Collecting Auto-Discovery Troubleshooting data for the AutoMonX Sensor Pack for AWS

The AutoMonX Sensor Pack for AWS has a powerful and flexible auto-discovery engine. It allows you to automatically discover your AWS estate and pass this data to Monitoring Automation.

Sometimes, you may stumble into issues that may require investigation into why certain resources or entire AWS accounts are not being discovered. In such cases, you need to collect the relevant information and contact AutoMonX support.

Running Auto Discovery in Debug Mode

The next step would be to run auto-discovery as administrator from the sensor pack installation path, AWS subdirectory:

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the discovery command with debug output:

AutomonxAWSCollector.exe -discovery

Let it run until it has completed (the command has exited). Depending on the network connection, the AWS API response time, and the size of your AWS deployment, this can take between a few minutes to several hours.

Note: Timeout messages may appear sometimes during the discovery process, but you can safely ignore them if they last no longer than 10 minutes.

For discovering resources from a specific AWS Account (Connection Profile):

AutomonxAWSCollector.exe -discovery -profile "Profile Name"

For discovering only metrics (faster discovery after initial run):

AutomonxAWSCollector.exe -discovery -metrics

 Collecting Auto Discovery Troubleshooting Information

Collect the following files from your Sensor Pack AWS installation directory:

 1. AWS Inventory File:

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\Inventory\

This file contains AWS resource type definitions discovered by the sensor pack.

 2. Discovery Log Files

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\Logs\

- Automonx_Discovery_Out.log - Discovery process logs with detailed information

- Automonx_AWS.log - AWS service communication logs

 3. Discovery Results (CSV)

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\Data\

AccountDiscovery.csv

This CSV file contains all discovered resources per AWS Account.

 4. Discovery Report (HTML)

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\Logs\

AWSDiscovery.html

This HTML report provides a summary of discovered AWS resources including:

- List of AWS resources per Account

- Command line parameters for configuring each resource for monitoring

- List of AWS resources by quantity

 5. Monitoring Automation Files

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\SensorPacks\AWS\

[ProfileName]Discovery.csv

These files are generated after successful discovery and contain the commands to add discovered resources to PRTG.

6. Exclusion/Inclusion Policy Files

<Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AutoMonX\Common\

Files to collect (if configured):

- exclude_mon.csv - Exclusion policies applied to discovery

- include_mon.csv - Inclusion policies applied to discovery

These files show what resources were filtered during discovery.

## Connection Profile Information to Collect

If using multi-account monitoring, provide:

- Connection profile names being used

- Number of AWS Accounts configured

- AWS Regions being monitored per profile

- Any error messages from the Connection Profiles section in the configuration UI

- Account IDs of affected resources (last 4 digits acceptable for security)

Additional Configuration Information to Provide

When contacting support, please also provide:

- The Sensor Pack for AWS Version: Obtained from CLI with `AutomonxAWSCollector.exe -version`

- PRTG Version: Found in PRTG Administration → System Administration

- Windows Server Version: 2012R2, 2016, 2019, etc.

- Installation Method: Installer or manual deployment

- License Type: Single-Account or Multi-Account (if multi-account, number of accounts licensed)

- Number of AWS Accounts: Total accounts being monitored

- Number of Regions: Total AWS regions included in discovery

- Approximate Resource Count: Estimated number of resources to discover (EC2 instances, RDS databases, S3 buckets, etc.)

## Verifying AWS Connection Before Discovery

Before running full discovery, verify that your AWS connection is properly configured:

1. Run SensorAutoDisco_UI.exe as Administrator

2. Verify all AWS connection details:

   - Access Key ID

   - Secret Access Key (masked display)

   - AWS Account ID

   - Connection Profile names (for multi-account)

3. Click the Config Check button

4. Verify successful connection to AWS Management API

5. Confirm that AWS accounts are detected and accessible

Discovery Troubleshooting Checklist

Before contacting support, ensure you have:

- [ ] Verified AWS IAM credentials have ReadOnlyAccess permissions

- [ ] Confirmed network connectivity to AWS API endpoints

- [ ] Checked firewall/proxy settings allow outbound HTTPS (TCP 443) to AWS

- [ ] Ran Config Check from SensorAutoDisco_UI.exe successfully

- [ ] Allowed sufficient time for discovery to complete (check progress messages)

- [ ] Collected Automonx_Discovery_out.log

- [ ] Collected Automonx_AWS.log

- [ ] Collected AWSDiscovery.html report

- [ ] Collected AccountDiscovery.csv from Data folder

- [ ] Collected AWS_inventory.csv from Inventory folder

- [ ] Collected exclusion/inclusion CSV files (if configured)

- [ ] Noted all Connection Profile names and configurations

- [ ] Documented specific resources that are missing from discovery

- [ ] Screenshots of error messages in SensorAutoDisco_UI.exe

Common Discovery Issues and Remedies

Discovery Produces No Results

1. Verify AWS IAM user has ReadOnlyAccess policy attached

2. Confirm AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are correct

3. Check that the AWS account is active and accessible

4. Verify network connectivity to AWS API (test with Config Check)

5. Review Automonx_discoveryout.log for permission-related errors

6. Confirm AWS regions are specified correctly in configuration

### Partial Discovery Results

1. Check if exclusion policies are filtering resources - review exclude_mon.csv

2. Verify AWS IAM permissions cover all AWS services being queried

3. Check for timeout messages in logs - may indicate large discovery take longer time

4. Review AccountDiscovery.csv to see which resources were actually discovered

5. Confirm all required AWS Accounts are configured in Connection Profiles

 Discovery Timeout Errors

1. Increase timeout settings if dealing with very large AWS estates

2. Use the `-metrics` flag on subsequent runs to speed up discovery

3. Try discovering a single Account/Region at a time

4. Check network latency to AWS API endpoints

5. Review Automonx_Discovery_out.log for specific timeout details

## Packaging Files for Support

1. Create a folder with discovery date: `AWS_Discovery_2025-12-08`

2. Copy all collected files (logs, CSVs, reports)

3. Create a compressed archive (ZIP format)

4. Name the archive: `AWS_Discovery_Troubleshooting_YYYY-MM-DD.zip`

5. Include a text file with:

   - Description of the issue

   - When discovery was last run

   - Number of AWS accounts configured

   - Approximate resource count expected

   - Any error messages encountered

Submitting Collected Data to AutoMonX Support

Attach the compressed archive to: support@automonx.com

Include in email:

• Your Sensor Pack version

• The Description of discovery issue

• The number of AWS accounts and regions being monitored

• Any relevant error messages you have seen in the UI or CLI

• Expected vs. actual resources discovered