CloudWatch Agent vs SSM Agent vs Custom Daemon Scripts

Home » AWS Cheat Sheets » AWS Comparison of Services » CloudWatch Agent vs SSM Agent vs Custom Daemon Scripts

CloudWatch Agent vs SSM Agent vs Custom Daemon Scripts

Last updated on April 8, 2023

CloudWatch Agent SSM Agent (AWS Systems Manager) Custom Daemon Scripts
  • CloudWatch agent allows you to collect more system-level metrics from your EC2 and on-premises servers than just the standard CloudWatch metrics.

  • It also enables you to retrieve custom metrics from your applications or services using the StatsD and collectd protocols. StatsD is supported on both Linux servers and servers running Windows Server. collectd is supported only on Linux servers.

  • You can use CloudWatch agent to collect logs from your servers and send them to CloudWatch Logs.

  • Metrics collected by the CloudWatch agent are billed as custom metrics.

  • You can install CloudWatch Agent using three ways:

    • via Command Line

    • via SSM Agent

    • via AWS CloudFormation
  • SSM Agent is Amazon software that runs on your EC2 instances and your hybrid instances that are configured for Systems Manager.

  • SSM Agent processes requests from the Systems Manager service in the cloud and configures your machine as specified in the request. You can manage servers without having to log in to them using automation.

  • SSM Agent sends status and execution information back to the Systems Manager service by using the EC2 Messaging service.

  • SSM Agent runs on Amazon EC2 instances using root permissions (Linux) or SYSTEM permissions (Windows).

  • CloudWatch agent replaces SSM agent in sending metric logs to CloudWatch Logs.
  • You use custom scripts (such as cron or bash scripts) if the two previously mentioned agents do not fit your needs.

  • CloudWatch agent is useful for collecting system-level metrics and logs. You can create custom scripts that perform some modifications before the metrics are sent out.

  • SSM Agent is also useful for automation purposes, though Systems Manager does not have a document for every case scenario. You may also have some compliance requirements that would require SSM Agent to be disabled (recall that SSM agent runs at root level permissions).

 

References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/Install-CloudWatch-Agent.html
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/ssm-agent.html

Tutorials Dojo portal

Be Inspired and Mentored with Cloud Career Journeys!

Tutorials Dojo portal

Enroll Now – Our Azure Certification Exam Reviewers

Tutorials dojo strip

azure reviewers tutorials dojo

Enroll Now – Our Google Cloud Certification Exam Reviewers

Tutorials Dojo Exam Study Guide eBooks

tutorials dojo study guide eBook

FREE AWS Exam Readiness Digital Courses

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Tutorials Dojo YouTube Channel

FREE Intro to Cloud Computing for Beginners

FREE AWS, Azure, GCP Practice Test Samplers

Recent Posts

Written by: Jon Bonso

Jon Bonso is the co-founder of Tutorials Dojo, an EdTech startup and an AWS Digital Training Partner that provides high-quality educational materials in the cloud computing space. He graduated from Mapúa Institute of Technology in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. Jon holds 10 AWS Certifications and is also an active AWS Community Builder since 2020.

AWS, Azure, and GCP Certifications are consistently among the top-paying IT certifications in the world, considering that most companies have now shifted to the cloud. Earn over $150,000 per year with an AWS, Azure, or GCP certification!

Follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or join our Slack study group. More importantly, answer as many practice exams as you can to help increase your chances of passing your certification exams on your first try!

View Our AWS, Azure, and GCP Exam Reviewers Check out our FREE courses

Our Community

~98%
passing rate
Around 95-98% of our students pass the AWS Certification exams after training with our courses.
200k+
students
Over 200k enrollees choose Tutorials Dojo in preparing for their AWS Certification exams.
~4.8
ratings
Our courses are highly rated by our enrollees from all over the world.

What our students say about us?