title: What does the AWS CloudWatch metric RequestCount mean?
body: <p>I'm trying to figure out the meaning of the AWS CloudWatch metric RequestCount. The only <a href="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/ElasticLoadBalancing/latest/DeveloperGuide/US_MonitoringLoadBalancerWithCW.html" rel="noreferrer">documentation</a> I can find says <em>The number of requests handled by the load balancer</em>, which is remarkably unhelpful:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Is this a total count or some sort of rate? The graphs don't show a monotonically increasing total value, which makes me doubt it is a total.</p></li>
  <li><p>Over what time period is this count/rate? Does it reset periodically?</p></li>
  <li><p>Why isn't the internet filled with people asking this question?</p></li>
  </ul>