# Using Amazon FSx for OpenZFS CloudWatch metrics
<a name="how_to_use_metrics"></a>

There are two primary architectural components of each Amazon FSx file system:
+ The **file server** that serves data to clients that access the file system.
+ The **storage volumes** that host the data in your file system.

FSx for OpenZFS reports metrics in CloudWatch that track performance and resource utilization for your file system's file server and storage volumes. The following diagram illustrates an Amazon FSx file system with its architectural components, and the performance and resource CloudWatch metrics that are available for monitoring. The key property for a set of metrics is the file system property that determines the capacity for those metrics. Adjusting that property modifies the file system's performance for that set of metrics.

![\[Diagram displaying the different types of FSx for OpenZFS Cloudwatch metrics.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/OpenZFSGuide/images/file-server-metrics-FSxZ.png)


You can use the **Monitoring & performance** panel on your file system's dashboard in the Amazon FSx console to view the metrics that are described in the following table. For more information, see [Accessing CloudWatch metrics](accessingmetrics.md).

[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/OpenZFSGuide/how_to_use_metrics.html)

**Note**  
We recommend that you provision throughput capacity so that the utilization of any performance-related dimension,—such as typical network, CPU, and memory utilization is less than 50%. This ensures that you have enough spare throughput capacity for unexpected spikes in your workload, as well as for background storage operations.