AWS (Amazon Web Services) virtual machines are compute instances that provide scalable, on-demand computing power in the cloud. AWS offers virtual machines through its Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service, which is designed to provide a wide variety of configurations tailored to different workloads.
The AWS Virtual Machines report in the insights platform provides valuable details into an organization's VM infrastructure. It helps to:
- Monitor the provisioning status of VM scale sets.
- Analyze the distribution of VM profiles across environments.
- Optimize resource allocation for cost efficiency.
- Identify potential failures and take proactive actions.
- Export data for compliance and reporting purposes.
This Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets report can be found in the following path in Combine:
Cloud Reports > AWS Management > Virtual Machines
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Overview of AWS Virtual Machine report
AWS Virtual Machine Disk Space report
The disk space chart depicts the storage usage of the OS disk and additional data disks found on the systems.
Virtual Machine Profiles
The virtual machine profile chart outlines the instance types found in the environment and their respective number of endpoints in each category,
- Hover over depicts number of endpoints that make up that instance type.
- Pie chart depicts share of instance type respective to overall environment
Instance details table
Description of AWS Instance Report Fields
Each field in an AWS virtual machine report provides critical information about the instance’s configuration, performance, and accessibility.
Instance Id
A unique identifier assigned to each EC2 instance. Used for tracking and managing instances.
Instance Name
A user-defined label (tag) assigned to the instance for easier identification and organization.
Instance Type
Specifies the compute capacity of the instance (e.g., t3.micro
, m5.large
), defining CPU, memory, and performance characteristics.
Instance vCPU
Indicates the number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) allocated to the instance, impacting processing power and performance.
Instance RAM (GB)
The amount of memory (RAM) assigned to the instance, affecting application performance and multitasking capability.
Instance State
Shows the current status of the instance, such as:
running
(active and operational)stopped
(not active but still incurring storage costs)terminated
(deleted and no longer available)
Architecture
Indicates the CPU architecture of the instance, such as:
x86_64
(traditional Intel/AMD processors)arm64
(AWS Graviton processors for improved performance and efficiency)
Private DNS Name
An internal domain name assigned to the instance within AWS for communication within the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
Private IP Address
The internal IP address used for communication between instances within the same VPC. It is not accessible from the public internet.
Public DNS Name
A publicly accessible domain name assigned to the instance if it has a public IP. Used for external access.
Public IP Address
An IP address that allows the instance to be accessed from the internet. If missing, the instance is private or behind a NAT gateway.
Virtualization Type
Defines the virtualization technology used by the instance, such as:
- HVM (Hardware Virtual Machine) – More efficient, required for modern instances.
- PV (Paravirtualization) – Older and less efficient, mainly for legacy workloads.
Platform Details
Provides OS-specific details, such as whether the instance runs Windows, Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, or Red Hat.
Usage Operation
Indicates how the instance is being used, such as general-purpose computing, database hosting, or machine learning tasks.
This information helps with monitoring, optimization, security, and cost management of AWS virtual machines.
Instance Usage Metrics
Description of AWS Usage Collection Report Fields
These fields help track resource utilization and performance metrics of AWS instances for monitoring, optimization, and troubleshooting.
Instance Id
A unique identifier for the EC2 instance, Used to track and differentiate instances.
Instance Name
A user-defined name (tag) assigned to the instance for easy identification and organization.
Metrics Collection
Indicates whether system metrics (CPU, disk usage, etc.) are being collected for the instance. Typically enabled or disabled based on monitoring settings.
CPU %
Represents the percentage of CPU utilization over a specific period. Higher values indicate increased processing load, while consistently low values suggest underutilization.
Disk Read KBPS
Measures the rate of data being read from the disk in kilobytes per second (KBps). High values can indicate read-intensive workloads, such as database queries.
Disk Write KBPS
Tracks the rate of data written to the disk in kilobytes per second (KBps). High values suggest intensive write operations, such as logging or database transactions.
Disk Read IOPS
Represents the number of disk read operations per second (IOPS). High values indicate frequent read requests, which may affect performance if the storage type isn't optimized.
Disk Write IOPS
Tracks the number of disk write operations per second (IOPS). High values suggest frequent data writes, potentially impacting storage performance.
Timestamp
Records the date and time of when the metrics were collected. This is crucial for tracking trends, identifying spikes, and troubleshooting performance issues over time.
These fields help monitor resource utilization, detect performance bottlenecks, and optimize AWS instances for cost and efficiency.
Metrics collection settings.
The settings cog in the instance metrics table will show the following toggles for metrics collection.
Description of Toggles for Usage Collection
Poll Interval
Adjusts how frequently virtual resource utilization data is collected. Shorter intervals provide more detail, while longer intervals reduce data volume.
Data Retention
Defines how long collected resource utilization data is stored before deletion. Longer retention allows for historical analysis, while shorter retention conserves storage.
Resource Status Toggle
Enables or disables resource utilization monitoring for partial or on/off collection for all instances.
By leveraging the insights provided in this report, organizations can effectively manage their AWS instances, and optimize resource usage.
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