Azure Cloud Monitoring Guide
Streamlining Azure Monitoring and Alerts
Managing an Azure environment can sometimes feel overwhelming, but as an administrator, I understand how crucial it is to set up alerts properly to ensure that I never miss a critical event that could impact performance, security, or availability.
Among the key resources to monitor are storage accounts, application performance, and virtual machines.
By setting up alerts for these resources, I can stay informed about system activities in real time. For instance, when I create a storage alert, I can assign it a severity level such as Critical, Error, Warning, or Informational, helping to categorize issues based on their urgency and potential impact.
Each alert can be linked to an action group, which defines the actions to be taken when the alert is triggered. These actions might include running a Logic App, sending notifications, or routing data to other systems.
This setup allows for immediate and automated responses to system events, ensuring I can react promptly to any situation. Action groups, for me, are predefined responses to potential issues key tools that ensure I’m not just reacting to problems as they arise, but also prepared for what’s ahead.
Configuring Azure Log Analytics
One of the initial rules I follow in resource management is to set up a Log Analytics workspace. This workspace is the place where all the diagnostic data finds a spot to recreation. With a help of different resource types, the Azure dais suggestions a lot of alternatives to assemble and log insight CPU consumption, data read/write operations, or diagnostic settings to the feed of concrete applications.
Azure has a element that makes it easier for me to keep an eye on the performance metrics of different resources. A practical sample of the way I apply performance diagnostics is to look at system health or fix ASPNET applications.
This kind of malleability really helps me figure out what kind of required data ought to be summed up and guarantees that the data measured is workable.
Azure App Services and Diagnostic Logs
The App Services property of Azure is a very full diagnostic setup that is mainly for web applications. I often find logs, for illustration, IIS logs and sequence logs, very much helpful while troubleshooting and also for performance refinement.
Depending on the application, these logs offer definite realizations, which I then bring to life by mapping them to a Log Analytics workspace , I am really excited about how Azure gives me the ability to choose the type and the quantity of the logged insight, and if it is sent to a Hub, stored in a workspace, or a storage account. This logging safeguards that all activity data is readily open without impacting application performance.
Discernment Azure Activity Logs
The Azure Activity Logs are the first data source you can go to for a look at what has been happening to the resources in your subscription. You can filter the logs based on the severity, timeframe, and scope of operations. This personalized view can provide you with not only the most recent entries but the most important ones too.
Azure Activity Logs’ visibility provided by the inclusive logging supports you to have full control over what is going on with your Azure resources, and at the same time, the performance of the application is not at risk.
When the activity log I have has been linked with my subscription in Log Analytics, I guarantee that the complete news is collected in a well-ordered manner. This is a way of monitoring my actions and then showing the relevant details to the monitoring tools of Azure.
Employing Azure Workbooks
Azure Workbooks comprise an integral part of the monitoring setup that makes the whole system more comfortable to use like the cherry on a cake .A graphical representation sourced from Log Analytics, workloads, and the Data Explorer to me is what visualizations are to our perception.
Do you understand? The visualizations are a means of communication that make everything easy and crystalline. I really like creating norm dashboards and charts capitalizing on Azure Workbooks As I am able to view details for URL errors and input/output analytics, every bit of the data is useful to me.
The workbooks along with their pre-made templates and active features make this plinth highly adaptable and at the same time competent enough to be used as my monitoring tools.
Making Alerts in Azure Controller
Have you ever been in the process of augmenting the use of Azure Inspector? That is, it’s not just about numeric values, but about your regular text values as well, did you think about it?
Which administrative tasks would you like to way or problems you’d like to be solved? Azure authorizes you to set up alerts according to different conditions so that you can be in continuous inspection and be ready to act.
When you open the alert part of Azure Sentinel, you will find different opportunities there that can be used for detecting the performance of your resources Have you ever tried to set an alert on the usage of administrative operations? This is what can be achieved with alert rules in Azure.
This capability can make the operational tasks of your administration much simpler to perform with the use of Azure.
Power of Log Analytics in Azure
Log analytics in Azure are a blessing One can acquire data from log analytics agents installed on the resources like imaginary machines, activity logs, etc. to get executable facts and upside from instrumentation.
Azure authorizes you to gather all those data in one repository, which you can issue without any problems.
It is no issue, if you have data from one location or other connected devices such as AWS, Azure, It is easy to perceive the resource’s conduct and the dependencies you have with the adoption of tools such as KQL concerns and centralized log management.
Networking with Azure Network Watcher
Azure Network Watcher is a useful tool when you come across networking issues or need to find out more about VPN problems. By capturing packets, you can visually see the course of the data between different elements, thus solving the issue immediately, e.g., collecting the IP address or the database back online.
Network Watcher’s flow logs and topology checks features provide quick and executable insight about the network state .Azure network diagnostics are truly decent much simpler with the innovative Azure services that permit for a smooth connection between multiple locations
Resource Management with Azure Tools
Azure’s elegant tools condense resource monitoring by providing a plethora of resources. Network security groups, routing tables, and diagnostics facilitate resource communication management in a more resourceful manner.
With the use of the service health in Azure, talent downtimes are being reported in time so you can inform your stakeholders and keep them in the loop. In turn, it results in resource management that is quite energetic and thus trust in your team and customers is built.
Azure Service Health
The biggest thing to remember about service health is that while employing Azure, you must be aware of service health and be up-to-date. Azure Service Health has a wealth of evidence on downtimes – if it is planned or due to some unexpected situation.
