AWS Cloud Infrastructure

Monitor and analyze AWS resources using Dynatrace Smartscape and DQL. Query AWS services, optimize costs, manage security, and plan capacity across your AWS infrastructure.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user needs to work with AWS resources in Dynatrace. Load the reference file for the task type:

Core Concepts

Entity Types

AWS resources use the AWS_* prefix and can be queried using the smartscapeNodes function. All AWS entities are automatically discovered and modeled in Dynatrace Smartscape.

Compute: AWS_EC2_INSTANCE, AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION, AWS_ECS_CLUSTER, AWS_ECS_SERVICE, AWS_EKS_CLUSTER Networking: AWS_EC2_VPC, AWS_EC2_SUBNET, AWS_EC2_SECURITYGROUP, AWS_EC2_NATGATEWAY, AWS_EC2_VPCENDPOINT Database: AWS_RDS_DBINSTANCE, AWS_RDS_DBCLUSTER, AWS_DYNAMODB_TABLE, AWS_ELASTICACHE_CACHECLUSTER Storage: AWS_S3_BUCKET, AWS_EC2_VOLUME, AWS_EFS_FILESYSTEM Load Balancing: AWS_ELASTICLOADBALANCINGV2_LOADBALANCER, AWS_ELASTICLOADBALANCINGV2_TARGETGROUP Messaging: AWS_SQS_QUEUE, AWS_SNS_TOPIC, AWS_EVENTS_EVENTBUS, AWS_MSK_CLUSTER

Common AWS Fields

All AWS entities include:

• aws.account.id - AWS account identifier
• aws.region - AWS region (e.g., us-east-1)
• aws.resource.id - Unique resource identifier
• aws.resource.name - Resource name
• aws.arn - Amazon Resource Name
• aws.vpc.id - VPC identifier (for VPC-attached resources)
• aws.subnet.id - Subnet identifier
• aws.availability_zone - Availability zone
• aws.security_group.id - Security group IDs (array)
• tags - Resource tags (use tags[TagName])

Relationship Types

AWS entities use these relationship types:

• is_attached_to - Exclusive attachment (e.g., volume to instance)
• uses - Dependency relationship (e.g., instance uses security group)
• runs_on - Vertical relationship (e.g., instance runs on AZ)
• is_part_of - Composition (e.g., instance in cluster)
• belongs_to - Aggregation (e.g., service belongs to cluster)
• balances - Load balancing (e.g., target group balances instances)
• balanced_by - Reverse of balances

AWS Metric Naming Convention

Dynatrace ingests AWS metrics and exposes them using this naming pattern:

cloud.aws.<service>.<MetricName>.By.<DimensionName>

The <service> is the lowercase AWS service name, <MetricName> is the original CloudWatch metric name (case-preserved), and <DimensionName> is the CloudWatch dimension used for splitting.

EC2 examples:

Other service examples:

To query a metric:

timeseries cpu = avg(cloud.aws.ec2.CPUUtilization.By.InstanceId),
           by: {dt.smartscape_source.id},
  from: now()-1h
| limit 10

Important: Never refer to these as "CloudWatch alerts" or "CloudWatch metrics" in output. Dynatrace monitors AWS resources natively through its AWS integration — these are Dynatrace metrics ingested from AWS.

Query Patterns

All AWS queries build on four core patterns. Master these and adapt them to any entity type.

Pattern 1: Resource Discovery

List resources by type, filter by account/region/VPC/tags, summarize counts:

smartscapeNodes "AWS_*"
| filter aws.account.id == "<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>" and aws.region == "<AWS_REGION>"
| summarize count = count(), by: {type}
| sort count desc

To list a specific type, replace "AWS_*" with the entity type (e.g., "AWS_EC2_INSTANCE"). Add | fields name, aws.account.id, aws.region, ... to select specific columns. Use tags[TagName] for tag-based filtering.

Pattern 2: Configuration Parsing

Parse aws.object JSON for detailed configuration fields:

smartscapeNodes "AWS_RDS_DBINSTANCE"
| parse aws.object, "JSON:awsjson"
| fieldsAdd engine = awsjson[configuration][engine]
| summarize db_count = count(), by: {engine, aws.region}

Common configuration fields by service:

• EC2: instanceType, state[name], networkInterfaces[0][association][publicIp]
• RDS: engine, multiAZ, publiclyAccessible, storageEncrypted, dbInstanceClass, storageType
• EBS: volumeType, size, state
• Lambda: runtime, memorySize
• LB: scheme, dnsName
• KMS: keyState, keyUsage
• ASG: minSize, maxSize, desiredCapacity
• Subnet: availableIpAddressCount, cidrBlock
• S3: versioningConfiguration[status]
• SG: securityGroups (array, use arraySize() to count)

