# Use CloudWatch and EventBridge to monitor queries and control costs Workgroups allow you to set data usage control limits per query or per workgroup, set up alarms when those limits are exceeded, and publish query metrics to CloudWatch. In each workgroup, you can: + Configure **Data usage controls** per query and per workgroup, and establish actions that will be taken if queries breach the thresholds. + View and analyze query metrics, and publish them to CloudWatch. If you create a workgroup in the console, the setting for publishing the metrics to CloudWatch is selected for you. If you use the API operations, you must [enable publishing the metrics](athena-cloudwatch-metrics-enable.md). When metrics are published, they are displayed under the **Metrics** tab in the **Workgroups** panel. Metrics are disabled by default for the primary workgroup. ## Video The following video shows how to create custom dashboards and set alarms and triggers on metrics in CloudWatch. You can use pre-populated dashboards directly from the Athena console to consume these query metrics. [![AWS Videos](http://img.youtube.com/vi/https://www.youtube.com/embed/x1V_lhkdKCg/0.jpg)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=https://www.youtube.com/embed/x1V_lhkdKCg) **Topics** + [Video](#athena-cloudwatch-metrics-video) + [Enable query metrics](athena-cloudwatch-metrics-enable.md) + [Monitor query metrics with CloudWatch](query-metrics-viewing.md) + [Monitor usage metrics with CloudWatch](monitoring-athena-usage-metrics.md) + [Monitor query events with EventBridge](athena-events.md) + [Configure data usage controls](workgroups-setting-control-limits-cloudwatch.md) # Enable CloudWatch query metrics in Athena When you create a workgroup in the console, the setting for publishing query metrics to CloudWatch is selected by default. **To enable or disable query metrics in the Athena console for a workgroup** 1. Open the Athena console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/home). 1. If the console navigation pane is not visible, choose the expansion menu on the left. ![\[Choose the expansion menu.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/images/nav-pane-expansion.png) 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Workgroups**. 1. Choose the link of the workgroup that you want to modify. 1. On the details page for the workgroup, choose **Edit**. 1. In the **Settings** section, select or clear **Publish query metrics to AWS CloudWatch**. If you use API operations, the command line interface, or the client application with the JDBC driver to create workgroups, to enable publishing of query metrics, set `PublishCloudWatchMetricsEnabled` to `true` in [WorkGroupConfiguration](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/APIReference/API_WorkGroupConfiguration.html). The following example shows only the metrics configuration and omits other configuration: ``` "WorkGroupConfiguration": { "PublishCloudWatchMetricsEnabled": "true" .... } ``` # Monitor Athena query metrics with CloudWatch Athena publishes query-related metrics to Amazon CloudWatch, when the [publish query metrics to CloudWatch](athena-cloudwatch-metrics-enable.md) option is selected. You can create custom dashboards, set alarms and triggers on metrics in CloudWatch, or use pre-populated dashboards directly from the Athena console. When you enable query metrics for queries in workgroups, the metrics are displayed within the **Metrics** tab in the **Workgroups** panel, for each workgroup in the Athena console. Athena publishes the following metrics to the CloudWatch console: + `DPUAllocated` – The total number of DPUs (data processing units) provisioned in a capacity reservation to run queries. + `DPUConsumed` – The number of DPUs actively consumed by queries in a `RUNNING` state at a given time in a reservation. Metric emitted only when workgroup is associated with a capacity reservation and includes all workgroups associated with a reservation. + `DPUCount` – The maximum number of DPUs consumed by your query, published exactly once as the query completes. + `EngineExecutionTime` – The number of milliseconds that the query took to run. + `ProcessedBytes` – The number of bytes that Athena scanned per DML query. + `QueryPlanningTime` – The number of milliseconds that Athena took to plan the query processing flow. + `QueryQueueTime` – The number of milliseconds that the query was in the query queue waiting for resources. + `ServicePreProcessingTime` – The number of milliseconds that Athena took to preprocess the query before submitting the query to the query engine. + `ServiceProcessingTime` – The number of milliseconds that Athena took to process the query results after the query engine finished running the query. + `TotalExecutionTime` – The number of milliseconds that Athena took to run a DDL or DML query. For more complete descriptions, see the [List of CloudWatch metrics and dimensions for Athena](#athena-cloudwatch-metrics-table) later in this document. These metrics have the following dimensions: + `CapacityReservation` – The name of the capacity reservation used to execute the query, if applicable. + `QueryState` – `SUCCEEDED`, `FAILED`, or `CANCELED` + `QueryType` – `DML`, `DDL`, or `UTILITY` + `WorkGroup` – name of the workgroup Athena publishes the following metric to the CloudWatch console under the `AmazonAthenaForApacheSpark` namespace: + `DPUCount` – number of DPUs consumed during the session to execute the calculations. This metric has the following dimensions: + `SessionId` – The ID of the session in which the calculations are submitted. + `WorkGroup` – Name of the workgroup. For more information, see the [List of CloudWatch metrics and dimensions for Athena](#athena-cloudwatch-metrics-table) later in this topic. For information about Athena usage metrics, see [Monitor Athena usage metrics with CloudWatch](monitoring-athena-usage-metrics.md). You can view query metrics in the Athena console or in the CloudWatch console. ## View query metrics in the Athena console **To view query metrics for a workgroup in the Athena console** 1. Open the Athena console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/home). 