Step 1: Access CloudWatch Dashboard - Smart Car Park Walkthrough

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

Step 1 of 4 • 2 minutes

Step 1 2 minutes

Access CloudWatch Dashboard

Locate your deployed CloudWatch dashboard URL and open it to view real-time car park occupancy data.

Find your Smart Car Park dashboard URL in CloudFormation Outputs

Live dashboard showing parking space availability across all sites

Expected outcome

• ✓ CloudFormation stack is in CREATE_COMPLETE status
• ✓ Outputs tab shows DashboardURL value
• ✓ CloudWatch dashboard opens in a new browser tab
• ✓ Dashboard displays car park occupancy widgets

How to access the dashboard

Your CloudWatch dashboard was created when you deployed the Smart Car Park scenario. The dashboard URL is available in your CloudFormation stack outputs.

1. Open the AWS CloudFormation console:
   AWS CloudFormation Console

   Make sure you're in the same region where you deployed the scenario

2. Find your Smart Car Park stack:
   

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

   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. Find the "DashboardURL" output:
   

   Look for an output key named DashboardURL or CloudWatchDashboardURL

   The value will be a long URL starting with https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/

6. Click the URL to open the CloudWatch dashboard in a new tab

   The URL includes embedded credentials so you won't need to log in again

What you should see

After clicking the dashboard URL, you should see:

• Dashboard title: "Smart Car Park - Real-Time Occupancy" at the top
• Multiple widgets: Charts and numbers showing car park metrics
• Current occupancy: A number widget showing available spaces right now
• Zone breakdown: Charts comparing occupancy across Ground, Level 1, and Level 2
• Auto-refresh indicator: Dashboard set to refresh every 10 seconds

Tip: If the dashboard appears empty or shows "No data", wait 30 seconds and click the refresh button (circular arrow icon) in the top-right corner. The IoT simulator may still be populating initial sensor readings.

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
• Look for alternative output names - Try CloudWatchDashboardURL, DashboardLink, or MonitoringDashboard
• Check the Resources tab - Find the Dashboard resource and note its physical ID, then manually navigate to CloudWatch → Dashboards and open it

Dashboard URL gives "Access Denied" error

Possible solutions:

• Confirm correct AWS account - Ensure you're logged into the same AWS account where you deployed the stack
• Re-generate the URL - Go back to CloudFormation Outputs and copy the URL again (embedded credentials may have expired)
• Use IAM permissions - Manually navigate to CloudWatch → Dashboards and open the dashboard using your IAM permissions instead of the embedded URL

Dashboard loads but shows no data

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

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Need help?

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

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