<p>Within the CloudWatch integration in PagerDuty, you can change the "Derive name from" field to something like "Alarm Description".</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-18T13:00:10.203Z
This is the correct answer now. When you switch it to Alarm Description, the description set in the Cloudwatch Alarm configuration is used instead.
Sam
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-02T22:19:43.180Z
2019-04-02T22:19:43.180Z
Clark Ritchie
<p>Based on the PagerDuty documentation on Cloudwatch, it doesn't look like it's configurable:</p>

<p><a href="https://www.pagerduty.com/docs/guides/aws-cloudwatch-integration-guide/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.pagerduty.com/docs/guides/aws-cloudwatch-integration-guide/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-03T18:46:31.927Z
2017-10-03T18:46:31.927Z
Travis Thompson
<p>The problem is with the default configuration of PageDuty's Cloudwatch integration. You can change the integration settings so that the name of the alert that shows up in CloudWatch is what also appears in PagerDuty.</p>
<ol>
<li>In PagerDuty go to <code>Integrations</code> &gt; <code>Service Integrations</code></li>
<li>For each service integration click on <code>More</code> &gt; <code>View Integrations</code> &gt;<code>Amazon CloudWatch</code> (Gear icon) &gt; <code>Edit Integration</code></li>
<li>Change <code>Derive name from</code> from <code>Default</code> to <code>Alarm Name</code></li>
<li><code>Save changes</code></li>
</ol>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/FyhYo68V.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/FyhYo68V.png" alt="" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-12-20T18:26:40.210Z
2024-12-20T18:26:40.210Z
Stephen Ostermiller
<p>I have AWS CloudWatch hooked up with PagerDuty. Whenever an alert goes out, it goes to PagerDuty, which then sends us a message in Slack. The problem is, this is what it shows in the chat:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Triggered #3362:</em> Maximum CPUUtilization of 53.6 GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold 50.0 for InstanceId i-xxxxxxxxx</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That's about as useful as a rock. There's no way I could interpret the instance ID, nor should I have to read all that stuff at a glance and figure out what's wrong.</p>
<p>How can I change the incident name that gets generated on PagerDuty, or is this something that can be done in CloudWatch, or am I hosed?</p>

<monitoring><amazon-cloudwatch><slack><pagerduty>
How to change PagerDuty incident name from CloudWatch integration?
Tam N.
# How to change PagerDuty incident name from CloudWatch integration?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-22)

I have AWS CloudWatch hooked up with PagerDuty. Whenever an alert goes out, it goes to PagerDuty, which then sends us a message in Slack. The problem is, this is what it shows in the chat:

> *Triggered #3362:* Maximum CPUUtilization of 53.6 GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold 50.0 for InstanceId i-xxxxxxxxx

That's about as useful as a rock. There's no way I could interpret the instance ID, nor should I have to read all that stuff at a glance and figure out what's wrong.

How can I change the incident name that gets generated on PagerDuty, or is this something that can be done in CloudWatch, or am I hosed?

**Tags:** monitoring, amazon-cloudwatch, slack, pagerduty


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-04-02. Score: 6

Within the CloudWatch integration in PagerDuty, you can change the "Derive name from" field to something like "Alarm Description".

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: This is the correct answer now. When you switch it to Alarm Description, the description set in the Cloudwatch Alarm configuration is used instead.  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2017-10-03. Score: 1

Based on the PagerDuty documentation on Cloudwatch, it doesn't look like it's configurable:

<https://www.pagerduty.com/docs/guides/aws-cloudwatch-integration-guide/>


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### Answer by username_4 on 2024-12-20. Score: 0

The problem is with the default configuration of PageDuty's Cloudwatch integration. You can change the integration settings so that the name of the alert that shows up in CloudWatch is what also appears in PagerDuty.

1. In PagerDuty go to `Integrations` > `Service Integrations`
2. For each service integration click on `More` > `View Integrations` >`Amazon CloudWatch` (Gear icon) > `Edit Integration`
3. Change `Derive name from` from `Default` to `Alarm Name`
4. `Save changes`

[![](https://i.sstatic.net/FyhYo68V.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/FyhYo68V.png)


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