1. If the console navigation pane is not visible, choose the expansion menu on the left. ![\[Choose the expansion menu.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/images/nav-pane-expansion.png) 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Workgroups**. 1. Choose the workgroup that you want from the list, and then choose the **Metrics** tab. The metrics dashboard displays. **Note** If you just recently enabled metrics for the workgroup and/or there has been no recent query activity, the graphs on the dashboard may be empty. Query activity is retrieved from CloudWatch depending on the interval that you specify in the next step. 1. In the **Metrics** section, choose the metrics interval that Athena should use to fetch the query metrics from CloudWatch, or specify a custom interval. ![\[Specifying the metrics retrieval interval for a workgroup in the Athena console.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/images/wg-custom-interval.png) 1. To refresh the displayed metrics, choose the refresh icon. ![\[Choose the refresh icon.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/images/wg-refresh-metrics.png) 1. Click the arrow next to the refresh icon to choose how frequently you want the metrics display to be updated. ![\[Choosing a refresh interval for the workgroup metrics display in the Athena console.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/images/wg-choose-refresh-interval.png) ## View query metrics in the CloudWatch console **To view metrics in the Amazon CloudWatch console** 1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Metrics**, **All metrics**. 1. Select the **AWS/Athena** namespace. ## View query metrics with the AWS CLI **To view metrics with the AWS CLI** + Do one of the following: + To list the metrics for Athena, open a command prompt, and use the following command: ``` aws cloudwatch list-metrics --namespace "AWS/Athena" ``` + To list all available metrics, use the following command: ``` aws cloudwatch list-metrics" ``` ## List of CloudWatch metrics and dimensions for Athena If you've enabled CloudWatch metrics in Athena, it sends the following metrics to CloudWatch per workgroup. The following metrics use the `AWS/Athena` namespace. | Metric name | Description | | --- | --- | | DPUAllocated | The total number of DPUs (data processing units) provisioned in a capacity reservation to run queries. | | DPUConsumed | The number of DPUs actively consumed by queries in a RUNNING state at a given time in a reservation. This metric is emitted only when workgroup is associated with a capacity reservation and includes all workgroups associated with a reservation. If you move a workgroup from one reservation to another, the metric includes data from the time when the workgroup belonged to the first reservation. For more information about capacity reservations, see [Manage query processing capacity](capacity-management.md). | | DPUCount | The maximum number of DPUs consumed by your query, published exactly once as the query completes. This metric is emitted only for workgroups that are attached to a capacity reservation. | | EngineExecutionTime | The number of milliseconds that the query took to run. | | ProcessedBytes | The number of bytes that Athena scanned per DML query. For queries that were canceled (either by the users, or automatically, if they reached the limit), this includes the amount of data scanned before the cancellation time. This metric is not reported for DDL queries. | | QueryPlanningTime | The number of milliseconds that Athena took to plan the query processing flow. This includes the time spent retrieving table partitions from the data source. Note that because the query engine performs the query planning, query planning time is a subset of EngineExecutionTime. | | QueryQueueTime | The number of milliseconds that the query was in the query queue waiting for resources. Note that if transient errors occur, the query can be automatically added back to the queue. | | ServicePreProcessingTime | The number of milliseconds that Athena took to preprocess the query before submitting the query to the query engine. | | ServiceProcessingTime | The number of milliseconds that Athena took to process the query results after the query engine finished running the query. | | TotalExecutionTime | The number of milliseconds that Athena took to run a DDL or DML query. TotalExecutionTime includes QueryQueueTime, QueryPlanningTime, EngineExecutionTime, and ServiceProcessingTime. | These metrics for Athena have the following dimensions. | Dimension | Description | | --- | --- | | CapacityReservation | The name of the capacity reservation that was used to execute the query, if applicable. When a capacity reservation is not used, this dimension returns no data. | | QueryState | The query state. Valid statistics: SUCCEEDED, FAILED, or CANCELED. | | QueryType | The query type. Valid statistics: `DDL`, `DML`, or `UTILITY`. The type of query statement that was run. `DDL` indicates DDL (Data Definition Language) query statements. `DML` indicates DML (Data Manipulation Language) query statements, such as `CREATE TABLE AS SELECT`. `UTILITY` indicates query statements other than DDL and DML, such as `SHOW CREATE TABLE`, or `DESCRIBE TABLE`. | | WorkGroup | The name of the workgroup. | # Monitor Athena usage metrics with CloudWatch You can use CloudWatch usage metrics to provide visibility into your how your account uses resources by displaying your current service usage on CloudWatch graphs and dashboards. For Athena, usage availability metrics correspond to AWS service quotas for Athena. You can configure alarms that alert you when your usage approaches a service quota. For more information about Athena service quotas, see [Service Quotas](service-limits.md). For more information about AWS usage metrics, see [AWS usage metrics](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch-Service-Quota-Integration.