Cloudwatch Monitoring

#cloudwatch #cloudcomputing #cloudflarechallenge #awschallenge

🛠️ Node.js Logging to CloudWatch from Dockerized EC2 App

🧩 Project Overview

In this project, I built a lightweight Node.js web server using Morgan middleware to log HTTP requests. I deployed it on an EC2 instance, containerized the app with Docker, and then configured AWS CloudWatch to stream logs both from a file (for traditional deployment) and directly from Docker (for container-based monitoring).

This dual setup gave me deep visibility into application traffic using two popular logging strategies—and helped me better understand how to monitor apps in cloud-native environments.

🚀 What I Built

✅ A Node.js app with HTTP request logging using Morgan
✅ Dockerized version of the app using a custom Dockerfile
✅ Deployed on an Ubuntu EC2 instance
✅ Implemented two types of logging to CloudWatch:
- File-based logging with CloudWatch Agent (for non-containerized apps)
- Docker log driver for real-time streaming (for containerized apps)

💡 Why This Matters

Logging is critical for:

📈 Monitoring traffic and diagnosing issues
🔒 Ensuring app health and security
🔍 Auditing activity for compliance or troubleshooting

This project taught me:

How to configure IAM roles securely for EC2 and CloudWatch
How to write logs to both file and console for hybrid observability
How to use Docker's native log drivers to stream data to AWS CloudWatch
The differences and use cases between classic agent-based logging vs container-native logging

🧠 Key Learnings

Docker logs can be streamed directly to CloudWatch without writing to disk
Morgan allows dual streaming (file + console), which is perfect for hybrid setups
CloudWatch Agent requires precise file paths and log group names to function
IAM roles must be attached to EC2 instances with the correct policies (CloudWatchAgentServerPolicy, AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore)
Real-time log monitoring helps identify traffic patterns and potential issues instantly

🛠️ Tech Stack

Node.js
Express / Morgan middleware
Docker
AWS EC2 (Ubuntu)
AWS CloudWatch Logs
AWS IAM Roles
CloudWatch Agent

🔍 How to Try It Yourself

Clone the Node.js app with Morgan logging
Build the Docker image and run it
Either:
- Use CloudWatch Agent to stream from a file, or
- Use Docker's awslogs driver for direct streaming
Monitor traffic logs in CloudWatch in real time!