Microsoft Azure provides a suite of monitoring services known as Azure Monitor, which can collect, analyze, and act on telemetry data from both Azure and on-premise environments. This functionality enables you to maintain performance and availability, understand how applications are used and how they perform, troubleshoot issues and perform advanced analytics on your data.
Consider Azure Blob Storage, a key service utilized in Azure data engineering. When you create a Blob Storage account, Azure automatically creates diagnostic logs and sends them to Azure Monitor. These logs can provide valuable information on everything from Blob access patterns to network errors or throttling.
Configuring Azure Monitor
To configure Azure Monitor, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to the Monitor Hub: From your Azure portal, click on ‘Monitor’. This will bring you to the Monitor Hub.
- Create a new alert rule: From the Monitor Hub’s side navigation, choose ‘Alerts’ and then ‘New Alert Rule’.
- Select your target resource: You can then select your target resource for which you want to configure the alert rule.
- Define alert condition: Under ‘Condition’, you can specify the signal type (Metric/Log), the specific signal (e.g., Blob Count), and the alert logic (e.g., Greater Than, Less Than, etc.).
- Configure alert details: Under ‘Alert Details’, you can specify the alert rule name, severity level, and a description.
- Set up action group: Under ‘Action Group’, you can define what actions should be taken when the alert is triggered. For instance, you might want to send an email or text message to a specific group of people.
Here is an example code snippet to create an alert rule with an ARM template in Azure:
{
“$schema”: “http://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#”,
[…]
“resources”: [
{
“type”: “Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts”,
“apiVersion”: “2018-03-01”,
“name”: “[parameters(‘alertName’)]”,
“location”: “global”,
“properties”: {
“description”: “An alert rule that sends an email when the blob count is greater than 0”,
“severity”: 3,
“enabled”: true,
“scopes”: [“/subscriptions/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/YOUR_STORAGE_ACCOUNT”],
“evaluationFrequency”: “PT1M”,
“windowSize”: “PT1M”,
“criteria”: {
“metricName”: “BlobCount”,
“operator”: “GreaterThan”,
“threshold”: 0,
“timeAggregation”: “Average”,
“dimensions”: []
},
“actions”: [
{
“actionGroupId”: “[concat(subscription().id,’/resourceGroups/YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP/providers/microsoft.insights/actionGroups/YOUR_ACTION_GROUP’)]”
}
]
}
}
]
}
In this example, an alert is set up on a particular Blob Storage account, triggering if the Blob Count metric is greater than 0.
Azure Monitor Insights
Azure Monitor also offers a range of ‘Insights’, specialized monitoring experiences tailored towards specific Azure services. These include Application Insights for application monitoring, Container Insights for Kubernetes and other container workloads, and Azure SQL Insights for SQL Database monitoring, amongst others.
Each Insight provides detailed telemetry views into the specific underlying service, allowing data engineers to dive deep into the performance, health, and usage patterns of their Azure data services.
Configuring monitoring services in Azure is an integral part of effectively operating and maintaining Azure data services workloads. Adequate monitoring helps ensure service reliability and performance, identify and troubleshoot issues, and derive actionable intelligence from your data. Understanding these processes is crucial for any data engineer preparing for Microsoft’s DP-203 certification exam.
Practice Test
True or False: Azure Monitor can only be used to collect data from Azure resources.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Monitor can collect data from a variety of sources including Azure resources, on-premise infrastructure, and even other cloud platforms not just limited to Azure resources.
Which of the following are components of Azure Monitor?
- A. Metrics
- B. Log Analytics
- C. Alerts
- D. Graphs
Answer: A, B, C
Explanation: Azure Monitor includes components for collecting and analyzing telemetry, setting up alerts and insights, and visualizing data. However, Graphs are not a direct component of Azure Monitor.
Azure Metrics is primarily log-based. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Metrics provides numerical data about the system that is collected at regular intervals, not logs.
Which of the below cannot be monitored with Application Insights?
- A. Page views and load performance
- B. Ajax call rates
- C. User and session counts
- D. Hardware failures
Answer: D
Explanation: While Application Insights can monitor a lot of data about app usage and performance, it does not have the capability to monitor hardware failures.
What are common uses for Azure Log Analytics?
- A. Analyze Log Data
- B. Create Visualizations
- C. Perform Root Cause Analysis
- D. Adjust Network Settings
Answer: A, B, C
Explanation: Azure Log Analytics is often used for the analysis of log data, creating visualizations, and assisting with root cause analysis. However, adjusting network settings is done via the Azure Network Watcher.
Azure Monitor integrates only with Azure DevOps. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Monitor greatly integrates with Azure DevOps, but it’s not limited to it. It can also integrate with other services like Power BI, and even third-party services.