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*. Athena publishes the following metrics in the `AWS/Usage` namespace. | Metric name | Description | | --- | --- | | `ResourceCount` | The sum of all queued and executing queries per AWS Region per account, separated by query type (DML or DDL). Maximum is the only useful statistic for this metric. This metric publishes periodically every minute. If you are not running any queries, the metric reports nothing (not even 0). The metric publishes only if active queries are running at the time the metric is taken. | The following dimensions are used to refine the usage metrics that are published by Athena. | Dimension | Description | | --- | --- | | `Service` | The name of the AWS service containing the resource. For Athena, the value for this dimension is `Athena`. | | `Resource` | The type of resource that is running. The resource value for Athena query usage is `ActiveQueryCount`. | | `Type` | The type of entity that's being reported. Currently, the only valid value for Athena usage metrics is `Resource`. | | `Class` | The class of resource being tracked. For Athena, `Class` can be `DML` or `DDL`. | ## View Athena resource usage metrics in the CloudWatch console You can use the CloudWatch console to see a graph of Athena usage metrics and configure alarms that alert you when your usage approaches a service quota. **To view Athena resource usage metrics** 1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Metrics**, **All metrics**. 1. Choose **Usage**, and then choose **By AWS Resource**. The list of service quota usage metrics appears. 1. Select the check box that is next to **Athena** and **ActiveQueryCount**. 1. Choose the **Graphed metrics** tab. The graph above displays your current usage of the AWS resource. For information about adding service quotas to the graph and setting an alarm that notifies you if you approach the service quota, see [Visualizing your service quotas and setting alarms](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch-Quotas-Visualize-Alarms.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*. For information about setting usage limits per workgroup, see [Configure per-query and per-workgroup data usage controls](workgroups-setting-control-limits-cloudwatch.md). # Monitor Athena query events with EventBridge You can use Amazon Athena with Amazon EventBridge to receive real-time notifications regarding the state of your queries. When a query you have submitted transitions states, Athena publishes an event to EventBridge containing information about that query state transition. You can write simple rules for events that are of interest to you and take automated actions when an event matches a rule. For example, you can create a rule that invokes an AWS Lambda function when a query reaches a terminal state. Events are emitted on a best effort basis. Before you create event rules for Athena, you should do the following: + Familiarize yourself with events, rules, and targets in EventBridge. For more information, see [What Is Amazon EventBridge?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/latest/userguide/eb-what-is.html) For more information about how to set up rules, see [Getting started with Amazon EventBridge](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/latest/userguide/eb-get-started.html). + Create the target or targets to use in your event rules. **Note** Athena currently offers one type of event, Athena Query State Change, but may add other event types and details. If you are programmatically deserializing event JSON data, make sure that your application is prepared to handle unknown properties if additional properties are added. ## Athena event format The following is the basic pattern for an Amazon Athena event. ``` { "source":[ "aws.athena" ], "detail-type":[ "Athena Query State Change" ], "detail":{ "currentState":[ "SUCCEEDED" ] } } ``` ## Athena query state change event The following example shows an Athena Query State Change event with the `currentState` value of `SUCCEEDED`. ``` { "version":"0", "id":"abcdef00-1234-5678-9abc-def012345678", "detail-type":"Athena Query State Change", "source":"aws.athena", "account":"123456789012", "time":"2019-10-06T09:30:10Z", "region":"us-east-1", "resources":[ ], "detail":{ "versionId":"0", "currentState":"SUCCEEDED", "previousState":"RUNNING", "statementType":"DDL", "queryExecutionId":"01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901", "workgroupName":"primary", "sequenceNumber":"3" } } ``` The following example shows an Athena Query State Change event with the `currentState` value of `FAILED`. The `athenaError` block appears only when `currentState` is `FAILED`. For information about the values for `errorCategory` and `errorType`, see [Athena error