Monitor and analyze metrics, logs, and traces

In the context of the Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure exam (AZ-204), understanding the significance of these data points, how to collect them, and utilizing them for performance tuning and troubleshooting, is essential.

Understanding Metrics, Logs, and Traces in Azure

• Metrics: These are numerical values that describe some aspect of a system at a particular point in time. In Azure, metrics are emitted by most resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), Azure SQL services, and functions.
• Logs: These are text-based data that describe an operation, event, or state. Logs usually contain more context than metrics because they can include details like, Event timestamp, value and description.
• Traces: These are detailed breakdowns of operations, often represented as a series of events or logs. Traces provide a clear view of what’s happening inside an application’s code, making them invaluable for debugging complex issues.

Monitoring and Analyzing Metrics

When it comes to monitoring Azure metrics, Azure Monitor is the built-in service that you should be familiar with. Azure Monitor collects metrics, activity logs, and diagnostics logs from all Azure resources, providing you with in-depth visibility and performance insights.

Here’s a simple way of accessing metrics with Azure Monitor using Azure portal:

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to the Monitor blade.
2. Select Metrics in the Monitor menu.
3. Choose the target resource to monitor.
4. Choose the metric you want to examine from the available options.
5. Select Add Filter if you want to filter the results by a specific criterion.
6. Select Apply splitting if you want to split the metric by a certain value (for instance, by VM instance).
7. Choose the Aggregation type (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Total, Count).
8. Finally, click on the Chart title to modify it if desired, and your metric chart is ready for analysis.

Analyzing Logs

For analyzing logs, Azure uses a language known as Kusto Query Language (KQL). It allows users to build advanced and complex queries for log analysis. Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace and Application Insights use KQL for analysing logs.

For instance, let’s say you want to find errors in your application logs. You can use KQL to write a query like this:

traces
| where message contains "error"

This query selects from traces where the message contains the word “error”. It’s a simple example but shows how powerful KQL can be for log analysis.

Monitoring and Analyzing Traces

Azure Application Insights is a key service for monitoring and analyzing traces in Azure. It collects data about application performance and usage, automatically detecting performance anomalies, and includes powerful analytics tools to diagnose issues and understand how your application is used.

You can configure your Application Insights service for distributed tracing, tracking the path of requests through a distributed system. This involves adding a correlation identifier to requests that are passed from service to service, allowing accumulated data to be sorted and viewed by the requests and operations that caused them.

For instance, with distributed tracing in a Node.js app:

const appInsights = require('applicationinsights');
appInsights.setup('YOUR_INSTRUMENTATION_KEY').start();
// Now, all your requests to the app will be tracked in Application Insights.

Development and operations teams can then use the collected telemetry, represented as traces, in the Azure portal to view and debug interdependencies, bottlenecks, and errors.

Understanding how to efficiently monitor and analyze metrics, logs, and traces in Azure could set the difference between the success and failure of an application, and it’s certainly a key skill to master for the AZ-204 exam. By making good use of Azure’s robust monitoring tools like Azure Monitor, Azure Kusto Query Language (KQL), and Azure Application Insights, you’ll have a clear sight of your application’s behavior and performance at all times.

Practice Test

True or False: Metrics in Azure monitor provides numeric values that describe some aspect of a system at a particular time.

• True
• False

Answer: True

Explanation: Metrics in Azure provide numeric values that describe some aspect of a system at a particular point in time.

What is Azure Service Health?

• A. A software for monitoring your device’s health
• B. A personalized view into the health of the Azure services
• C. A monitoring tool for Azure VM
• D. None of the above.

Answer: B. A personalized view into the health of the Azure services

Explanation: Azure Service Health provides a personalized view into the performance and availability of your Azure services.

True or False: Azure Monitor Traces can be used to create complex network topologies.

• True
• False

Answer: False

Explanation: Azure Monitor traces analyze the data produced by individual requests but does not create complex network topologies.

Which of the following can you monitor with Azure Monitor?

• A. Application performance
• B. Infrastructure issues
• C. Security related audits
• D. All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above

Explanation: Azure Monitor maximizes performance and availability by collecting, analyzing, and acting on data from your applications, infrastructure, and security audits.

True or False: Log queries in Azure Logs are written in KQL (Kusto Query Language).

• True
• False

Answer: True

Explanation: Log queries in Azure Logs are written in the Kusto Query Language (KQL) to quickly retrieve, consolidate, and analyze collected data.

What does Azure Log Analytics service do?

• A. Collects and analyzes log data from Azure resources
• B. Provides virtual training for Azure users
• C. Sets up physical data centers for Azure services
• D. None of the above.

