Install & Configure Cloudwatch Unified Agent on Amazon Linux

1. Create an Amazon Linux EC2 Instance
2. Create an IAM Role and attach to EC2 instance
   
3. Login to your EC2 instance
4. Download Agent

   wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/amazoncloudwatch-agent/linux/amd64/latest/AmazonCloudWatchAgent.zip

5. Unzip Package

   unzip AmazonCloudWatchAgent.zip

6. Install Package

   sudo ./install.sh

7. Start config wizard

   cd /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin
   
   ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent-config-wizard

8. Choose follow options:

   On which OS are you planning to use the agent?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Are you using EC2 or On-Premises hosts?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Which user are you planning to run the agent?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Do you want to turn on StatsD daemon?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Which port do you want StatsD daemon to listen to?
   default choice: [8125]
   
   What is the collect interval for StatsD daemon?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   What is the aggregation interval for metrics collected by StatsD daemon?
   default choice: [4]:
   
   Do you want to monitor metrics from CollectD?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Do you want to monitor any host metrics? e.g. CPU, memory, etc.
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Do you want to monitor cpu metrics per core? Additional CloudWatch charges may apply.
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Do you want to add ec2 dimensions (ImageId, InstanceId, InstanceType, AutoScalingGroupName) into all of your metrics if the info is available?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Would you like to collect your metrics at high resolution (sub-minute resolution)? This enables sub-minute resolution for all metrics, but you can customize for specific metrics in the output json file.
   default choice: [4]:
   
   Which default metrics config do you want?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Are you satisfied with the above config? Note: it can be manually customized after the wizard completes to add additional items.
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Do you have any existing CloudWatch Log Agent (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/AgentReference.html) configuration file to import for migration?
   choice: [2]:
   
   Do you want to monitor any log files?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Log file path:
   /var/log/secure
   
   Log group name:
   default choice: [secure]
   
   Log stream name:
   default choice: [{instance_id}]
   
   Do you want to specify any additional log files to monitor?
   choice: [2]:
   
   Do you want to store the config in the SSM parameter store?
   default choice: [1]:
   
   What parameter store name do you want to use to store your config? (Use 'AmazonCloudWatch-' prefix if you use our managed AWS policy)
   default choice: [AmazonCloudWatch-linux]
   
   Trying to fetch the default region based on ec2 metadata...
   Which region do you want to store the config in the parameter store?
   default choice: [us-east-1]
   
   Which AWS credential should be used to send json config to parameter store?
   1. ASIAY7UO4T4XSD4PQZOX(From SDK)
   2. Other
   default choice: [1]:
   
   Successfully put config to parameter store AmazonCloudWatch-linux.
   Program exits now.

9. Start CloudWatch Agent

   ./amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a fetch-config -m ec2 -c ssm:AmazonCloudWatch-linux -s

10. And we are done, you can see custom metrics and logs in Cloudwatch

If you get this error: Error parsing /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/etc/amazon-cloudwatch-agent.toml, open /usr/share/collectd/types.db: no such file or directory

Workaround:

mkdir /usr/share/collectd
touch /usr/share/collectd/types.db