Direct connect "ConnectionState" metric unit issue

Question

For AWS Direct Connect, We have an issue with "ConnectionState" metric unit. We are trying to collect metric data for "ConnectionState" through rest API (getMetricData) for our customers. In AWS doc, unit for this metric is "Boolean", but that is not valid.  For few accounts we are getting metric data with unit as "None" and for few  with unit as "Count". Why it is different for different accounts. We need a generic one. Can someone  please help us with this.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/monitoring-cloudwatch.html

Answer

The ConnectionState metric for AWS Direct Connect can have different units reported depending on the account and region. This is likely due to internal changes made by AWS to improve the metric reporting.

Some key points:

The AWS documentation states the unit should be "Boolean", indicating a value of 1 for up and 0 for down.

Some accounts may report a unit of "None", which is still a valid value from the perspective of the CloudWatch API.

Other accounts could show a unit of "Count".

AWS may have updated the metric reporting internally without updating all documentation yet.

To get a consistent unit, you could consider using metric math expressions in CloudWatch to convert the value as needed. For example:

RULE: If ConnectionState = 1 then return "Up" else return "Down"

Direct connect "ConnectionState" metric unit issue

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