AWS Step Functions monitoring

  • How-to guide
  • 5-min read
  • Published Jul 06, 2020

Dynatrace ingests metrics for multiple preselected namespaces, including AWS Step Functions. You can view metrics for each service instance, split metrics into multiple dimensions, and create custom charts that you can pin to your dashboards.

Prerequisites

To enable monitoring for this service, you need

  • ActiveGate version 1.197+

  • For Dynatrace SaaS deployments, you need an Environment ActiveGate or a Multi-environment ActiveGate.

    For role-based access in SaaS deployment, you need an Environment ActiveGate installed on an Amazon EC2 host.

To update the AWS IAM policy, use the JSON below, containing the monitoring policy (permissions) for all supporting services.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "acm-pca:ListCertificateAuthorities",
        "apigateway:GET",
        "apprunner:ListServices",
        "appstream:DescribeFleets",
        "appsync:ListGraphqlApis",
        "athena:ListWorkGroups",
        "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups",
        "cloudformation:ListStackResources",
        "cloudfront:ListDistributions",
        "cloudhsm:DescribeClusters",
        "cloudsearch:DescribeDomains",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
        "codebuild:ListProjects",
        "datasync:ListTasks",
        "dax:DescribeClusters",
        "directconnect:DescribeConnections",
        "dms:DescribeReplicationInstances",
        "dynamodb:ListTables",
        "dynamodb:ListTagsOfResource",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "ec2:DescribeNatGateways",
        "ec2:DescribeSpotFleetRequests",
        "ec2:DescribeTransitGateways",
        "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
        "ec2:DescribeVpnConnections",
        "ecs:ListClusters",
        "eks:ListClusters",
        "elasticache:DescribeCacheClusters",
        "elasticbeanstalk:DescribeEnvironmentResources",
        "elasticbeanstalk:DescribeEnvironments",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeFileSystems",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeInstanceHealth",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeListeners",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeRules",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTags",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth",
        "elasticmapreduce:ListClusters",
        "elastictranscoder:ListPipelines",
        "es:ListDomainNames",
        "events:ListEventBuses",
        "firehose:ListDeliveryStreams",
        "fsx:DescribeFileSystems",
        "gamelift:ListFleets",
        "glue:GetJobs",
        "inspector:ListAssessmentTemplates",
        "kafka:ListClusters",
        "kinesis:ListStreams",
        "kinesisanalytics:ListApplications",
        "kinesisvideo:ListStreams",
        "lambda:ListFunctions",
        "lambda:ListTags",
        "lex:GetBots",
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups",
        "mediaconnect:ListFlows",
        "mediaconvert:DescribeEndpoints",
        "mediapackage-vod:ListPackagingConfigurations",
        "mediapackage:ListChannels",
        "mediatailor:ListPlaybackConfigurations",
        "opsworks:DescribeStacks",
        "qldb:ListLedgers",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
        "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
        "rds:DescribeEvents",
        "rds:ListTagsForResource",
        "redshift:DescribeClusters",
        "robomaker:ListSimulationJobs",
        "route53:ListHostedZones",
        "route53resolver:ListResolverEndpoints",
        "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
        "sagemaker:ListEndpoints",
        "sns:ListTopics",
        "sqs:ListQueues",
        "storagegateway:ListGateways",
        "sts:GetCallerIdentity",
        "swf:ListDomains",
        "tag:GetResources",
        "tag:GetTagKeys",
        "transfer:ListServers",
        "workmail:ListOrganizations",
        "workspaces:DescribeWorkspaces"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

If you don't want to add permissions to all services, and just select permissions for certain services, consult the table below. The table contains a set of permissions that are required for All AWS cloud services and, for each supporting service, a list of optional permissions specific to that service.

