MediaLive (AWS) how to view channel alerts from php SDK

Question

Question

I have set up a Laravel project that connects to AWS MediaLive for streaming.
Everything is working fine, and I am able to stream, but I couldn't find a way to see if a channel that was running had anyone connected to it.

What I need

I want to be able to see if a running channel has anyone connected to it via the php SDK.

Why

1. I want to show a stream on the user's side only if there is someone connected to it.
2. I want to stop a channel that has noone connected to it for too long (like an hour?)

Other

I tried looking at the docs but the closest thing I could find was the DescribeChannel command.
This however does not return any informations about the alerts. I also tried comparing the output of DescribeChannel when someone was connected and when noone was connected, but there was no difference
On the AWS site I can see the alerts on the channel page, but I cannot find how to view that from my laravel application.

Update

I tried running these from the SDK:

CloudWatch->DescribeAlarms();
CloudWatchLogs->GetLogEvents(['logGroupName'=>'ElementalMediaLive', 'logStreamName'=>'channel-log-stream-name']);

But it seems to me that their output didn't change after a channel started running without anyone connected to it.
I went on the console's CloudWatch and it was the same.
Do I need to first set up Egress Points for alerts to show here?

I looked into SNS Topics and lambda functions, but it seems they are for sending messages and notifications? can I also use this to stop/delete a channel that has been disconnected for over an hour? Are there any docs that could help me?

I'm using AWS MediaStore, but I'm guessing I can do the same as AWS MediaPackage? How can the threshold tell me if, and for how long no-one has been connected to a MediaLive channel?

Overall

After looking here and there in the docs I am assuming I have to:

1. set up a metric alarm that detects when a channel had no input for over an hour
2. Send the alarm message to the CloudWatchLogs
3. retrieve the alarm message from the SDK and/or the SNS Topic
4. stop/delete the channel that sent the alarm message 

Did I understand this correctly?

Answer 1

Thanks for your post.

Channel alerts will go your AWS CloudWatch logs. You can poll these alarms from SDK or CLI using a command of the form 'aws cloudwatch describe-alarms'. Related log events may be retrieved with a command of the form 'aws logs get-log-events'.

You can also configure a CloudWatch rule to propagate selected service alerts to an SNS Topic which can be polled by various clients including a Lambda function, which can then take various actions on your behalf. This approach works well to aggregate the alerts from multiple channels or services.

Measuring the connected sessions is possible for MediaPackage endpoints, using the 2xx Egress Request Count metric. You can set a metric alarm on this metric such that when its value drops below a given threshold, and alarm message will be sent to the CloudWatch logs mentioned above.

Answer 2

With Regard to your list:

1. set up a metric alarm that detects when a channel had no input for over an hour

----->CORRECT.

2. Send the alarm message to the CloudWatchLogs

----->The alarm message goes directly to an SNS Topic, and will be echoed to your CloudWatch logs. See: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html

3. a Lambda Fn will need to be created to process new entries arriving in the SNS topic (queue) mentioned above, and take a desired action. This Lambda Fn can send API or CLI calls to stop/delete the channel that sent the alarm message. You can also have email alerts or other actions triggered from the SNS Topic (queue); refer to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sns-common-scenarios.html

Alternatively, you could do everything in one lambda function that queries the same MediaPackage metric (EgressRequestCount), evaluates the response and takes a yes/no action WRT shutting down a specified channel. This lambda function could be scheduled to run in a recurring fashion every 5 minutes to achieve the desired result. This approach would be simpler to implement, but is limited in scope to the metrics and actions coded into the Lambda Function. The Channel Alert->SNS->LAMBDA approach would allow you to take multiple actions based on any one Alert hitting the SNS Topic (queue).