catalog](error-reference.md). ``` { "version":"0", "id":"abcdef00-1234-5678-9abc-def012345678", "detail-type":"Athena Query State Change", "source":"aws.athena", "account":"123456789012", "time":"2019-10-06T09:30:10Z", "region":"us-east-1", "resources":[ ], "detail":{ "athenaError": { "errorCategory": 2.0, //Value depends on nature of exception "errorType": 1306.0, //Type depends on nature of exception "errorMessage": "Amazon S3 bucket not found", //Message depends on nature of exception "retryable":false //Retryable value depends on nature of exception }, "versionId":"0", "currentState": "FAILED", "previousState": "RUNNING", "statementType":"DML", "queryExecutionId":"01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901", "workgroupName":"primary", "sequenceNumber":"3" } } ``` ### Output properties The JSON output includes the following properties. **** | Property | Description | | --- | --- | | athenaError | Appears only when currentState is FAILED. Contains information about the error that occurred, including the error category, error type, error message, and whether the action that led to the error can be retried. Values for each of these fields depend on the nature of the error. For information about the values for errorCategory and errorType, see [Athena error catalog](error-reference.md). | | versionId | The version number for the detail object's schema. | | currentState | The state that the query transitioned to at the time of the event. | | previousState | The state that the query transitioned from at the time of the event. | | statementType | The type of query statement that was run. | | queryExecutionId | The unique identifier for the query that ran. | | workgroupName | The name of the workgroup in which the query ran. | | sequenceNumber | A monotonically increasing number that allows for deduplication and ordering of incoming events that involve a single query that ran. When duplicate events are published for the same state transition, the sequenceNumber value is the same. When a query experiences a state transition more than once, such as queries that experience rare requeuing, you can use sequenceNumber to order events with identical currentState and previousState values. | ## Example The following example publishes events to an Amazon SNS topic to which you have subscribed. When Athena is queried, you receive an email. The example assumes that the Amazon SNS topic exists and that you have subscribed to it. **To publish Athena events to an Amazon SNS topic** 1. Create the target for your Amazon SNS topic. Give the EventBridge events Service Principal `events.amazonaws.com` permission to publish to your Amazon SNS topic, as in the following example. ``` { "Effect":"Allow", "Principal":{ "Service":"events.amazonaws.com" }, "Action":"sns:Publish", "Resource":"arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111111111111:your-sns-topic" } ``` 1. Use the AWS CLI `events put-rule` command to create a rule for Athena events, as in the following example. ``` aws events put-rule --name {ruleName} --event-pattern '{"source": ["aws.athena"]}' ``` 1. Use the AWS CLI `events put-targets` command to attach the Amazon SNS topic target to the rule, as in the following example. ``` aws events put-targets --rule {ruleName} --targets Id=1,Arn=arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:111111111111:your-sns-topic ``` 1. Query Athena and observe the target being invoked. You should receive corresponding emails from the Amazon SNS topic. ## Use AWS User Notifications with Amazon Athena You can use [AWS User Notifications](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/notifications/latest/userguide/what-is.html) to set up delivery channels to get notified about Amazon Athena events. You receive a notification when an event matches a rule that you specify. You can receive notifications for events through multiple channels, including email, [Amazon Q Developer in chat applications](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/chatbot/latest/adminguide/what-is.html) chat notifications, or [AWS Console Mobile Application](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/consolemobileapp/latest/userguide/what-is-consolemobileapp.html) push notifications. You can also see notifications in the [Console Notifications Center](https://console.aws.amazon.com/notifications/). User Notifications supports aggregation, which can reduce the number of notifications you receive during specific events. For more information, see the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/notifications/latest/userguide/what-is.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/notifications/latest/userguide/what-is.html). # Configure per-query and per-workgroup data usage controls Athena allows you to set two types of cost controls: per-query limit and per-workgroup limit. For each workgroup, you can set only one per-query limit and multiple per-workgroup limits. + The **per-query control limit** specifies the total amount of data scanned per query. If any query that runs in the workgroup exceeds the limit, it is canceled. You can create only one per-query control limit in a workgroup and it applies to each query that runs in it. Edit the limit if you need to change it. For detailed steps, see [To create a per-query data usage control](#configure-control-limit-per-query). + The **workgroup-wide data usage control limit** specifies the total amount of data scanned for all queries that run in this workgroup during the specified time period. You can create multiple limits per workgroup. The workgroup-wide query limit allows you to set multiple thresholds