Azure Monitor workbooks provide a flexible and customizable environment for data querying, analysis, and visualization. When monitoring an Azure Virtual Desktop environment, these workbooks allow the user to build rich reporting experiences based on the telemetry data.
Getting Started with Azure Monitor Workbooks for Azure Virtual Desktop
The starting point for monitoring Azure Virtual Desktop with Azure Monitor workbooks is enabling Azure Monitor for Virtual Desktop.
To do this, navigate to your Log Analytics workspace in the Azure portal. In the ‘Workspace Data Sources’ section, you will find the option to enable ‘Azure Monitor for Virtual Desktop’. Once enabled, the Azure Monitor for Virtual Desktop workbook becomes available in the Azure portal providing key insights about your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment.
Customizing Azure Monitor Workbooks
Azure Monitor workbooks allow you to create custom queries, visualize data, and build a rich reporting dashboard. Here’s how you can customize these workbooks.
Create a Custom Query
Azure Monitor uses the Kusto query language (KQL) that gives you tremendous control over how you retrieve and present your data. To create a custom query, go to your workbook and click on ‘Add Query’.
For example, suppose you want to query session host performance metrics. You could use the following KQL query:
AzureDiagnostics
| where Category == ‘HostPerformance’
| summarize avg(CPUUsagePercent_d), avg(UsedMemoryPercent_d) by bin(timestamp, 1h), SessionHostName_s
| render timechart
This KQL query retrieves average CPU and memory usage per hour for each session host and renders the result in a timechart.
Visualize Data
Azure Monitor workbooks support various visualization options, including grid, graph, tile and pin, and markdown.
For instance, to visualize user session status:
- Add a new step in your workbook and select ‘LoggedOffUserSessions’, ‘DisconnectedUserSessions’, and ‘ActiveUserSessions’ from the entity drop-down.
- Use the ‘by’ field to categorize data by ‘UserPrincipalName’ and ‘TenantName’.
- Choose tiles visualization. Each tile will represent the session status of a user.
Building a Reporting Dashboard
After creating custom queries and visualizations, you can compile them in a single workbook to build a reporting dashboard.
- Create a new workbook in Azure Monitor.
- Use the ‘Add’ button to add queries and visualizations.
- Arrange them as per your needs.
Remember to save your workbook regularly as workbooks are not auto-saved.
Azure Monitor workbooks provide a powerful tool for monitoring your Azure Virtual Desktop environment. They not only allow you to view your log and metrics data, but also let you construct complex analytics queries and build a customizable, interactive, and shareable reporting dashboard. With these capabilities, you can keep a close eye on your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment and troubleshoot any issues that arise.
Practice Test
True or False: Azure Monitor Workbooks provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and the creation of rich visual reports within the Azure portal.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Monitor Workbooks indeed provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and creation of rich visual reports within the Azure portal. It combines data from multiple sources into a unified experience.
Multiple Select: Which of the following services are used by Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop Monitoring?
- a) Azure Log Analytics
- b) Azure Synapse Analytics
- c) Azure Monitor Metrics
- d) Application Insights
Answer: a) Azure Log Analytics, c) Azure Monitor Metrics, d) Application Insights
Explanation: Azure monitor uses Log Analytics, Monitor Metrics, and Application Insights for Azure Virtual Desktop monitoring. It does not use Synapse Analytics for monitoring services.
True or False: Customizing Azure Monitor Workbooks for Azure Virtual Desktop includes changing its appearance using JSON.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: You can leverage JSON to customize the appearance of Azure Monitor workbooks.
Single Select: What do Azure Monitor workbooks provide insights about in relation to Azure Virtual Desktop?
- a) Session Hosts
- b) Users
- c) Applications
- d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above
Explanation: Azure Monitor workbooks provide insights about users, session hosts, and application usage in Azure Virtual Desktop.
True or False: Azure Monitor pulls data only from the Azure Virtual Desktop infrastructure.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Monitor pulls data not only from the Azure Virtual Desktop infrastructure but also from the underlying virtual machine infrastructure.
Multiple Select: Which of the following can you modify when customizing Azure Monitor Workbooks?
