# Network Synthetic Monitor dashboards
<a name="nw-monitor-dashboards"></a>

You can use dashboards in Network Synthetic Monitor to determine if a network issue is caused by AWS, by using the network health indicator (NHI), and view probe round-trip time and packet loss. You can view this information and metrics for monitors, as well as for individual probes.

Network Synthetic Monitor creates several metrics that you can view in CloudWatch Metrics. You can specify alarms for the metrics that Network Synthetic Monitor returns. For more information, see [Probe alarms](cw-nwm-create-alarm.md).

**Topics**
+ [Monitor dashboards](nw-monitor-db.md)
+ [Probe dashboards](nw-probe-db.md)
+ [Specify metrics time frame](nw-monitor-time-frame.md)

# Monitor dashboards
<a name="nw-monitor-db"></a>

You can use the monitor dashboard in Network Synthetic Monitor to view the network health indicator (NHI), as well as probe round-trip time and packet loss at a monitor level. That is, a monitor dashboard shows this information for all the probes created for the monitor.

Network Synthetic Monitor also has dashboards for probes, to view the information at a probe level. For more information, see [Probe dashboards](nw-probe-db.md).

**To access a monitor dashboard**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/), and then under **Network Monitoring**, choose **Synthetic monitors**.

1. In the **Monitors** section, choose the **Name** link to open the monitor dashboard.

## Overview page
<a name="nw-monitor-overview"></a>

The **Overview** page displays the following information for a monitor:
+ **Network health** — Network health displays the network health indicator (NHI) value, which pertains to health of only the AWS network. The NHI status is displayed as **Healthy** or **Degraded**. A **Healthy** status indicates that Network Synthetic Monitor did not observe issues with the AWS network. A **Degraded** status indicates that Network Synthetic Monitor observed an issue with the AWS network. The status bar in this section shows the status of the network health indicator over a default time of one hour. Hover over any point in the status bar to view additional details.
+ **Probe traffic summary** — Displays the current state of the traffic between the source AWS subnets specified for the probes in the monitor and the probes' destination IP addresses. This summary displays the following:
  + **Probes in alarm** — This number indicates how many of your probes in this monitor are in a degraded state. An alarm is triggered when a metric that you've set up as an alarm is triggered. For information on creating alarms for metrics in Network Synthetic Monitor, see [Probe alarms](cw-nwm-create-alarm.md).
  + **Packet loss** — The number of packets that were lost from the source subnet to the destination IP address. This is represented as a percentage of the total packets sent.
  + **Round-trip time** — The time it takes, displayed in milliseconds, for a packet from the source subnet to reach the destination IP address, and then come back again. Round-trip time is the average RTT observed during the aggregation period.

The data is represented on an interactive graph, so you can explore to learn details. 

By default, data is displayed for a two-hour time frame, calculated from the current date and time. However, you can change the range to fit your needs. For more information, see [Specify metrics time frame](nw-monitor-time-frame.md).

### Tracking metrics
<a name="nw-monitor-graphs"></a>

The **Overview** dashboard in Network Synthetic Monitor displays a graphical representation of a monitor and probes. The following graphs are shown:
+ **Network health indicator** — This represents the the NHI values over a specified period. NHI indicates whether a network issue is due to problems with the AWS network. NHI is displayed as **Healthy** (no issue with the AWS network) or **Degraded** (there is an issue with the AWS network).

  In the following example, you can see that from 15:00 UTC until 15:05 UTC, there was a network issue that was due to an AWS network issue (**Degraded**). After 15:05, the network issue with the AWS network ended, so the value returned to **Healthy**. You can hover over any section of the graph to see additional details.  
![\[AWS network health indicator showing both a healthy and degraded state.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/images/nwm_network_health.png)
**Note**  
The NHI indicates that an issue is due to the AWS network. It does not describe the overall health of the AWS network nor the health of Network Synthetic Monitor probes.
+ **Packet loss** — This graph displays a line that shows the percentage of packet loss for each probe in a monitor. The legend at the bottom of the page displays each of the probes in the monitor, color-coded for uniqueness. You can hover over a probe in the chart to see the source subnet, the destination IP address, and the percentage of packet loss.

  In the following example, a packet loss alarm was created for a probe from a subnet to IP address 127.0.0.1. The alarm was triggered when the packet loss threshold was exceeded for the probe. If you hover over the graph, you can see the probe source and destination, and that there was a 30.97% packet loss for this probe on November 21 at 02:41:30.  
![\[Packet loss showing an example probe with a 30.97% packet loss.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/images/nwm_packet_loss.png)
+ **Round-trip time** — This graph displays a line that shows the round-trip time for each probe. The legend at the bottom of the page displays each of the probes in the monitor, color-coded for uniqueness. You can hover over a probe in the chart to see the source subnet, the destination IP address, and the round-trip time.

