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Step 1: Access CloudWatch Dashboard - Smart Car Park Walkthrough

Find and open the CloudWatch dashboard showing real-time car park occupancy

Walkthrough progress

Step 1 of 4 • 2 minutes

Step 1 2 minutes

Access CloudWatch Dashboard

Locate your deployed dashboard URLs and open them to view real-time car park occupancy data.

Find both dashboard URLs in your CloudFormation stack Outputs tab
The Function URL dashboard provides instant access to live occupancy data
CloudWatch dashboard offers deeper metric exploration and time range controls

Expected outcome

  • CloudFormation stack is in CREATE_COMPLETE status
  • Outputs tab shows DashboardURL and CloudWatchDashboardURL
  • Function URL dashboard opens showing live zone occupancy
  • CloudWatch dashboard opens showing 4 metric widgets

How to access the dashboards

Your Smart Car Park scenario deploys two dashboards: an HTML dashboard accessible via Function URL (instant access, no login needed) and a CloudWatch console dashboard (deeper metrics exploration). Both URLs are in your CloudFormation stack outputs.

  1. Open the AWS CloudFormation console:
    AWS CloudFormation Console

    Make sure you're in the us-east-1 region

  2. Find your Smart Car Park stack:

    Look for a stack name starting with ndx-try-smart-car-park

    The stack status should be CREATE_COMPLETE

  3. Click on the stack name to open the stack details page
  4. Click the "Outputs" tab near the top of the page
  5. Open the DashboardURL output first (instant gratification):

    This opens the HTML dashboard powered by a Lambda Function URL. No login required. You'll see live zone occupancy, available spaces, and a 24-hour trend chart.

  6. Then open CloudWatchDashboardURL (deeper exploration):

    This opens the native CloudWatch dashboard with 4 metric widgets. You can change time ranges, drill into individual metrics, and see the alarms.

What you should see

Function URL dashboard (DashboardURL):

  • Zone cards: Ground Floor, Level 1, and Level 2 with occupied/available counts
  • Overall stats: Total spaces, available, occupied, and occupancy percentage
  • 24-hour trend: Sparkline showing occupancy over the last 24 hours

CloudWatch dashboard (CloudWatchDashboardURL):

  • Occupied Spaces Over Time: Line graph showing 24-hour occupancy trend
  • Occupancy by Zone: Stacked area chart comparing all 3 zones
  • Available Spaces: Number widget (metric math: 50 minus occupied)
  • Sensors Reporting: Number widget showing sensor count per cycle (expected: 50)

Tip: If dashboards appear empty or show "Waiting for data", wait 2-3 minutes for the IoT simulator to publish its first batch of sensor readings. The simulator runs every minute via EventBridge.

Something went wrong? Troubleshooting help

I can't find my CloudFormation stack

Possible solutions:

  • Check the AWS region - Use the region selector (top-right) to switch to the region where you deployed the scenario
  • Verify deployment completed - If you just deployed, wait a few more minutes for the stack to finish creating
  • Check stack status - If status shows CREATE_FAILED or ROLLBACK_COMPLETE, the deployment encountered errors. Delete the stack and try deploying again.

I don't see a DashboardURL output

Possible solutions:

  • Wait for stack creation to complete - Outputs only appear when status is CREATE_COMPLETE. This template takes 15-20 minutes to deploy (IoT Core + DynamoDB resources).
  • Look for both outputs - DashboardURL (Function URL, no login needed) and CloudWatchDashboardURL (CloudWatch console)
  • Check the Resources tab - Find the DashboardFunction resource and note its physical ID, then check the Lambda console for its Function URL

Function URL dashboard shows "Error" or empty

Possible solutions:

  • Wait for simulator to run - The IoT simulator runs every minute. If the stack just deployed, wait 1-2 minutes for data to appear in DynamoDB.
  • Check DynamoDB has data - Open the DynamoDB console → Tables → find the table matching your stack name → Items tab → click "Scan" to see recent sensor readings
  • Check Lambda logs - Open CloudWatch Logs for the dashboard Lambda function to see any error messages

Dashboard loads but shows no data

This is covered in Step 2 - click "Continue" to learn how to verify sensor data is flowing

← Back to overview Continue to Step 2

Need help?

If you're stuck, check the troubleshooting section or contact us.