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Guide: Setting Up Amazon SES Usage Spike Alarms (250% Increase)

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for configuring an Amazon CloudWatch alarm to notify you when your Amazon SES send usage increases by more than 250% in 1 day.

You can choose to set this up manually via the AWS Console or programmatically via AWS CloudShell (CLI).

Part 1: Manual Setup via AWS Console

Step 1: Create an SNS Topic (Notification Channel)

  1. Navigate to the Amazon SNS Console.
  2. Click Topics on the left menu, then Create topic.
  3. Choose Standard as the type.
  4. Name the topic (e.g., SES-Usage-Alerts) and click Create topic.
  • How to check: Once created, you should see the Topic details page with a unique Topic ARN displayed at the top.

Step 2: Subscribe Your Email to the Topic

  1. On the topic details page you just created, click the Create subscription button.
  2. Under Protocol, select Email.
  3. Under Endpoint, enter the email address where you want to receive alerts.
  4. Click Create subscription.
  • How to check:
    • The subscription status will initially show as Pending confirmation.
    • Check your email inbox for a message from "AWS Notifications". Click the Confirm subscription link in the email.
    • Return to the SNS console, refresh the page, and the status should now say Confirmed.

Step 3: Create the CloudWatch Alarm with Metric Math

  1. Navigate to the Amazon CloudWatch Console.
  2. Go to Alarms > All alarms > Create alarm.
  3. Click Select metric.
  4. Search for SES Send, go to SES > Account Metrics, check the box next to the Send metric, and click the Graphed metrics tab.
  5. Change Statistic to Sum and Period to 1 hour.
  6. Click Add math > Start with empty expression to add a new row (e1). Set the expression to DIFF(m1).
  • Tip: Uncheck the box under the "Select" column for m1 and e1 so they don't trigger the alarm.
  1. Click Add math > Start with empty expression again to add row (e2). Set the expression to IF(m1 - e1 > 0, (e1 / (m1 - e1)) * 100, 0). Keep this row checked.
  2. Click the Select metric button at the bottom.
  3. Under Conditions, set:
  • Threshold type: Static
  • Whenever e2 is: Greater than
  • than: 250
  1. Expand Additional configuration and set Treat missing data as: to good (not breaching). Click Next.
  2. Under Notification, choose In alarm, select Select an existing SNS topic, and choose SES-Usage-Alerts. Click Next.
  3. Name the alarm (e.g., SES-Spike-250Percent-Increase) and click Create alarm.
  • How to check:
    • Go to Alarms > All alarms.
    • Locate your new alarm. The state should initially say Insufficient data and then transition to OK within a few minutes if data is flowing correctly.

Part 2: Automated Setup via AWS CloudShell (CLI)

If you prefer using the terminal, you can do this entirely inside your browser using AWS CloudShell.

Step 1: Open AWS CloudShell

  1. In the AWS Management Console, click the CloudShell icon (>_) located in the top navigation bar next to the search bar.
  2. Wait a few seconds for the terminal to initialize.
  • How to check: You should see a command prompt ending with [cloudshell-user@ip-... ~]$.

Step 2: Create SNS Topic and Subscribe

Paste the following commands into CloudShell (replace [email protected] with your actual email):

# Create the SNS Topic
TOPIC_ARN=$(aws sns create-topic --name SES-Usage-Alerts --query "TopicArn" --output text)
echo "Topic ARN: $TOPIC_ARN"

# Subscribe your email
aws sns subscribe \
    --topic-arn "$TOPIC_ARN" \
    --protocol email \
    --notification-endpoint "[email protected]"
  • How to check:
    • Run aws sns list-subscriptions-by-topic --topic-arn "$TOPIC_ARN". The output should list your email with a SubscriptionArn of PendingConfirmation.
    • Check your email inbox, click the confirmation link, and run the exact same command again. The output should now show an active ARN instead of PendingConfirmation.

Step 3: Create the CloudWatch Alarm

Paste the following command into CloudShell to create the metric math alarm:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
    --alarm-name "SES-Spike-250Percent-Increase" \
    --alarm-description "Triggers when daily SES send volume grows by more than 250%" \
    --alarm-actions "$TOPIC_ARN" \
    --evaluation-periods 1 \
    --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold \
    --threshold 250 \
    --treat-missing-data notBreaching \
    --metrics '[
      {
        "Id": "m1",
        "MetricStat": {
          "Metric": {
            "Namespace": "AWS/SES",
            "MetricName": "Send"
          },
          "Period": 86400,
          "Stat": "Sum"
        },
        "ReturnData": false
      },
      {
        "Id": "e1",
        "Expression": "DIFF(m1)",
        "ReturnData": false
      },
      {
        "Id": "e2",
        "Expression": "IF(m1 - e1 > 0, (e1 / (m1 - e1)) * 100, 0)",
        "Label": "Percentage Increase",
        "ReturnData": true
      }
    ]'
  • How to check:
    • Run aws cloudwatch describe-alarms --alarm-names "SES-Spike-250Percent-Increase".
    • The output will return a JSON object confirming the alarm's exact configuration. Look for the "StateValue" line—it should be "OK" (or "INSUFFICIENT_DATA" until new data arrives).