- a) Layout
- b) Parameters
- c) Formatting
- d) Functionality
Answer: a) Layout, b) Parameters, c) Formatting
Explanation: When customizing Azure Monitor Workbooks, you can modify the layout, parameters, and formatting but not the core functionality.
True or False: You can share your customized Azure Monitor Workbooks with others by providing them access.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: You can share your customized Azure Monitor Workbooks with others by granting them access.
Single Select: When you customize Azure Monitor Workbooks, what does it depend on?
- a) The size of data
- b) The type of resources you want to monitor
- c) The region of your data
- d) The performance of your system
Answer: b) The type of resources you want to monitor
Explanation: How you customize your Azure Monitor Workbooks primarily depends on the type of resources you want to monitor.
True or False: Customizing Azure Monitor workbooks requires coding skills.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure provides a user interface where you can customize Monitor workbooks. Advanced customizations may require some JSON scripting.
Single Select: What is the most advanced feature in the customization of Azure Monitor Workbooks?
- a) Advanced visual graphs
- b) Surveys
- c) Links to other workbooks
- d) Interactive queries
Answer: d) Interactive queries
Explanation: Interactive queries are the most advanced features in Azure Monitor Workbooks customization. They help you to drill down into your data for deep insights.
Interview Questions
What is Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop?
Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop is a tool that helps to monitor and troubleshoot your deployments. It provides detailed insight into the functioning of your deployment with performance, usage, reliability metrics, and error information.
What is Azure Monitor Workbook?
Azure Monitor workbooks provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and creation of rich visual reports. You can combine text, analysis, queries, and visualizations into rich interactive reports. You can customize these workbooks as per your requirements.
What metrics can Azure Monitor workbooks track for an Azure Virtual Desktop?
Azure Monitor workbooks can track metrics such as failed connections, session availability, latency issues, user log intake, and session host usage.
Can one customize the data shown in Azure Monitor workbooks?
Yes, Azure Monitor workbooks can be customized as per the user’s requirements. You can modify the workbook to display different metrics, or change the time range, the resource groups, or users specified in the workbook.
What is meant by session host availability in an Azure Virtual Desktop monitor?
Session host availability refers to the availability of a session host within a host pool. The Azure Monitor tracks any issues that you may have connecting to or maintaining connections with session hosts.
How can you filter data on Azure Monitor workbooks?
Data on Azure Monitor workbooks can be filtered using parameters. These parameters let you filter data by region, user, host pool, and more to help you focus on specific areas of your deployment.
Can one track the usage of individual session hosts in Azure Monitor?
Yes, Azure Monitor allows you to track the usage of individual session hosts, including information on the number of sessions, CPU usage, and memory usage.
What kind of visualizations can be created using Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor allows you to create a variety of visualizations such as tables, time charts, pie charts, metrics charts, scatter plots, and more.
Can you share the customized Azure Monitor workbooks?
Yes, the customized Azure Monitor workbooks can be shared with others by taking a snapshot of a workbook or by saving it and sharing the URL.
What kind of alerts can be generated with Azure Monitor for Azure Virtual Desktop?
Azure Monitor can generate alerts on various situations like session disconnects, session failures, high CPU and memory usage on session hosts, and other issues that may affect user experience.
How can one find the detailed query log events in Azure Monitor workbook?
Azure monitor workbook has a section named “Detailed Diagnostics”, which contains query log events for Connections and Session Diagnostics.
Is it possible to export detailed data from Azure Monitor workbooks?
Yes, with Azure Monitor workbooks, you can export detailed data in various formats like CSVs for further processing or analysis.
What role needs to be assigned for accessing Azure Monitor workbooks?
At least the ‘Monitoring Reader’ role needs to be assigned for accessing the Azure Monitor workbooks.
Can we access Azure Monitor workbooks without Azure portal?
Yes. Azure Monitor workbooks can be accessed using Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop REST APIs without Azure Portal.
Is there any cost involved in customizing Azure Monitor workbooks?
Customizing Azure Monitor workbooks does not incur any cost. However, the data retrieved and stored on workbook may incur charges based on the Azure Monitor’s pricing model.
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