Application Failure Troubleshooting
Overview
Domain expertise for diagnosing application failures through CloudWatch log analysis.
Discovers relevant log groups, searches for error patterns and stack traces, performs
root cause analysis, and generates prioritized remediation recommendations.
Logs are where the investigation starts, not its boundary. When the logs point at a timeout,
throttle, retry or permission problem, read the configuration that sets it, for example the API
Gateway integration timeout, the queue's visibility timeout, or the function timeout and event
source mapping. Read-only access normally includes these Describe and Get calls.
Troubleshoot a failing application
To diagnose and resolve application failures using CloudWatch logs, follow the
procedure exactly. See Application failure troubleshooting procedure.
Troubleshooting
No log groups found
Ask the user for specific log group names. Common patterns: /aws/lambda/function-name,
/aws/apigateway/api-name, or custom application log groups.
Access denied errors
Verify AWS credentials have logs:DescribeLogGroups, logs:DescribeLogStreams,
logs:StartQuery, and logs:GetQueryResults permissions.
Query timeouts
Reduce the time window or limit results. Large log groups may require multiple smaller queries.