---
title: "A Missing Metric Can Be Just as Dangerous as a High CPU Alert"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-missing-metric-can-be-just-as-dangerous-as-a-high-cpu-alert-ezt1itvwm
source_url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-missing-metric-can-be-just-as-dangerous-as-a-high-cpu-alert-ezt1itvwm
type: freeform
source: "Divyansh"
author: "Divyansh"
published: 2026-06-19T04:44:12.806Z
updated: 2026-06-19T04:44:29.817Z
tags: ["observability", "monitoring", "aws-ec2", "aws-cloudwatch"]
reading_time: 1
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# A Missing Metric Can Be Just as Dangerous as a High CPU Alert

**[Divyansh](https://daily.dev/sources/jmq4qarkte7zpursprrzm)** · [@divyansh30](https://daily.dev/divyansh30) · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A reflection on monitoring blind spots, specifically around memory metrics on AWS EC2. The core argument is that missing a metric can be just as dangerous as a high CPU alert — teams often assume they have coverage until an incident reveals otherwise. The post links to a walkthrough on setting up EC2 memory monitoring with CloudWatch to close this common visibility gap.

## Content

Everything looks healthy.

CPU usage is normal.
Disk usage looks fine.
Network traffic is stable.

Then an application starts slowing down.

That's usually when teams realize they're missing the metric they actually needed.

Memory usage is one of those metrics many teams assume they already have until they need it during an incident.

The difficult part isn't collecting metrics.

It's knowing which metrics you'll need before an incident happens.

Good monitoring isn't just about having dashboards.

It's about avoiding blind spots that make troubleshooting harder when systems start behaving unexpectedly.

I found this walkthrough useful because it explains how to monitor EC2 memory usage with CloudWatch and close one of the more common visibility gaps in AWS environments:

[https://www.kubeblogs.com/set-up-ec2-memory-monitoring/](https://www.kubeblogs.com/set-up-ec2-memory-monitoring/)

---

Tags: [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#monitoring](https://daily.dev/tags/monitoring), [#aws-ec2](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-ec2), [#aws-cloudwatch](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-cloudwatch)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-missing-metric-can-be-just-as-dangerous-as-a-high-cpu-alert-ezt1itvwm)