on hourly or daily aggregates on data scanned by queries running in the workgroup. If the aggregate amount of data scanned exceeds the threshold, you can push a notification to an Amazon SNS topic. To do this, you configure an Amazon SNS alarm and an action in the Athena console to notify an administrator when the limit is breached. For detailed steps, see [To create a per-workgroup data usage control](#configure-control-limit-per-workgroup). You can also create an alarm and an action on any metric that Athena publishes from the CloudWatch console. For example, you can set an alert on a number of failed queries. This alert can trigger an email to an administrator if the number crosses a certain threshold. If the limit is exceeded, an action sends an Amazon SNS alarm notification to the specified users. Other actions you can take: + Invoke a Lambda function. For more information, see [Invoking Lambda functions using Amazon SNS notifications](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sns-lambda-as-subscriber.html) in the *Amazon Simple Notification Service Developer Guide*. + Disable the workgroup to stop any further queries from running. For steps, see [Enable or disable a workgroup](workgroups-enabled-disabled.md). The per-query and per-workgroup limits are independent of each other. A specified action is taken whenever either limit is exceeded. If two or more users run queries at the same time in the same workgroup, it is possible that each query does not exceed any of the specified limits, but the total sum of data scanned exceeds the data usage limit per workgroup. In this case, an Amazon SNS alarm is sent to the user. ## Create a per-query data usage control **To create a per-query data usage control** The per-query control limit specifies the total amount of data scanned per query. If any query that runs in the workgroup exceeds the limit, it is canceled. Canceled queries are charged according to [Amazon Athena pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/athena/pricing/). **Note** In the case of canceled or failed queries, Athena may have already written partial results to Amazon S3. In such cases, Athena does not delete partial results from the Amazon S3 prefix where results are stored. You must remove the Amazon S3 prefix with partial results. Athena uses Amazon S3 multipart uploads to write data Amazon S3. We recommend that you set the bucket lifecycle policy to end multipart uploads in cases when queries fail. For more information, see [Aborting incomplete multipart uploads using a bucket lifecycle policy](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/mpuoverview.html#mpu-abort-incomplete-mpu-lifecycle-config) in the *Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide*. Under certain conditions, Athena may automatically retry query executions. In most cases, these queries are able to complete successfully and the query ID is marked as `Completed`. These queries might have written partial results during the initial attempts and may generate incomplete multipart uploads. You can create only one per-query control limit in a workgroup and it applies to each query that runs in it. Edit the limit if you need to change it. 1. Open the Athena console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/home). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Workgroups**. 1. Choose the name of the workgroup from the list. 1. On the **Execution controls** tab, choose **Edit controls**. 1. Edit the value for **Data scanned limit**. + Specify a value between 10 MB (minimum) and 7 EB (maximum). + Select a unit value from the drop-down list (for example, **Kilobytes KB** or **Exabytes EB**). **Note** The default action is to cancel the query if it exceeds the limit. This setting cannot be changed. 1. Choose **Save** to immediatly apply your changes. ## Create or edit a per-workgroup data usage alert **To create or edit a per-workgroup data usage alert** You can set multiple alert thresholds when queries running in a workgroup scan a specified amount of data within a specific period. Alerts are implemented using Amazon CloudWatch alarms and apply to all queries in the workgroup. When a threshold is reached, you can have Amazon SNS send an email to users that you specify. Queries are not automatically canceled when a threshold is reached. 1. Open the Athena console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/athena/home). 1. If the console navigation pane is not visible, choose the expansion menu on the left. 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Workgroups**. 1. Choose the name of the workgroup from the list. 1. Choose **Edit** to edit the workgroup's settings. 1. Scroll down to and expand **Workgroup data usage alerts - optional**. 1. Choose **Add alert**. 1. For **Data usage threshold configuration**, specify values as follows: + For **Data threshold**, specify a number, and then select a unit value from the drop-down list. + **For Time period**, choose a time period from the drop-down list. + For **SNS topic selection**, choose an Amazon SNS topic from the drop-down list. Or, choose **Create SNS topic** to go directly to the [Amazon SNS console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/v2/home), create the Amazon SNS topic, and set up a subscription for it for one of the users in your Athena account. For more information, see [Getting started with Amazon SNS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sns-getting-started.html) in the *Amazon Simple Notification Service Developer Guide*. 1. Choose **Add alert** if you are creating a new alert, or **Save** to save an existing alert.