Monitoring Alibaba Cloud infrastructure is crucial for maintaining performance, availability, and security of cloud workloads. Datadog provides comprehensive observability solutions that integrate seamlessly with Alibaba Cloud services, offering a unified view of your entire infrastructure.

Why Datadog for Alibaba Cloud Monitoring?

Datadog offers several advantages for monitoring Alibaba Cloud environments:

• Unified Dashboard: Single pane of glass for all Alibaba Cloud services
• Real-time Metrics: Collect and visualize metrics with sub-second granularity
• Automated Discovery: Automatically detect and monitor new resources
• Cross-Platform Support: Monitor hybrid and multi-cloud environments

Key Alibaba Cloud Services Supported by Datadog

1. Elastic Compute Service (ECS) Monitoring

Datadog provides deep visibility into ECS instances:

• CPU utilization and load averages
• Memory usage and swap statistics
• Disk I/O and network traffic
• Custom metrics via the Datadog agent

2. Object Storage Service (OSS) Monitoring

Monitor your storage buckets with:

• Request rates and latency metrics
• Storage capacity and object counts
• Error rates and successful requests
• Cost optimization insights

3. ApsaraDB for RDS Monitoring

Database performance monitoring including:

• Query performance and slow query detection
• Connection pool statistics
• Replication lag and status
• Storage utilization trends

4. Server Load Balancer (SLB) Monitoring

Load balancer insights with:

• Request rates and backend server health
• Connection counts and error rates
• Latency distribution across regions
• Traffic patterns and peak load analysis

Setting Up Datadog with Alibaba Cloud

Step 1: Create Alibaba Cloud RAM User

Create a dedicated RAM user with read-only permissions for monitoring:

# Create RAM policy for monitoring
{
    "Version": "1",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ecs:Describe*",
                "rds:Describe*",
                "slb:Describe*",
                "oss:Get*"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Step 2: Configure Datadog Integration

1. Navigate to Datadog Integrations → Alibaba Cloud
2. Add your Alibaba Cloud Access Key ID and Secret
3. Specify regions to monitor (e.g., cn-hangzhou, ap-southeast-1)
4. Configure metric collection intervals

Step 3: Install Datadog Agent on ECS Instances

For comprehensive monitoring, install the Datadog agent:

# Install Datadog agent on Alibaba Cloud ECS
DD_API_KEY=your_api_key bash -c "$(curl -L https://s3.amazonaws.com/dd-agent/scripts/install_script_agent7.sh)"

Advanced Monitoring Features

Custom Metrics and Tags

Leverage Datadog’s tagging system for better organization:

• Environment tags (production, staging, development)
• Service tags (web, database, cache)
• Team ownership tags
• Cost center tags

Alerting and Notification

Set up proactive alerts for:

• Resource utilization thresholds
• Service availability
• Error rate spikes
• Cost anomalies

Log Management

Integrate Alibaba Cloud Log Service with Datadog for:

• Centralized log collection and analysis
• Log-based metrics and correlations
• Security event monitoring
• Compliance auditing

Best Practices for Alibaba Cloud Monitoring

1. Monitor All Regions: Ensure coverage across all active regions
2. Use Resource Tags: Implement consistent tagging strategy
3. Set Baseline Alerts: Establish performance baselines for each service
4. Monitor Costs: Track cloud spending alongside performance metrics
5. Automate Responses: Use Datadog’s automation features for self-healing

Conclusion

Datadog provides enterprise-grade monitoring capabilities for Alibaba Cloud infrastructure, enabling organizations to maintain optimal performance, security, and cost efficiency. The integration offers deep visibility into Alibaba Cloud services while maintaining the flexibility to monitor hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

By implementing comprehensive monitoring with Datadog, teams can proactively identify issues, optimize resource utilization, and ensure service reliability for their Alibaba Cloud deployments.

Original article: Datadog Alibaba Cloud Integration.