First Monitor

Creating Your First Monitor

This guide will walk you through creating and deploying your first DataDog monitor using the DataDog Monitor Deployer.

Prerequisites

• DataDog Monitor Deployer installed (pip install datadog-monitor-deployer)
• DataDog API and Application keys configured
• Basic understanding of DataDog monitors

Step 1: Create Your First Monitor Configuration

Create a file named monitor.yaml with the following content:

monitors:
  - name: "High CPU Usage Alert"
    type: "metric alert"
    query: "avg(last_5m):avg:system.cpu.user{*} > 80"
    message: |
      CPU usage is above 80%

      {{#is_alert}}
      System is experiencing high CPU usage.
      Please investigate immediately.
      {{/is_alert}}

      {{#is_recovery}}
      CPU usage has returned to normal levels.
      {{/is_recovery}}
    tags:
      - "env:production"
      - "service:web"
      - "team:platform"
    priority: 2
    options:
      notify_no_data: true
      no_data_timeframe: 10
      notify_audit: false
      timeout_h: 0
      evaluation_delay: 900
      new_host_delay: 300
      include_tags: true
      require_full_window: false
      renotify_interval: 60
      thresholds:
        critical: 80
        warning: 70
        ok: 60

Step 2: Validate Your Configuration

Before deploying, validate your monitor configuration:

dd-monitor validate monitor.yaml

Step 3: Deploy Your Monitor

Deploy your monitor to DataDog:

dd-monitor deploy monitor.yaml

Step 4: Verify the Monitor

1. Log into your DataDog account
2. Navigate to Monitors > Manage Monitors
3. Find your newly created "High CPU Usage Alert" monitor
4. Verify the configuration matches your YAML file

Understanding the Configuration

Let's break down the key components of the monitor configuration:

Basic Properties

• name: The display name of your monitor
• type: The type of monitor (e.g., "metric alert", "log alert")
• query: The monitor's detection query
• message: The notification message (supports templating)

Tags and Priority

• tags: Labels for organizing and filtering monitors
• priority: Importance level (1-5, where 1 is highest)

Options

• notify_no_data: Whether to alert when data is missing
• evaluation_delay: Delay before evaluating data points
• thresholds: Alert and recovery thresholds

Next Steps

• Learn about different monitor types
• Explore templating options
• Understand best practices
• Set up automated deployments

Common Issues

Monitor Not Appearing

• Verify your API credentials
• Check the deployment command output
• Ensure the YAML syntax is correct

Incorrect Thresholds

• Verify the query syntax
• Check threshold values and operators
• Validate the configuration file

Additional Resources

• DataDog Monitor Documentation
• Query Language Guide
• Alert Message Templating