  The following example shows that on Tuesday, Nov 21, at 21:45:30, the round-trip time for a probe from a subnet to IP address 127.0.0.1 was 0.075 seconds.  
![\[Example showing the round-trip time for a probe.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/images/nwm_rtt.png)

## Monitor details
<a name="nw-monitor-health-details"></a>

The **Monitor details** page displays details about your monitor, including a list of the probes for the monitor. You can update or add tags, or add a probe. The page includes the following sections:
+ **Monitor details ** — This page provides details about your monitor. You can't edit information in this section. However, you can view details of the Network Synthetic Monitor service-linked role: choose the **Role name** link to see details.
+ **Probes** — This section displays a list of all probes associated with the monitor. Choose a **VPC** or **Subnet ID** link to open the VPC or subnet details in the Amazon VPC Console. You can modify a probe, to activate or deactivate it. For more information, see [Working with monitors and probes in Network Synthetic Monitor](nw-monitor-working-with.md).

  The **Probes** section displays information about each probe set up for that monitor, including the probe **ID**, the **VPC ID**, the** Subnet ID**, **IP address**, **Protocol**, and whether the probe is **Active** or **Inactive**.

  If you've created an alarm for a probe, the current **Status** of the alarm is shown. A status of **OK** indicates that there are no metrics events have triggered any alarms. A status of **In alarm** indicates that a metric that you created in CloudWatch triggered an alarm. If no status is displayed for a probe, then there isn't a CloudWatch alarm for it. For information on the types of Network Synthetic Monitor probe alarms that you can create, see [Probe alarms](cw-nwm-create-alarm.md). 
+ **Tags** — View the current tags for a monitor. You can add or remove tags by choosing **Manage tags**. This opens the **Edit probe** page. For more information on editing tags, see [Edit a monitor](nw-monitor-edit.md).

# Probe dashboards
<a name="nw-probe-db"></a>

You can use a **Probe** dashboard in Network Synthetic Monitor to view the network health indicator (NHI) for a probe, as well as information about round-trip time and packet loss for specific probes. There are two dashboards for probes: an **Overview** page and** Probe details** page.

You can create CloudWatch alarms to set packet loss and round-trip time metric thresholds. When a threshold is reached for a metric, a CloudWatch alarm notifies you. For information on creating probe alarms, see [Probe alarms](cw-nwm-create-alarm.md). 

**To access a probe dashboard**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/), and then, under **Network Monitoring**, choose **Synthetic monitors**.

1. In the **Monitors** section, choose the **Name** link to open the dashboard for a specific monitor.

1. To view the dashboard for a specific probe, choose the **ID** link for the probe.

## Overview page
<a name="nw-probe-db-overview"></a>

The **Overview** page displays the following information for a probe:
+ **Network health** — Network health displays the network health indicator (NHI) value, which pertains only to health of the AWS network. The NHI status is provided as **Healthy** or **Degraded**. A **Healthy** status indicates that Network Synthetic Monitor did not observe issues with the AWS network for a probe. A **Degraded** status indicates that Network Synthetic Monitor observed an issue with the AWS network. The status bar in this section shows the status of the network health indicator over a default time of one hour. Hover over any point in the status bar to view additional details.
+ **Packet loss** — The number of packets that were lost from the source subnet to the destination IP address for this probe.
+ **Round-trip time** — The time it takes, in milliseconds, for a packet from the source subnet to reach the destination IP address, and then come back again. Round-trip time (RTT) is the average RTT observed during the aggregation period.

## Probe details
<a name="nw-probe-db-details"></a>

The **Probe details** page displays information about a probe, including the source and destination. You can also edit the probe, for example, to activate or deactivate it. For more information, see [Working with monitors and probes in Network Synthetic Monitor](nw-monitor-working-with.md).
+ **Probe details** — This section provides general information about the probe, which can't be edited. 
+ **Probe source and destination** — This section displays details about the probe. Choose a **VPC** or **Subnet ID** link to open the VPC or subnet details in the Amazon VPC Console. You can modify a probe, for example, to activate or deactivate it. 
+ **Tags** — View the current tags for a monitor. You can add or remove tags by choosing **Manage tags**. This opens the **Edit probe** page. For more information on editing tags, see [Edit a probe](nw-monitor-probe-edit.md).

# Specify metrics time frame
<a name="nw-monitor-time-frame"></a>

Metrics and events on the dashboards in Network Synthetic Monitor use a default time of two hours, calculated from the current time, but you can set a custom metrics default time frame to use. You can change the default to one of the following presets for the metrics time frame:
+ **1h** — one hour
+ **2h** — two hours
+ **1d** — one day
+ **1w** — one week

You can also set a custom time frame. Choose **Custom**, choose an **Absolute** or **Relative** time, and then set the time frame to a time of your own choosing. Relative time supports only 15 days back from today's date, following CloudWatch guidelines.

Additionally, you can choose the time displayed in the charts to be based on either the UTC time zone or a local time zone. 

For more information, see [Changing the time range or time zone format of a CloudWatch dashboard](change_dashboard_time_format.md).