Permissions required for AWS monitoring integration:
  • "cloudwatch:GetMetricData"
  • "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics"
  • "cloudwatch:ListMetrics"
  • "sts:GetCallerIdentity"
  • "tag:GetResources"
  • "tag:GetTagKeys"
  • "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones"
Name
Permissions
All monitored Amazon services required
cloudwatch:GetMetricData,
cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics,
cloudwatch:ListMetrics,
sts:GetCallerIdentity,
tag:GetResources,
tag:GetTagKeys,
ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones
AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority
acm-pca:ListCertificateAuthorities
Amazon MQ
Amazon API Gateway
apigateway:GET
AWS App Runner
apprunner:ListServices
Amazon AppStream
appstream:DescribeFleets
AWS AppSync
appsync:ListGraphqlApis
Amazon Athena
athena:ListWorkGroups
Amazon Aurora
rds:DescribeDBClusters
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling (built-in)
autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups
AWS Billing
Amazon Keyspaces
AWS Chatbot
Amazon CloudFront
cloudfront:ListDistributions
AWS CloudHSM
cloudhsm:DescribeClusters
Amazon CloudSearch
cloudsearch:DescribeDomains
AWS CodeBuild
codebuild:ListProjects
Amazon Cognito
Amazon Connect
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
eks:ListClusters
AWS DataSync
datasync:ListTasks
Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
dax:DescribeClusters
AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
dms:DescribeReplicationInstances
Amazon DocumentDB
rds:DescribeDBClusters
AWS Direct Connect
directconnect:DescribeConnections
Amazon DynamoDB
dynamodb:ListTables
Amazon DynamoDB (built-in)
dynamodb:ListTables,
dynamodb:ListTagsOfResource
Amazon EBS
ec2:DescribeVolumes
Amazon EBS (built-in)
ec2:DescribeVolumes
Amazon EC2 API
Amazon EC2 (built-in)
ec2:DescribeInstances
Amazon EC2 Spot Fleet
ec2:DescribeSpotFleetRequests
Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)
ecs:ListClusters
Amazon ECS Container Insights
ecs:ListClusters
Amazon ElastiCache (EC)
elasticache:DescribeCacheClusters
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
elasticbeanstalk:DescribeEnvironments
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
elasticfilesystem:DescribeFileSystems
Amazon Elastic Inference
Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (EMR)
elasticmapreduce:ListClusters
Amazon Elasticsearch Service (ES)
es:ListDomainNames
Amazon Elastic Transcoder
elastictranscoder:ListPipelines
Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) (built-in)
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeInstanceHealth,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeListeners,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeRules,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTags,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth
Amazon EventBridge
events:ListEventBuses
Amazon FSx
fsx:DescribeFileSystems
Amazon GameLift
gamelift:ListFleets
AWS Glue
glue:GetJobs
Amazon Inspector
inspector:ListAssessmentTemplates
AWS Internet of Things (IoT)
AWS IoT Analytics
Amazon Managed Streaming for Kafka
kafka:ListClusters
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
kinesisanalytics:ListApplications
Amazon Data Firehose
firehose:ListDeliveryStreams
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
kinesis:ListStreams
Amazon Kinesis Video Streams
kinesisvideo:ListStreams
AWS Lambda
lambda:ListFunctions
AWS Lambda (built-in)
lambda:ListFunctions,
lambda:ListTags
Amazon Lex
lex:GetBots
Amazon Application and Network Load Balancer (built-in)
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeInstanceHealth,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeListeners,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeRules,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTags,
elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
logs:DescribeLogGroups
AWS Elemental MediaConnect
mediaconnect:ListFlows
AWS Elemental MediaConvert
mediaconvert:DescribeEndpoints
AWS Elemental MediaPackage Live
mediapackage:ListChannels
AWS Elemental MediaPackage Video on Demand
mediapackage-vod:ListPackagingConfigurations
AWS Elemental MediaTailor
mediatailor:ListPlaybackConfigurations
Amazon VPC NAT Gateways
ec2:DescribeNatGateways
Amazon Neptune
rds:DescribeDBClusters
AWS OpsWorks
opsworks:DescribeStacks
Amazon Polly
Amazon QLDB
qldb:ListLedgers
Amazon RDS
rds:DescribeDBInstances
Amazon RDS (built-in)
rds:DescribeDBInstances,
rds:DescribeEvents,
rds:ListTagsForResource
Amazon Redshift
redshift:DescribeClusters
Amazon Rekognition
AWS RoboMaker
robomaker:ListSimulationJobs
Amazon Route 53
route53:ListHostedZones
Amazon Route 53 Resolver
route53resolver:ListResolverEndpoints
Amazon S3
s3:ListAllMyBuckets
Amazon S3 (built-in)
s3:ListAllMyBuckets
Amazon SageMaker Batch Transform Jobs
Amazon SageMaker Endpoint Instances
sagemaker:ListEndpoints
Amazon SageMaker Endpoints
sagemaker:ListEndpoints
Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth
Amazon SageMaker Processing Jobs
Amazon SageMaker Training Jobs
AWS Service Catalog
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
sns:ListTopics
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
sqs:ListQueues
AWS Systems Manager - Run Command
AWS Step Functions
AWS Storage Gateway
storagegateway:ListGateways
Amazon SWF
swf:ListDomains
Amazon Textract
AWS IoT Things Graph
AWS Transfer Family
transfer:ListServers
AWS Transit Gateway
ec2:DescribeTransitGateways
Amazon Translate
AWS Trusted Advisor
AWS API Usage
AWS Site-to-Site VPN
ec2:DescribeVpnConnections
AWS WAF Classic
AWS WAF
Amazon WorkMail
workmail:ListOrganizations
Amazon WorkSpaces
workspaces:DescribeWorkspaces

