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How to Set Up CloudWatch Alarms for AWS MediaConvert

Use CloudWatch metric alarms for MediaConvert queue trends and EventBridge with SNS for email on individual job failures. Learn how to select scope, configure alerts, and test each path.
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Use a CloudWatch metric alarm to alert on a MediaConvert queue trend, such as a growing backlog, or on operation-level API errors. To get an email for each individual job that enters the ERROR state, use an EventBridge rule with an SNS email subscription instead. These are different alerting mechanisms, and a production workflow may use both.

Choose the signal that matches the problem

MediaConvert metrics are grouped by operation, queue, and job. The right group depends on what you need to know:

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  • Queue metrics: Activity and processing behavior across a queue. AWS identifies StandbyTime as a metric you can use to alarm on a large job queue backlog.
  • Operation metrics: Errors from MediaConvert API interactions. Use these when you need to monitor request-level problems.
  • Job metrics: Output and workflow behavior, including measures such as output duration. AWS says metrics including Errors, JobErrorsByCode, and output duration measures are sent to CloudWatch at the end of every job.

For a backlog alert, start with the queue-level StandbyTime metric. AWS does not prescribe a universal threshold, statistic, or period for every workload. Set the threshold against your queue-latency objective and observed normal behavior rather than treating an arbitrary value as an AWS recommendation.

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Find the metric at the right scope

  1. Open CloudWatch in the AWS account and region where the relevant MediaConvert workload runs.
  2. Inspect the MediaConvert metrics and choose the metric that answers your operational question: for example, StandbyTime for queue backlog, an operation metric for API errors, or a job metric for completed-job output behavior.
  3. Check the metric’s dimensions and select the intended queue or job scope. A different dimension combination can represent different work; ensure the alarm is not watching an unintended scope.

The MediaConvert documentation establishes the metric categories, but not a single statistic or evaluation period suitable for all of them. Choose those settings based on how the selected metric is published and how quickly your team needs to react.

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Create a CloudWatch metric alarm

  1. In CloudWatch, create an alarm for the selected MediaConvert metric and dimension combination.
  2. Choose a statistic and period appropriate to that metric’s publication behavior and your response needs. Do not assume that every MediaConvert metric is emitted continuously; AWS states that the listed job and output measures are sent at job end.
  3. Set the threshold using a service objective or a measured baseline for the queue or workflow. For a backlog alarm, decide what standby behavior is operationally unacceptable; AWS does not supply one threshold for all queues.
  4. Configure the alarm state action if people or systems should be notified when the metric crosses the threshold.

A metric alarm evaluates a metric over time. It is useful for conditions such as a queue trend crossing a limit, but it is not the same as a notification for one specific job entering an error state.

Send an email when a job enters ERROR

For an individual failed-job notification, AWS documents an EventBridge rule matching MediaConvert job-state-change events and targeting an SNS topic. This event-driven path does not wait for a metric to cross a threshold.

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  1. Create a standard SNS topic and add an email subscription for the recipient. The recipient must confirm the subscription before SNS can deliver notifications.
  2. Create an EventBridge rule with this event pattern:
{
  "source": ["aws.mediaconvert"],
  "detail-type": ["MediaConvert Job State Change"],
  "detail": {
    "status": ["ERROR"]
  }
}
  1. Set the SNS topic as the rule’s target, then save the rule.

The account’s permissions must allow the rule to deliver to the selected target. The exact permissions needed depend on the account configuration; AWS’s documented example does not establish a complete least-privilege policy for every workload.

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Test both alert paths

Test the failed-job email

AWS’s EventBridge tutorial recommends submitting a job expected to fail, such as one that refers to an input location that does not exist, and checking that the subscribed email receives the notification. This tests the EventBridge-to-SNS path.

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Test the metric alarm separately

Validate the CloudWatch alarm using safe test conditions or representative metric data. A successful failed-job email test does not prove that a metric alarm has the correct scope, statistic, period, threshold, or action.

Troubleshoot missing or misleading alerts

  • No email after an ERROR job: Confirm the SNS email subscription was confirmed, the EventBridge pattern matches the event’s source, detail type, and status, and the SNS topic is the rule target.
  • The rule matches but SNS does not receive the event: Check that the rule is enabled and that permissions allow EventBridge to publish to the topic.
  • The alarm stays quiet during a queue delay: Verify that the alarm uses the intended queue dimension and that the selected metric, statistic, period, and threshold reflect the metric’s publication behavior and your latency objective.
  • The alarm reports unexpected activity: Recheck its dimensions. A queue-, job-, or operation-level selection may be watching a different scope than intended.
  • A job completes but output metrics are not immediately visible: AWS says the cited job and output metrics are sent at job end, so do not assume they update continuously while a job is running.
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