Introduction to Azure Monitor - Monitoring and Metrics


What is Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive cloud monitoring service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to gain insights into the performance and health of your applications and infrastructure. Azure Monitor provides a unified platform for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry data from your cloud resources.


Key Features

Azure Monitor offers a wide range of features and capabilities, including:

  • Metrics and Logs: Collect and analyze metrics and logs from Azure resources, applications, and services.
  • Alerts and Notifications: Set up alerts based on predefined conditions or custom queries and receive notifications when issues occur.
  • Application Insights: Gain deep insights into the performance and behavior of your applications to identify and troubleshoot issues.
  • Integration: Seamlessly integrate with Azure services and other monitoring tools for comprehensive monitoring and management.
  • Security and Compliance: Ensure the security and compliance of your cloud environment with insights into potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Getting Started

To get started with Azure Monitor, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your Azure Portal.
  2. Create an Azure Monitor resource.
  3. Configure data sources, such as Azure resources or applications, to send telemetry data to Azure Monitor.
  4. Set up monitoring and alert rules to be notified of issues and take action when necessary.

Sample Code

Here's a simple example of how to use Azure Monitor to query and retrieve metrics data using Azure CLI:

# List available metrics for an Azure resource
az monitor metrics list --resource MY_RESOURCE_ID --resource-type "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines" --output table
# Get a specific metric for a resource
az monitor metrics show --resource MY_RESOURCE_ID --resource-type "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines" --metric-name "Percentage CPU" --output table

Conclusion

Azure Monitor is a powerful monitoring and metrics platform that provides visibility and insights into the performance and health of your cloud resources and applications. Whether you need to troubleshoot issues, optimize performance, or ensure compliance, Azure Monitor is an essential tool for managing your Azure environment.