Question

What is the difference between CloudWatch and CloudTrail?

Answer 1

Cloudtrial is used for monitoring the API calls made to a particular service or Application. It is primarily used to monitor API calls and is applicable for a selected services only.

CloudWatch is used for logging events that happen on any particular AWS service. It is the default logging service provided by AWS and can be configured to detect Alarm conditions such as High CPU, Low Disk Space, Network Parameters etc.

Answer 2

CloudWatch is mostly used to monitor operational health and performance, but can also provide automation via Rules which respond to state changes. On the other hand, CloudTrail is just used to audit changes to services.

If you’re interested in understanding the differences between the two for the purpose of passing an exam, then you should know a handful of use cases for each, but I think understanding that CloudWatch’s focus on monitoring/automation vs CloudTrail’s (less dynamic) focus on event history auditing is a great base from which to attack exam questions that address this topic

Comments

Could you please share some resources to understand CloudWatch?

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Have a look at these two blogs:

https://www.edureka.co/blog/introduction-to-amazon-cloudwatch/

https://www.edureka.co/blog/amazon-cloudwatch-monitoring-tool/