AWS CloudWatch → Alert24: Automatic Service Status Updates

AWS CloudWatch alarms can drive Alert24 service status updates through SNS. When a CloudWatch alarm enters ALARM state, your Alert24 service flips to down automatically — and recovers to operational when the alarm clears.

Step 1: Create a webhook receiver in Alert24

1. Go to Settings → Webhook Receivers → Add receiver
2. Name it (e.g., "CloudWatch — API Gateway")
3. Link it to the Alert24 Service you want to update
4. Set Status field path to state
5. Set Status mapping:

   operational → OK
   degraded → INSUFFICIENT_DATA
   down → ALARM
   

6. Enable Auto-create incidents if desired
7. Save and copy the webhook URL

Step 2: Lambda transform function

CloudWatch → SNS sends a format Alert24 doesn't natively parse. A small Lambda normalizes it:

import json, urllib.request, os

WEBHOOK_URL = os.environ['ALERT24_WEBHOOK_URL']

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    for record in event.get('Records', []):
        msg = json.loads(record['Sns']['Message'])
        payload = {
            'state': msg.get('NewStateValue'),         # OK / ALARM / INSUFFICIENT_DATA
            'alarm': msg.get('AlarmName'),
            'reason': msg.get('NewStateReason'),
            'source': 'cloudwatch',
        }
        data = json.dumps(payload).encode()
        req = urllib.request.Request(
            WEBHOOK_URL,
            data=data,
            headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
            method='POST'
        )
        urllib.request.urlopen(req)
    return {'statusCode': 200}

Set ALERT24_WEBHOOK_URL as a Lambda environment variable.

Step 3: Wire it up

# Create the Lambda (assumes you've zipped the function)
aws lambda create-function \
  --function-name alert24-status-webhook \
  --runtime python3.12 \
  --handler lambda_function.lambda_handler \
  --zip-file fileb://function.zip \
  --role arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT:role/lambda-basic-execution \
  --environment Variables={ALERT24_WEBHOOK_URL=https://app.alert24.net/api/webhooks/incoming/YOUR_TOKEN}

# Subscribe the Lambda to your SNS topic
aws sns subscribe \
  --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:ACCOUNT:cloudwatch-alerts \
  --protocol lambda \
  --notification-endpoint arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:ACCOUNT:function:alert24-status-webhook

# Grant SNS permission to invoke Lambda
aws lambda add-permission \
  --function-name alert24-status-webhook \
  --statement-id sns-invoke \
  --action lambda:InvokeFunction \
  --principal sns.amazonaws.com \
  --source-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:ACCOUNT:cloudwatch-alerts

Tips

• One SNS topic, multiple services: Route alarms from multiple CloudWatch alarms through one SNS topic, but use separate Lambda environment variables (or separate Lambda functions) per Alert24 service.
• Auto-recovery: CloudWatch sends an OK notification when an alarm returns to OK state. The Lambda forwards this as state: OK, which maps to operational in Alert24 — your status page auto-recovers.
• vs. incident ingest: This guide updates service status (operational/degraded/down). The CloudWatch incident ingest guide creates trackable incidents. Use both for complete coverage.