Example of JSON policy for one single service.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
          {
                  "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
                  "Effect": "Allow",
                  "Action": [
                          "apigateway:GET",
                          "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
                          "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
                          "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
                          "sts:GetCallerIdentity",
                          "tag:GetResources",
                          "tag:GetTagKeys",
                          "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones"
                  ],
                  "Resource": "*"
          }
      ]
}

In this example, from the complete list of permissions you need to select

  • "apigateway:GET" for Amazon API Gateway
  • "cloudwatch:GetMetricData", "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics", "cloudwatch:ListMetrics", "sts:GetCallerIdentity", "tag:GetResources", "tag:GetTagKeys", and "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones" for All AWS cloud services.

Enable monitoring

To learn how to enable service monitoring, see Enable service monitoring.

View service metrics

You can view the service metrics in your Dynatrace environment either on the custom device overview page or on your Dashboards page.

View metrics on the custom device overview page

To access the custom device overview page

  1. Go to Technologies & Processes Classic.
  2. Filter by service name and select the relevant custom device group.
  3. Once you select the custom device group, you're on the custom device group overview page.
  4. The custom device group overview page lists all instances (custom devices) belonging to the group. Select an instance to view the custom device overview page.

View metrics on your dashboard

After you add the service to monitoring, a preset dashboard containing all recommended metrics is automatically listed on your Dashboards page. To look for specific dashboards, filter by Preset and then by Name.

AWS presets

For existing monitored services, you might need to resave your credentials for the preset dashboard to appear on the Dashboards page. To resave your credentials, go to Settings > Cloud and virtualization > AWS, select the desired AWS instance, and then select Save.

You can't make changes on a preset dashboard directly, but you can clone and edit it. To clone a dashboard, open the browse menu (…) and select Clone.

To remove a dashboard from the dashboards page, you can hide it. To hide a dashboard, open the browse menu (…) and select Hide.

Hiding a dashboard doesn't affect other users.

Clone hide AWS

To check the availability of preset dashboards for each AWS service, see the list below.

AWS service
Preset dashboard
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling (built-in)
Not applicable
AWS Lambda (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon Application and Network Load Balancer (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon DynamoDB (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon EBS (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon EC2 (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon RDS (built-in)
Not applicable
Amazon S3 (built-in)
Not applicable
AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority
Not applicable
All monitored Amazon services
Not applicable
Amazon API Gateway
Not applicable
AWS App Runner
Not applicable
Amazon AppStream
Applicable
AWS AppSync
Applicable
Amazon Athena
Applicable
Amazon Aurora
Not applicable
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Applicable
AWS Billing
Applicable
Amazon Keyspaces
Applicable
AWS Chatbot
Applicable
Amazon CloudFront
Not applicable
AWS CloudHSM
Applicable
Amazon CloudSearch
Applicable
AWS CodeBuild
Applicable
Amazon Cognito
Not applicable
Amazon Connect
Applicable
AWS DataSync
Applicable
Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
Applicable
AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
Applicable
Amazon DocumentDB
Applicable
AWS Direct Connect
Applicable
Amazon DynamoDB
Not applicable
Amazon EBS
Not applicable
Amazon EC2 Spot Fleet
Not applicable
Amazon EC2 API
Applicable
Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)
Not applicable
Amazon ECS Container Insights
Applicable
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
Not applicable
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
Applicable
Amazon ElastiCache (EC)
Not applicable
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Applicable
Amazon Elastic Inference
Applicable
Amazon Elastic Transcoder
Applicable
Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (EMR)
Not applicable
Amazon Elasticsearch Service (ES)
Not applicable
Amazon EventBridge
Applicable
Amazon FSx
Applicable
Amazon GameLift
Applicable
AWS Glue
Not applicable
Amazon Inspector
Applicable
AWS Internet of Things (IoT)
Not applicable
AWS IoT Things Graph
Applicable
AWS IoT Analytics
Applicable
Amazon Managed Streaming for Kafka
Applicable
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Not applicable
Amazon Data Firehose
Not applicable
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Not applicable
Amazon Kinesis Video Streams
Not applicable
AWS Lambda
Not applicable
Amazon Lex
Applicable
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Applicable
AWS Elemental MediaTailor
Applicable
AWS Elemental MediaConnect
Applicable
AWS Elemental MediaConvert
Applicable
AWS Elemental MediaPackage Live
Applicable
AWS Elemental MediaPackage Video on Demand
Applicable
Amazon MQ
Applicable
Amazon VPC NAT Gateways
Not applicable
Amazon Neptune
Applicable
AWS OpsWorks
Applicable
Amazon Polly
Applicable
Amazon QLDB
Applicable
Amazon RDS
Not applicable
Amazon Redshift
Not applicable
Amazon Rekognition
Applicable
AWS RoboMaker
Applicable
Amazon Route 53
Applicable
Amazon Route 53 Resolver
Applicable
Amazon S3
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Batch Transform Jobs
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Endpoints
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Endpoint Instances
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Processing Jobs
Not applicable
Amazon SageMaker Training Jobs
Not applicable
AWS Service Catalog
Applicable
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Not applicable
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Not applicable
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Not applicable
AWS Systems Manager - Run Command
Applicable
AWS Step Functions
Applicable
AWS Storage Gateway
Applicable
Amazon SWF
Applicable
Amazon Textract
Applicable
AWS Transfer Family
Applicable
AWS Transit Gateway
Applicable
Amazon Translate
Applicable
AWS Trusted Advisor
Applicable
AWS API Usage
Applicable
AWS Site-to-Site VPN
Applicable
AWS WAF Classic
Applicable
AWS WAF
Applicable
Amazon WorkMail
Applicable
Amazon WorkSpaces
Applicable