Azure Monitor uses ______ to identify security and other health risks.
- Insights
Answer: Insights
Explanation: Insights are part of Azure Monitor that provide detailed analysis of the performance and operation of applications and resources in Azure.
Azure Stream Analytics does not support output to Azure Synapse Analytics. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Stream Analytics indeed supports output to Azure Synapse Analytics, enabling real-time reporting and analytics.
Azure Metrics does not provide real-time data. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Metrics actually provides near-real-time data, which can be used for fast alerting and quick diagnostics.
Which of the following components are parts of the Azure monitoring data platform?
- A. Metrics
- B. Logs
- C. Persistent Storage
- D. Azure Function App
Answer: A, B, C
Explanation: The Azure monitoring data platform consists of Metrics, Logs and Persistent Storage. Azure Function App is not part of it.
Azure Log Analytics can only query log data within a single Azure workspace. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Log Analytics can query data across multiple Azure workspaces.
Azure Monitor facilitates the component for creating and managing alerts. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Monitor provides a means for you to create, view, and manage alerts, which can inform you when specific conditions are detected.
Azure Monitor only supports visualizing data in the Azure portal. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Monitor supports visualizing monitor data not only in Azure portal but also in Power BI, Excel, and through APIs in custom applications.
The Application Insights tool, part of Azure Monitor, is designed just for web applications. True or False?
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: While it is commonly used for web applications, Application Insights can monitor services of many kinds – not just for web applications.
What is not captured by Azure Monitor?
- A. Application Logs
- B. Guest OS Metrics
- C. Activity Logs
- D. Security Incident Logs
Answer: D
Explanation: Azure Monitor can’t capture security incident logs directly. However, Azure Security Center and Azure Sentinel can provide that functionality.
Interview Questions
What is Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor is a built-in tool in Microsoft Azure that collects, analyses, and acts on telemetry data from your cloud and on-premises environments. It enables you to maximize the performance and availability of your applications and to proactively identify problems in seconds.
What data can Azure Monitor collect?
Azure Monitor can collect data from a variety of sources including application logs, operating system logs, Azure resources, on-premises systems, and custom sources.
What is Log Analytics in Azure Monitor?
Log Analytics is a tool in Azure Monitor used for collecting and analyzing data generated by resources in your cloud and on-premises environments. It helps you understand how your applications are performing and proactively identifies issues affecting them and the resources they depend on.
What is an Azure Monitor alert?
An Azure Monitor Alert is a notification that gets triggered when some specific criteria are met. Alerts in Azure Monitor are proactively notify you when important conditions are found in your monitoring data.
What is the Azure Monitor metrics explorer?
The Azure Monitor Metrics Explorer is a feature that allows you to graphically display metric data for both Azure Monitor and Application Insights resources.
What is the role of Application Insights in configuring monitoring services?
Application Insights is a service within Azure Monitor for detailed insight into an application’s operations, errors, and performance. It detects anomalies, visualizes application activities, and helps diagnose issues.
How do you create a new alert rule in Azure Monitor?
In the Azure portal, you can create a new alert rule by going to ‘Monitor’, then ‘Alerts’, then ‘New alert rule’. From there, you can set the conditions for your alert, and specify the action group that should be notified when the alert is triggered.
What is an action group in Azure Monitor?
An action group in Azure Monitor is a collection of notification preferences defined by the user. It consolidates several potential actions to take when alert is triggered, such as sending an email or SMS, making a voice call, invoking a webhook, etc.
What can Azure Monitor Metrics do?
Azure Monitor Metrics can collect numeric data from monitored resources into a time series database. This numeric data can then be used for displaying in graphs, in alerting, etc.
Is it possible to export data from Azure Monitor?
Yes, you can export data from Azure Monitor. It supports data export to Event Hubs for telemetry and diagnostics data, and to a storage account for diagnostics logs and metrics. For analysis and reporting, it can be exported to Power BI.
Can Azure Monitor be used for on-premises machines as well?
Yes, Azure Monitor can be utilized for monitoring on-premises machines as well, and it’s not limited to just Azure resources.
How do you query data in Log Analytics?
Azure Monitor uses a version of the Kusto query language that is used to retrieve and analyze data in Log Analytics.
What is Azure Monitor Workbook?
Azure Monitor Workbooks provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and the creation of rich visual reports within the Azure portal. They allow combining text, Log Analytics queries, metrics, and parameters into rich interactive reports.
How can you visualize log data in Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor provides several features for visualizing log data including tables, charts, and other visualizations with Log Analytics.
How do you access Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor can be accessed through the Azure portal. After logging into the portal, you can go to the ‘Monitor’ hub or directly navigate to any specific feature like ‘Alerts’, ‘Metrics’, or ‘Logs’.
extutorials.com