provide detailed records of the traffic flowing through your accelerator to endpoints and back to clients.
- These logs are especially useful for troubleshooting reachability issues, analyzing traffic patterns, and conducting security or access audits.
- You need to explicitly enable flow logs and configure them to be stored in an Amazon S3 bucket.
- Once enabled, you can analyze flow logs using tools like Amazon Athena and Amazon QuickSight to visualize traffic distribution, identify top client IPs, and gain insights into usage patterns[1][2][5][7].

3. Use AWS CloudTrail for API Call Logging

- CloudTrail automatically records all API calls made to Global Accelerator, including calls from the AWS Management Console, SDKs, and CLI.
- This audit trail is valuable for security audits and compliance, as it shows who performed what actions and when.
- Review CloudTrail logs to track configuration changes or suspicious activity related to your Global Accelerator resources[1][2][5].

Additional Monitoring Best Practices

- Collect monitoring data from all parts of your AWS solution to facilitate troubleshooting of multi-point failures.
- Combine CloudWatch metrics, flow logs, and CloudTrail logs to get a comprehensive view of your Global Accelerator’s health and activity.
- Consider integrating these logs and metrics into centralized dashboards or monitoring tools for easier visualization and alerting[2][6].

By following these steps-leveraging CloudWatch for real-time metrics and alarms, enabling flow logs for detailed traffic records, and using CloudTrail for API activity tracking-you can maintain robust monitoring and quickly respond to issues in your AWS Global Accelerator deployment.

Citations:
[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-accelerator/latest/dg/monitoring-global-accelerator.html
[2] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-accelerator/latest/dg/logging-and-monitoring.html
[3] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/networking-and-content-delivery/best-practices-for-deployment-with-aws-global-accelerator/
[4] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/networking-and-content-delivery/measuring-aws-global-accelerator-performance-and-analyzing-results/
[5] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/en_us/global-accelerator/latest/dg/logging-and-monitoring.html
[6] https://docs.lightstep.com/integrations/aws-globalaccelerator
[7] https://repost.aws/questions/QUF2Ov11ZzQJykpweMAcZJ-Q/metrics-on-health-checks-data-throughput-etc
[8] https://repost.aws/questions/QUuNiUCKYUSkKScntMG8MMeA/timeout-aws-global-accelerator