The most effective and automated method to provision a CloudWatch dashboard with an application stack is to define it as a resource within the AWS CloudFormation template. The AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard resource type is designed for this purpose. An existing dashboard's configuration can be viewed and copied as a JSON object from the AWS Management Console. This JSON is then provided as a string to the DashboardBody property of the AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard resource in the template. This approach ensures that a new, correctly configured dashboard is created automatically every time the CloudFormation stack is deployed, and its lifecycle is managed with the stack.

A. This is not the most integrated approach. It requires a separate, post-deployment step, making the process less atomic and more complex to manage than defining the dashboard directly within the CloudFormation template.

C. The Ref intrinsic function is used to reference parameters or the logical IDs of other resources within the same stack, not to import or reference pre-existing resources created outside of the stack.

D. The DashboardName property specifies the name for the new dashboard being created. Simply providing the name of an existing dashboard without the required DashboardBody property would be an incomplete definition and would cause a creation failure if the name already exists.

1. AWS CloudFormation User Guide

AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard resource: This official documentation specifies the syntax for creating a CloudWatch dashboard. It states that the DashboardBody property is required and "is a string that specifies the dashboard body text in JSON format."

Source: AWS CloudFormation User Guide

Resource and property reference

AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard.

2. Amazon CloudWatch User Guide

Creating a CloudWatch dashboard: This guide explains how to work with dashboards

including how to view the source of an existing dashboard. In the dashboard actions menu

selecting "View/edit source" displays the dashboard's JSON definition

which can be copied for use in the DashboardBody property.

Source: Amazon CloudWatch User Guide

Using Amazon CloudWatch dashboards

Creating a CloudWatch dashboard.

3. AWS CloudFormation User Guide

Intrinsic function reference - Ref: This document clarifies that Ref returns the value of the specified parameter or resource. It is used for composing properties of resources within a template

not for referencing external

pre-existing resources.

Source: AWS CloudFormation User Guide

Template anatomy

Intrinsic function reference

Ref.