Answer: A. Collects and analyzes log data from Azure resources

Explanation: Azure Log Analytics service collects and analyzes log data from your Azure resources.

Azure Metrics uses which of the following for data storage?

• A. Blob storage
• B. Time-series database
• C. File storage
• D. Queue storage

Answer: B. Time-series database

Explanation: Azure Metrics uses a time-series database for data storage, ideal for analyzing historical data and spotting trends.

True or False: Azure Monitor supports direct export of telemetry to block storage.

• True
• False

Answer: False

Explanation: Currently, Azure Monitor only supports exporting telemetry to Event hubs and Log Analytics.

Which of the following is not a part of Azure Monitor?

• A. Azure Metrics
• B. Azure Logs
• C. Azure SQL Database
• D. Azure Service Health

Answer: C. Azure SQL Database

Explanation: Azure SQL Database is not part of Azure Monitor. It’s Azure’s SQL server-based database service.

True or False: Azure Monitor only supports Azure resources and not those outside of Azure.

• True
• False

Answer: False

Explanation: Azure Monitor can collect data from a variety of sources including those both on Azure and those outside of Azure.

Which type of data is best analyzed with Azure Metrics?

• A. Numeric data
• B. Unstructured data
• C. Video data
• D. Text data

Answer: A. Numeric data

Explanation: Azure Metrics is ideal for analyzing numeric data, as it uses a time-series database for its storage.

True or False: All logs and telemetry data in Azure Monitor are stored in the same location.

• True
• False

Answer: False

Explanation: Logs are stored in Log Analytics workspace, while telemetry data is stored in a time-series database.

Azure Monitor is able to integrate with which of the following third-party services?

• A. Grafana
• B. Prometheus
• C. Splunk
• D. All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above

Explanation: Azure Monitor can integrate with popular third-party tools like Grafana, Prometheus, and Splunk.

True or False: Trace data in Azure Monitor can help in identifying failures and diagnosing their root cause in an application.

• True
• False

Answer: True

Explanation: Trace data is collected by Application Insights and is used for in-depth performance and diagnostic scenarios.

Is it possible to create custom dashboards in Azure Monitor?

• A. Yes
• B. No

Answer: A. Yes

Explanation: Screen space in Azure Monitor is customizable, which allows you to create dashboards that align with your monitoring requirements.

Interview Questions

What Azure service can we utilize to monitor and analyze metrics, logs, and traces?

Azure Monitor is a powerful service provided by Azure to monitor and analyze metrics, logs, and traces.

What are the two main types of data used by Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor uses two fundamental types of data: metrics and logs.

What kind of data do metrics in Azure Monitor represent?

Metrics in Azure Monitor represent numerical values at a specific point in time.

What data does logs in Azure Monitor include?

Logs in Azure Monitor include all the data from the tracked resources, including event logs, performance data, and traces.

What is Azure Log Analytics?

Azure Log Analytics is a service in Azure Monitor that collects and analyzes data generated by resources in a cloud or on-premises environment.

What is Application Insights?

Application Insights is an extensible Application Performance Management (APM) service for developers and DevOps professionals, allowing you to monitor your live applications, detect performance anomalies, and diagnose issues.

How can you visualize the data using Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor provides several ways to visualize your data including dashboards, views, charts, and Power Bi.

What is the role of Azure Monitor Metrics Explorer?

Metrics Explorer in Azure Monitor is a visual exploration tool that allows you to plot metrics over time and correlate multiple metrics in the same chart.

Which Azure service can help in analyzing traces of cloud applications?

For analyzing traces of cloud applications, Azure Monitor Application Insights provides a dedicated service.

How can you set up alerts using Azure Monitor?

In Azure Monitor, you can set up alerts by specifying the alert rules on metrics or logs, which automatically triggers a response when the conditions of the rule are met.

What is Azure Monitor Logs?

Azure Monitor Logs is the primary tool in the Azure portal for writing log queries and interactively analyzing their results.

Can you explain briefly about Azure Monitor Workbooks?

Azure Monitor Workbooks provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and the creation of rich visual reports within the Azure portal.

What tools does Azure provide for network monitoring?

Azure provides several tools for network monitoring including Network Watcher, Traffic Analytics, and Connection Monitor.

What is Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher provides tools to monitor, diagnose, view metrics, and enable or disable logs for resources in an Azure virtual network.

What is Azure Service Map?

Azure Service Map automatically discovers application components on Windows and Linux systems and maps the communication between services, helping you to visualize your service dependencies and understand the impact of any potential changes.