Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect Health enables you to have deep visibility, robust monitoring, and detailed insights into your Azure AD Connect server’s performance. This solution provides important statistics, activities, alerts and performance data to better manage, monitor, and troubleshoot issues.
Azure AD Connect Health Features:
- Alerts that identify potential issues, providing clear instructions on how to rectify them.
- Performance monitoring to help detect performance deviations or patterns that could impact service.
- Usage analytics that helps understand how your organization uses Azure AD services.
- Reports that provide detailed data for identity, access, and usage.
- Endpoint latency measurement from various locations.
Monitor Synchronization with Azure AD Connect Health
Azure AD Connect Health offers a comprehensive synchronization error reporting mechanism that helps administrators understand, monitor, and resolve synchronization issues. Here’s how you can monitor sync errors using Azure AD Connect Health:
- Make sure that Azure AD Connect Health agent is installed and registered on the Azure AD Connect server.
- Log in to the Azure portal.
- Go to Azure Active Directory > Azure AD Connect Health.
- Click on ‘Sync Error Reports’ tile. This will provide you with a view of synchronization errors in your environment.
Once you click on any error, you will get detailed information about that error and the objects that are impacted.
Tracking Remediation
Having tracked and monitored your issues, the next step is to remediate them. Azure AD Connect Health also provides relevant links to exhaustive identity domain knowledge articles. These articles provide steps on how to resolve these issues.
Usage Analytics
Azure AD Connect Health collects and categorizes usage data across various identities to provide usage analytics. This valuable data enables you to understand how your organization leverages Azure AD services and thereby plan better.
Performance Monitoring
Azure AD Connect Health continuously collects and displays data to allow you to monitor the performance of your identities. Data is gathered over time, allowing for trends analysis and detection of anomalies.
The feature enables you to:
- Monitor the latency of Azure AD Connect Sync operations.
- Understand the trends of various operations over time.
- Identify specific operations that might be causing performance issues.
In summary, managing identity and synchronization with Azure AD can be challenging, but thanks to Azure AD Connect Health, Microsoft 365 administrators are better equipped to monitor their environment. Streamlined error reporting and remediation links, along with usage analysis and performance monitoring, present meaningful insights that empower administrators with the control they need. Azure AD Connect Health is a useful tool for anyone preparing for the MS-100 Microsoft 365 Identity and Services exam, as it offers valuable practical understanding of Azure AD synchronization and its associated issues.
Practice Test
True or False: Azure AD Connect Health is a tool that helps administrators to monitor and gain insights into their on-premises identity infrastructure.
- True
- False
Answer: True.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health provides robust monitoring and provides a central location in the Azure portal to view activity.
Azure AD Connect Health only supports Windows Server AD DS, AD FS and Azure AD Connect.
- True
- False
Answer: False.
Explanation: It also supports Azure AD Connect with Password Hash Sync, Pass-through Authentication, and Seamless Single Sign on.
Multiple Select: What are some of the features of Azure AD Connect Health?
- A. Alert Notifications
- B. Usage Analytics
- C. Scheduled Sync
- D. Performance monitoring
Answer: A, B, and D.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health provides alert notifications, usage analytics, and performance monitoring. The Scheduled Sync happens as part of Azure AD Connect service not within the health monitoring.
True or False: Azure AD Connect Health cannot be used to monitor and manage Azure Active Directory Connect Sync engines.
- True
- False
Answer: False.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health includes a robust set of capabilities to monitor and manage Azure AD Connect Sync engines.
Single Select: What is necessary to use Azure AD Connect Health?
- A) Azure AD Premium P1 License
- B) Azure AD Basic License
- C) Office 365 F1 License
- D) Dynamics 365 License
Answer: A) Azure AD Premium P1 License.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health service is available to customers with an Azure AD Premium P1 license.
Azure AD Connect Health can be used to synchronize identities for a single-forest or multi-forest Active Directory deployment.
- True
- False
Answer: True.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health supports single-forest, multi-forest, and hybrid-forest Active Directory deployments.
Single Select: Which one of these solutions does Azure AD Connect Health not support?
- A) AD FS
- B) Azure AD Connect Sync
- C) Azure SQL Server
- D) Azure AD DS
Answer: C) Azure SQL Server.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health supports AD FS, Azure AD Connect Sync, and Azure AD DS.
True or False: You can use Azure AD Connect Health to view risk events for your Azure AD environment.
- True
- False
Answer: True.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health provides insights into the security and risk of your environments, making it a useful tool for identifying and mitigating potential problems.
