Terraform Datadog Monitors Module

Overview

This Terraform module creates basic host metrics monitors for CPU and disk usage with accompanying visualization timeboard in Datadog.

Features

• CPU Monitoring: Track EC2 instance CPU utilization
• Disk Monitoring: Monitor disk usage across hosts
• Automated Alerting: No-data notifications included
• Visualization: Read-only timeboard with alert thresholds
• Configurable Thresholds: Customizable warning and critical levels

Resources Created

• datadog_monitor (disk_usage): Metric alert for disk usage
• datadog_monitor (cpu_usage): Query alert for CPU usage
• datadog_timeboard (host_metrics): Read-only visualization dashboard

Requirements

Name	Version
terraform	>= 0.12
datadog	>= 3.2.0

Usage

module "datadog_monitors" {
  source = "./terraform-datadog-monitors"

  datadog_api_key = var.datadog_api_key
  datadog_app_key = var.datadog_app_key
  api_url         = "https://api.datadoghq.eu"
  
  disk_usage = {
    query     = "max:system.disk.in_use"
    threshold = "85"
  }
  
  cpu_usage = {
    query     = "avg:aws.ec2.cpuutilization"
    threshold = "85"
  }
}

Inputs

Name	Description	Type	Required	Default
datadog_api_key	Datadog API key	string	yes	-
datadog_app_key	Datadog APP key	string	yes	-
api_url	API endpoint	string	no	"https://api.datadoghq.eu"
http_client_retry_enabled	Enable request retries (429, 5xx)	bool	no	true
http_client_retry_timeout	HTTP retry timeout	string	no	""
validate	Validate API/APP keys on init	bool	no	true
disk_usage	Query and threshold for disk monitor	map	no	See default
cpu_usage	Query and threshold for CPU monitor	map	no	See default
datadog_alert_footer	Alert message footer	string	no	PagerDuty + Slack template
trigger_by	Grouping for alerts	string	no	"{host,env}"

Monitor Configuration

Disk Usage Monitor

• Query: avg(last_5m):max:system.disk.in_use{*} by {host,env} * 100 > 85
• Type: Metric alert
• Threshold: 85% (configurable)
• Evaluation: Last 5 minutes average
• Grouping: By host and env
• No Data: Notifies after 10 minutes

CPU Usage Monitor

• Query: avg(last_5m):avg:aws.ec2.cpuutilization{*} by {host,env} > 85
• Type: Query alert
• Threshold: 85% (configurable)
• Evaluation: Last 5 minutes average
• Grouping: By host and env
• No Data: Notifies after 10 minutes

Timeboard

The module creates a read-only timeboard with:

• CPU usage graph with alert threshold marker
• Disk usage graph with alert threshold marker
• Alert overlay showing when thresholds are breached

Alert Message Template

Default alert footer includes integration with:

• PagerDuty: @pagerduty-service_name
• Slack: @slack-channel_name

Customize via the datadog_alert_footer variable.

Outputs

Currently, this module does not export any outputs.

Customization

Custom Thresholds

disk_usage = {
  query     = "max:system.disk.in_use"
  threshold = "90"  # Raise to 90%
}

cpu_usage = {
  query     = "avg:aws.ec2.cpuutilization"
  threshold = "75"  # Lower to 75%
}

Custom Grouping

trigger_by = "{host,env,service}"

Notes

• Monitors include no-data alerting by default
• Timeboard is read-only to prevent accidental modifications
• Uses 5-minute evaluation windows
• Supports HTTP client retries for reliability
• Can be reused across multiple environments via variable configuration

License

Internal use only - Sanoma/WeBuildYourCloud

Authors

Created and maintained by the Platform Engineering team.