Pattern 3: Relationship Traversal

Follow relationships between resources:

smartscapeNodes "AWS_ELASTICLOADBALANCINGV2_LOADBALANCER"
| parse aws.object, "JSON:awsjson"
| fieldsAdd dnsName = awsjson[configuration][dnsName], scheme = awsjson[configuration][scheme]
| traverse "balanced_by", "AWS_ELASTICLOADBALANCINGV2_TARGETGROUP", direction:backward, fieldsKeep:{dnsName, id}
| fieldsAdd targetGroupName = aws.resource.name
| traverse "balances", "AWS_EC2_INSTANCE", fieldsKeep: {targetGroupName, id}
| fieldsAdd loadBalancerDnsName = dt.traverse.history[-2][dnsName],
            loadBalancerId = dt.traverse.history[-2][id],
            targetGroupId = dt.traverse.history[-1][id]

Key traversal pairs:

• LB → Target Groups: traverse "balanced_by", "AWS_ELASTICLOADBALANCINGV2_TARGETGROUP", direction:backward
• Target Group → Instances: traverse "balances", "AWS_EC2_INSTANCE"
• Target Group → Lambda Function: traverse "balances", "AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION"
• ECS Service → Cluster: traverse "belongs_to", "AWS_ECS_CLUSTER"
• ECS Service → Task Def: traverse "uses", "AWS_ECS_TASKDEFINITION"
• RDS Instance → Cluster: traverse "is_part_of", "AWS_RDS_DBCLUSTER"
• RDS Cluster → KMS Key: traverse "uses", "AWS_KMS_KEY"
• Instance → SG: traverse "uses", "AWS_EC2_SECURITYGROUP"
• Instance → Availability Zone: traverse "runs_on", "AWS_AVAILABILITY_ZONE"
• Instance → Subnet: traverse "is_attached_to", "AWS_EC2_SUBNET"
• Instance → VPC: traverse "is_attached_to", "AWS_EC2_VPC"
• Instance → Volume: traverse "is_attached_to", "AWS_EC2_VOLUME", direction: backward
• Lambda Function → IAM Role: traverse "uses", "AWS_IAM_ROLE"
• Lambda Function → Api Gateway V2: traverse "uses", "AWS_APIGATEWAYV2_INTEGRATION", direction: backward
• Instance → HOST: traverse "runs_on", "HOST", direction: backward
• SG blast radius: query instances, traverse to SGs, summarize count(), by: {sg.name}
• Use fieldsKeep to carry fields through traversals, dt.traverse.history[-N] to access ancestor fields

Pattern 4: Tag-Based Ownership

Group resources by any tag for ownership/chargeback:

smartscapeNodes "AWS_*"
| filter isNotNull(tags[<TAG_NAME>])
| summarize resource_count = count(), by: {tags[<TAG_NAME>], type}
| sort resource_count desc

Replace CostCenter with any tag: Owner, Team, Project, Environment, Application, Department, BusinessUnit. Replace "AWS_*" with a specific type to scope to one service.

Find untagged resources: | filter arraySize(tags) == 0

Reference Guide

Load reference files for detailed queries when the core patterns above need service-specific adaptation.

Best Practices

Query Optimization

1. Filter early by account and region
2. Use specific entity types (avoid "AWS_*" wildcards when possible)
3. Limit results with | limit N for exploration
4. Use isNotNull() checks before accessing nested fields

Configuration Parsing

1. Always parse aws.object with JSON parser: parse aws.object, "JSON:awsjson"
2. Use consistent field naming: fieldsAdd configField = awsjson[configuration][field]
3. Check for null values after parsing
4. Use toString() for complex nested objects

Security Fields

1. Security group IDs are arrays - use contains() or expand
2. Parse aws.object for detailed security context
3. Check publiclyAccessible, storageEncrypted, and similar flags

Tagging Strategy

1. Use tags[TagName] for filtering
2. Check arraySize(tags) for untagged resources
3. Track tag coverage with summarize operations

Limitations and Notes

Smartscape Limitations

• AWS object configuration requires parsing with parse aws.object, "JSON:awsjson"
• AWS metrics are available as Dynatrace metrics using the cloud.aws.* naming convention (see AWS Metric Naming Convention)
• Resource discovery depends on AWS integration configuration
• Tag synchronization may have slight delays

Relationship Traversal

• Use direction:backward for reverse relationships (e.g., target group → load balancer)
• Use fieldsKeep to maintain important fields through traversal
• Access traversal history with dt.traverse.history[-N]
• Complex topologies may require multiple traverse operations

General Tips

• Use getNodeName() for human-readable resource names
• Handle null values gracefully with isNotNull() and isNull()
• Combine region and account filters for large environments
• Use countDistinct() for unique resource counts