EC2 monitoring with memory and disk out of the box
CloudWatch’s default EC2 metrics cover CPU and network, but memory and disk usage need the CloudWatch agent and extra configuration. The Statance agent reports both from the start and works the same on every cloud.
What to monitor on AWS EC2
- 01Memory used %Not collected by default EC2 metrics.
- 02Disk used % per volumeEBS volumes fill silently; also not a default metric.
- 03CPU and loadOn burstable T-instances, sustained high CPU drains credits.
- 04NetworkThroughput per ENI.
Set it up
Install on a running instance
Works on Amazon Linux 2/2023, Ubuntu, RHEL and Debian AMIs.
curl -fsSL https://statance.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- YOUR_API_KEYOr bake it into user data
Add the line to your launch template’s user data so Auto Scaling instances register themselves.
#!/bin/bash curl -fsSL https://statance.com/install.sh | bash -s -- YOUR_API_KEYAllow outbound 443
Instances in private subnets need a NAT gateway or proxy to reach api.statance.com.
Recommended alerts for AWS EC2
- Server stopped reporting for 5 minutes (down)
- CPU above 90% for 10 minutes
- Memory used above 90% for 5 minutes
- Any disk above 85% used
- Instance stopped reporting (stopped, terminated or network issue)
AWS EC2 monitoring FAQ
Does this replace CloudWatch?
For host metrics and alerting, it can. Many teams keep CloudWatch for AWS-service metrics (RDS, ELB) and use Statance for servers, uptime and status pages across clouds.
What about Auto Scaling groups?
Put the install command in user data. New instances register automatically; terminated ones show as down and can be cleaned up via the API.
Know before your users do.
Free forever for 3 servers and 10 monitors. No credit card. Install the agent in under a minute.