Step

Available metrics

Name
Description
Unit
Statistics
Dimensions
Recommended
ActivitiesFailed
The number of failed activities
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivitiesHeartbeatTimedOut
The number of activities that time out due to a heartbeat timeout
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivitiesScheduled
The number of scheduled activities
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivitiesStarted
The number of started activities
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
ActivitiesSucceeded
The number of successfully completed activities
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivitiesTimedOut
The number of activities that time out on close
Count
Sum
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivityRunTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the activity starts and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ActivityArn
Applicable
ActivityScheduleTime
The interval, in milliseconds, for which the activity stays in the schedule state
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ActivityArn
ActivityTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the activity is scheduled and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ActivityArn
ConsumedCapacity
The count of requests per second
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceMetric
Applicable
ConsumedCapacity
Count
Sum
Region, APIName
Applicable
ExecutionThrottled
The number of StateEntered events and retries that have been throttled
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the execution starts and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionsAborted
The number of aborted or terminated executions
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionsFailed
The number of failed executions
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionsStarted
The number of started executions
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionsSucceeded
The number of successfully completed executions
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
ExecutionsTimedOut
The number of executions that time out for any reason
Count
Sum
Region, StateMachineArn
Applicable
LambdaFunctionRunTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the Lambda function starts and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
Applicable
LambdaFunctionScheduleTime
The interval, in milliseconds, for which the Lambda function stays in the schedule state
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
LambdaFunctionTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the Lambda function is scheduled and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
LambdaFunctionsFailed
The number of failed Lambda functions
Count
Sum
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
Applicable
LambdaFunctionsScheduled
The number of scheduled Lambda functions
Count
Sum
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
Applicable
LambdaFunctionsStarted
The number of started Lambda functions
Count
Sum
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
LambdaFunctionsSucceeded
The number of successfully completed Lambda functions
Count
Sum
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
Applicable
LambdaFunctionsTimedOut
The number of Lambda functions that time out on close
Count
Sum
Region, LambdaFunctionArn
Applicable
ProvisionedBucketSize
The count of available requests per second
Count
Multi
Region, ServiceMetric
ProvisionedBucketSize
Count
Multi
Region, APIName
ProvisionedRefillRate
The count of requests per second that are allowed into the bucket
Count
Multi
Region, ServiceMetric
ProvisionedRefillRate
Count
Multi
Region, APIName
ServiceIntegrationRunTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the service task starts and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
Applicable
ServiceIntegrationScheduleTime
The interval, in milliseconds, for which the service task stays in the schedule state
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
ServiceIntegrationTime
The interval, in milliseconds, between the time the service task is scheduled and the time it closes
Milliseconds
Multi
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
ServiceIntegrationsFailed
The number of failed service tasks
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
Applicable
ServiceIntegrationsScheduled
The number of scheduled service tasks.
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
Applicable
ServiceIntegrationsStarted
The number of started service tasks
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
ServiceIntegrationsSucceeded
The number of successfully completed service tasks
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
Applicable
ServiceIntegrationsTimedOut
The number of service tasks that time out on close
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceIntegrationResourceArn
Applicable
ThrottledEvents
The count of requests that have been throttled
Count
Sum
Region, ServiceMetric
Applicable
ThrottledEvents
Count
Sum
Region, APIName
Applicable

Limitations

Dynatrace gathers metrics for AWS Step Functions at the custom device group level instead of the custom device level (metrics are service-wide).

Related tags
Infrastructure Observability