Amazon CloudWatch is an AWS monitoring service that provides metrics, logs, and alarms to track the health and performance of AWS resources and applications in real time.

By integrating Amazon CloudWatch with BoldDesk, support and operations teams can automatically send CloudWatch alarms to BoldDesk as tickets. This helps teams track, assign, and resolve incidents faster from one place.

With the Amazon CloudWatch integration, BoldDesk can help you:

• Automatically create tickets when a CloudWatch alarm enters the ALARM state.
• Route alerts into your existing support workflow.
• Map alarm details, such as severity, resource type, or environment, to ticket properties such as priority, category, or assignment.
• Include key details of alarm in tickets, such as the resource ID, alarm state change, and timestamp.
• Automatically resolve or update open tickets once the corresponding alarm is restored to the OK status.

Prerequisites

Before configuring the integration, make sure the following requirements are met:

• You have an AWS account with access to Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SNS.
• You have permission to create or edit:
  • CloudWatch alarms
  • SNS topics
  • SNS subscriptions
• Your role as an agent in BoldDesk includes the permission to Manage apps.
• You have a working BoldDesk workflow for:
  • Ticket creation
  • Ticket assignment
  • Ticket update or recovery handling

Install the AWS CloudWatch app in BoldDesk

Follow these steps to install and configure the AWS CloudWatch app:

1. Go to Admin > Marketplace.

2. Search for AWS CloudWatch and open the app.

   

3. Click Install.

   

4. Enter your BoldDesk API key.

5. Click Verify & Continue.

   

6. Copy the generated Webhook URL values for use in AWS.

   

7. Select the required Brand and Group.

8. Choose the ticket status to apply when the alarm changes to OK.

9. Click Save.

   

Configure Amazon SNS in AWS

Amazon SNS is used to send CloudWatch alarm notifications to BoldDesk.

Create an SNS topic

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Search for and open Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS).
3. Go to Topics > Create topic.
4. Choose the topic type as Standard.
5. Enter the Topic name and Display name.
6. Click Create topic.

Create subscription

1. In Amazon SNS, go to Subscriptions > Create subscription.

2. Select the SNS topic that you created.

3. Set Protocol to HTTPS.

4. Paste the BoldDesk webhook endpoint URL copied over from BoldDesk into the Endpoint field.

5. Click Create subscription.

   

Create a CloudWatch alarm

After configuring SNS, create the CloudWatch alarm that will send notifications to BoldDesk.

1. Open Amazon CloudWatch in the AWS console.

2. Go to Alarms > All alarms.

3. Click Create alarm.

4. Select the metric that you want to monitor, such as:

   • EC2

   • RDS

   • S3

   • ElastiCache

   • VPC

     

5. Configure the required alarm settings, including:

   • Statistic
   • Period
   • Comparison rule
   • Threshold

6. Click Next.

7. Under Notifications, select the SNS topic that you created for the ALARM state.

8. If you want BoldDesk to receive recovery notifications, select the same SNS topic for the OK state as well.

Refer to the AWS documentation for creating CloudWatch alarms for more details.

How integration works

Once the setup is complete, the integration works as follows:

1. Amazon CloudWatch monitors the selected AWS resource or metric.
2. When the configured threshold is breached, CloudWatch changes the alarm state.
3. CloudWatch sends the alarm notification to Amazon SNS.
4. Amazon SNS forwards the notification to the BoldDesk HTTPS endpoint.
5. BoldDesk processes the incoming event and creates or updates a ticket based on the configured workflow.
6. When the metric returns to the OK state, CloudWatch can send another notification so that the same ticket can be updated, resolved, or closed.

How alerts appear in BoldDesk

When a CloudWatch alarm is received in BoldDesk:

• A new ticket can be created, or an existing ticket can be updated.
• Ticket properties such as priority, category, and assignment can be mapped from alarm details.
• The ticket can contain information such as:
  • Alarm name
  • Resource ID
  • AWS region
  • Alarm state
  • State change reason
  • Timestamp
• When the alarm changes back to OK, the same ticket can be updated or moved to a resolved or closed status.

Example use cases

You can use this integration for scenarios such as:

• Creating a ticket when an EC2 instance exceeds CPU usage thresholds.
• Sending storage-related alerts from Amazon RDS or S3 to BoldDesk.
• Routing production environment alerts a specific support group.
• Automatically resolving tickets when a monitored service recovers.

Troubleshooting

If the integration does not work as expected, review the following checks.

1. Subscription remains in Pending confirmation
Make sure that:

• The BoldDesk endpoint is publicly accessible
• The endpoint uses HTTPS
• The endpoint accepts POST requests from Amazon SNS

2. Tickets are not created
Verify that:

• The CloudWatch alarm is configured to use the correct SNS topic for the ALARM state
• The BoldDesk app configuration is complete
• The BoldDesk workflow is active and correctly configured to process incoming events

3. Recovery updates do not appear
Make sure that:

• The CloudWatch alarm also publishes notifications for the OK state
• The same SNS topic is selected for recovery notifications
• The BoldDesk workflow is configured to update, resolve, or close existing tickets

4. Too many alerts are created
To reduce alert noise, review the CloudWatch alarm settings and adjust:

• Threshold values
• Evaluation periods
• Metric selection
• Comparison rules

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does the Amazon CloudWatch integration do in BoldDesk?
   The Amazon CloudWatch integration sends CloudWatch alarms and monitoring events to BoldDesk as tickets. This helps support and operations teams track, assign, and resolve AWS-related incidents from BoldDesk.

2. What do I need before configuring the Amazon CloudWatch integration in BoldDesk?
   Before configuring the Amazon CloudWatch integration in BoldDesk, make sure you have:

   • An AWS account with access to Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SNS
   • Permission to create or edit CloudWatch alarms, SNS topics, and SNS subscriptions
   • The Manage apps permission in BoldDesk
   • A working BoldDesk workflow for ticket creation, ticket assignment, and ticket update or recovery handling

3. Why is the Amazon SNS subscription stuck in Pending confirmation when integrating Amazon CloudWatch with BoldDesk?
   The Amazon SNS subscription can remain in Pending confirmation if the BoldDesk webhook endpoint is not publicly reachable, does not use HTTPS, or does not accept POST requests from Amazon SNS. Amazon SNS must confirm the subscription before notifications can be delivered to BoldDesk.

4. Can Amazon CloudWatch update or resolve the same ticket in BoldDesk when the alarm returns to OK?
   Yes. If the CloudWatch alarm is configured to send notifications for the OK state, BoldDesk can update the same ticket and move it to the configured status, such as a resolved or closed status, based on your workflow.

5. Why are Amazon CloudWatch alarms not creating tickets in BoldDesk?
   If Amazon CloudWatch alarms are not creating tickets in BoldDesk, check the following:

   • The CloudWatch alarm is using the correct SNS topic for the ALARM state
   • The Amazon SNS subscription is confirmed
   • The BoldDesk app configuration is complete
   • The BoldDesk workflow is active and configured to process incoming events