CloudWatch Container Insights

Overview

Container Insights provides metrics, logs, and performance visibility for EKS workloads.

Install CloudWatch Agent

helm repo add aws-cloudwatch-metrics https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
helm repo update
 
helm install aws-cloudwatch-metrics aws-cloudwatch-metrics/aws-cloudwatch-metrics \
  --namespace amazon-cloudwatch \
  --create-namespace \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster

View Metrics in Console

Navigate to CloudWatch > Metrics > Container Insights to view:

• CPU utilization
• Memory usage
• Network throughput
• Disk I/O
• Pod count by namespace

Container Insights Metrics

Metric	Description
pod_cpu_utilization	CPU usage %
pod_memory_working_set	Memory usage
pod_network_rx_bytes	Network received
pod_network_tx_bytes	Network transmitted
container_restart_count	Container restarts

CloudWatch Dashboard

{
  "widgets": [
    {
      "type": "metric",
      "properties": {
        "metrics": [
          ["ContainerInsights", "pod_cpu_utilization", "ClusterName", "my-cluster"]
        ],
        "period": 60,
        "stat": "Average",
        "region": "us-west-2",
        "title": "CPU Utilization"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Log Insights Queries

Top CPU consumers

fields @timestamp, PodName, cpuUtilization as CPU
| sort CPU desc
| limit 10

Memory pressure

fields @timestamp, PodName, memoryUtilization as Memory
| filter Memory > 80
| sort Memory desc

References

• Container Insights
• EKS Workshop - Container Insights