⚡ AWS Monitoring & Observability Project

Hands-on AWS monitoring, observability, and alerting infrastructure built with Terraform. Includes CloudWatch metrics, dashboards, alarms, GuardDuty alerts, and automated deployments.

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🚀 What I Built

This is a real-world observability setup I built from scratch, covering:

• EC2 Monitoring: CloudWatch metrics & CPU utilization alarms.
• Centralized Logging: CloudWatch Logs & Insights for troubleshooting.
• Security Alerts: GuardDuty findings integrated with SNS notifications.
• Terraform Automation: Reproducible infrastructure deployments via IaC.

I faced real challenges like SNS permissions, alarm threshold tuning, and Terraform state conflicts, which I solved to make this setup fully functional.

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🛠️ Architecture & Workflow

1. CloudWatch Metrics & Alarms

   • Track EC2 CPU, memory, and disk metrics.
   • Configure custom alarms triggering SNS notifications.

2. Centralized Logging

   • Aggregate EC2 application logs to CloudWatch Logs.
   • Analyze logs using CloudWatch Logs Insights queries.

3. Security Monitoring

   • Detect anomalies via GuardDuty.
   • Automatic alerts sent through SNS.

4. Terraform Automation

   • Deploy all monitoring infrastructure with IaC.
   • CI/CD-ready workflows in .github/workflows/terraform-apply.yml.

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📂 Repository Structure

aws_monitoring_observability/ ├─ screenshots/ # Dashboards, alerts, Terraform outputs ├─ .github/workflows/ # Terraform automation workflows ├─ main.tf # Terraform resources (CloudWatch, SNS, GuardDuty) ├─ outputs.tf # Terraform outputs ├─ variables.tf # Terraform variables ├─ provider.tf # AWS provider configuration ├─ terraform.tfvars.example.txt # Example input variables └─ README.md # Project overview and instructions

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⚡ Usage

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/charles-bucher/aws_monitoring_observability.git
cd aws_monitoring_observability
Deploy infrastructure with Terraform:

bash
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terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply
Explore screenshots/ to see dashboard outputs, alerts, and deployment confirmation.

Review .github/workflows/terraform-apply.yml for automated deployments.

Experiment with metrics, alarms, and GuardDuty findings in your AWS account.

🎯 Goals & Learning Outcomes
Hands-on AWS monitoring and observability experience.

Built real-world CloudWatch dashboards, alarms, and alerts.

Solved practical issues: SNS permissions, Terraform state management.

Automated infrastructure deployments using Terraform and GitHub Actions.

📸 Screenshots
CPU Metrics
<img src="screenshots/aws_cpu.png" alt="CPU Metrics" width="400"/>

AWS Alerts
<img src="screenshots/aws_alerts.png" alt="AWS Alerts" width="400"/>

Terraform Deployment
<img src="screenshots/aws_terraform.png" alt="Terraform Deployment" width="400"/>

Terraform Apply Confirm
<img src="screenshots/aws_terraform_confirm.png" alt="Terraform Apply Confirm" width="400"/>

AWS Apply Confirm
<img src="screenshots/01_aws_confirm.png" alt="AWS Confirm" width="400"/>

💡 Notes
Fully compatible with AWS Free Tier.

Ideal for portfolio demonstration, learning, and experimentation.

Contributions welcome — PRs are open!

🔗 References
AWS CloudWatch Documentation

AWS GuardDuty Documentation

Terraform Documentation

Made with 💻 by Charles Bucher | GitHub: @charles-bucher