Azure AD Connect Health can provide an alert when there is a replication issue between domain controllers.
- True
- False
Answer: True.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health captures IP addresses used by users during authentication events from AD FS and Azure AD Connect servers.
Single Select: Which report in Azure AD Connect Health shows an overview of the sync activity in your environment?
- A) Password hash sync report
- B) Azure AD DS report
- C) Sync activity report
- D) AD FS report
Answer: C) Sync activity report
Explanation: The sync activity report shows a summary and detailed view of the synchronization activity in your environment.
True or False: With Azure AD Connect Health, you need to manually configure email notifications for Alerts.
- True
- False
Answer: False.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health by default will send email notifications for critical alerts to the service owners configured in Azure AD.
Single Select: The Azure AD Connect Health agent must be installed on every domain controller within a forest.
- A) True
- B) False
Answer: B) False
Explanation: In order to provide AD DS health monitoring, the Azure AD Connect Health agent is not required to be installed on every domain controller. However, for complete visibility, it is recommended.
Azure AD Connect Health cannot monitor the performance of your AD FS servers.
- True
- False
Answer: False.
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health can indeed monitor the performance of your AD FS servers, issue alerts regarding their health, and provide insights into the data.
True or False: The Azure AD Connect Health feature is a free service offered by Microsoft.
- True
- False
Answer: False.
Explanation: To use Azure AD Connect Health, you need an Azure AD Premium P1 or Premium P2 license.
Multiple select: Azure AD Connect Health provides which of the following insights for the AD FS role?
- A) Log on statistics
- B) Usage patterns
- C) Browser utilization
- D) Server health and performance
Answer: A, B, C, and D
Explanation: Azure AD Connect Health’s AD FS role provides insights on log on statistics, usage patterns, browser utilization, as well as server health and performance.
Interview Questions
What is Azure AD Connect Health?
Azure AD Connect Health is a tool that helps you monitor and secure your cloud and on-premises identity infrastructure. It also provides detailed insights, end-to-end views, basic diagnostics, alerts, and analytics.
What are the prerequisites to use Azure AD Connect Health?
The prerequisites include: having a valid Azure AD Premium license, ensuring the machines you want to monitor meet the system requirements, AD FS (if you’re monitoring AD FS), and AD Connect (if you’re monitoring sync).
What is the primary usage of Azure AD Connect Health?
Azure AD Connect Health’s main use is to provide robust monitoring and provide insights pertaining to your Azure AD Connect infrastructure. This can help detect potential issues even before they impact end-users and service’s health.
Can Azure AD Connect Health be used to monitor domain controllers?
Yes, with Azure AD Connect Health, you can monitor your on-premises Active Directory domain controllers.
What data does the Azure AD Connect Health for Sync provide?
It provides performance data, including the number of objects and credentials in your on-premises Active Directory and Azure AD. It also includes information about operations and latency, system status, and alerts for issues.
How can users be alerted to issues detected by Azure AD Connect Health?
Azure AD Connect Health can send email notifications to the global administrator or a group of administrators whenever it detects an issue with the monitored systems.
What synchronization errors can be identified with Azure AD Connect Health?
Azure AD Connect Health can identify synchronization errors in the connectivity, latency, export, and import events in Azure AD Connect sync.
Can Azure AD Connect Health monitor multiple AD FS farms?
Yes, Azure AD Connect Health can monitor multiple AD FS farms as well as multiple sync engines.
What kind of reports can be generated by the Azure AD Connect Health?
Azure AD Connect Health can generate reports showing login activity, risk events, error reporting, and other detailed insights about your identity infrastructure.
Can Azure AD Connect Health monitor applications that use federated authentication?
Yes, Azure AD Connect Health can monitor applications that use federation with Azure AD or Office 365.
How often is the data in Azure AD Connect Health updated?
The data in Azure AD Connect Health is updated approximately every 60 minutes.
Can we use Azure AD Connect Health for troubleshooting synchronization issues with Azure AD?
Yes. Azure AD Connect Health features capabilities like alerting, performance monitoring, and usage analytics that are key for identifying and troubleshooting synchronization issues with Azure AD.
Is there any specific role required to access Azure AD Connect Health?
Yes, to access Azure AD Connect Health the user must be a global administrator or have the ‘reports reader’ role.
Which protocol does Azure AD Connect Health use to send data from agents to Azure AD?
Agents use the HTTPS protocol to send data securely to Azure AD.
Can custom alerts be created in Azure AD Connect Health?
No, custom alert rules can’t be created in Azure AD Connect Health. But users can use existing alerts and set threshold parameters per their requirements.