I opt for Southeast Asia and get all the health advisories and news regarding my Azure resources The smart action described above verifies that I am well informed of any issue and can find alternative ways to deal with it.
It should be realized that Azure’s SLAs (Service Level Agreements) cannot be 100%. In most situations, SLAs concerning availability come such as 999% or 9995%. The remaining tiny percentage is for aptitude downtimes.
Consequently, I make my resource for predictability with the help of Azure Site Recovery and Disaster Recovery solutions. Such alternatives offer the elasticity requisite for a provider to conduct any scheduled as well as unplanned downtime adequately.
Management and Downtimes in Azure
The term ‘planned preservation’ refers to the periodic replacement and updating of resources in Azure. It is the regular upgrade of resources that can be considered under this term. But if the preservation is scheduled, Azure never forgets to notify the customers about it.
My appreciation of these things gives the provision of a plan B for my arrangements, with nothing to be gleaned from my positiveness, even before Azure commences with the scheduled repair. By doing this, Azure is sure that the services they provide will be surrounded by the scope of the SLA. It is ensured that system performance is increasing due to the auto-upgrades.
While unplanned downtimes are indeed not frequent, they are a fact of life in the data center management of very large organizations. High-availability is pursued by Azure and other cloud service providers, but such reasons as equipment breakdowns or surprising entry of very unusual circumstances could lead to a temporary lack of services.
Azure Service Health will notify me at the time when such events take place, thereby helping me to react quickly.
Azure Application Discernment for Monitoring
Azure Application Discernment is highly important for tracking the productivity of my web applications. If you insert an instrumentation key into your application, you can measure many parameters such as request rates, failures, and execution times This kind of insight gives a deep insight into how well my Azure-hosted applications are running, and I can use it to make my applications perform most effectually
When I have the Application Intuition tool available, I can have easy access to live metrics, application maps, and performance counters of different details, e. g., user performance.
For case, I can find out how many requests have been processed per second, detect which requests have been failure, and measure the time to connect to several services with such a meticulous level of monitoring, I have the ability to optimize my applications and convey a satisfying user experience.
For those who are planning to use Azure Application Intuition, this tool can actually be considered as a substitute for Google Analytics although it submissions different operations. It is a monitoring tool for Azure, so it concentrates on the performance of the web application.
It is the capability of unceasing review that helps me to work pre-emptively, tackling and preventing any capacity performance issues that would otherwise affect my users.
Connecting Azure Insights to Your Application
To really take advantage of Azure Application Observations, it needs to be automatically integrated inside of my applications I can do this by simply linking the instrumentation key to the application settings or the code itself Regardless of given that it’s a spirited or static page, I can still use this integration as a way to collect all metrics of my application and to show them in the Azure Portal
The identifier which is called an instrumentation key is what is used to connect to the Application Observations resource – once that is done, it will start capturing all the data that is mandatory, launching from page views and ending with performance logs These data then assist me in a more punctual and competent manner to observer and direct my Azure resources, which finally guarantees uninterrupted use for my users.
Overview of Azure Application Discernment
Here is a tool that comes in your store of resources and it is called Azure Application Awareness which is a great companion. The instrumentation for logging and analytics out via browser while the app is highly segmented and has customer interfacing competence You can achieve the same through Azure Log Analytics which is now the only tool for multitasks in this domain which is furnished with your data.
It is a trustable method to follow up the order of your applications and their performance guarantee.
Microsoft’s Azure Security Center
Azure Security Center is a complete safeguard solution that gives mitigation choices to increase your security level It evaluates your policies and reports sections where you are compliant and where there are variation Azure Security Center approves you to directly take corrective action and its proposals even a Defender score to find out how good are your security standards
With the help of suggested actions, you can not only mitigate the most frequent misconfigurations but, more significantly, constantly keep your security posture high For representation, the center of your knowledge system’s security, the Security Center from Azure greatly clarifies and synthesize all the steps involved in this process
Avoiding Overspending with Azure
Cost management in Azure is quite simple and is based on a pay-as-you-go model. The cost of the log analytics and alert creation is a momentous contributor to the umbrella costs of Azure.
It helps you continue the equilibrium between cost and performance of your cloud services and safeguards that you are not only keeping the durable access but also managing your budget skilfully. It is the regions with the lowest costs that can provide a home to your archive solutions which contain the data that is used very rarely thus saving you a lot of money in the long run.
This freedom of storage usage helps one to best work with Azure; one can guarantee that the cloud-based services on Azure are cost-functional and at the same time can size limitlessly.
Azure Advisor and Workbooks
You can employ Azure Advisor to get tailored advice that suit your clear-cut environment. It is beneficial for you in refining the performance of your services and reducing the associated costs.
Furthermore, the solution also permits for quicker and generation of reports. Trying out Azure Workbooks before contemplating an surface tool like Power BI for reporting intentions is to your profit.
Azure Hybrid Benefits and Reserved Instances
Azure advantage is in the ability to save money through the use of reserved instances and hybrid benefits. By journeying licenses under software assurance, you can add flexibility to resource provisioning.
You just have to be cautious in picking regions and also in opting subscriptions to match your needs in the most competent way at the cost you are comfortable with that would not sacrifice the quality of services.
It is without a doubt that Azure advances the region of the movable application development, It leftover easily available to everyone despite the challenge that it presents to the few cognoscenti.
Facilitating Azure effortless merging
Azure definitely has renovated the way we share, send, or move resources and services even across the organizations Thanks to these Microsoft tools such as Logic Apps, through which you can easily direct your workflows or do the formatting of your documents, you can now realize your dream of no-code automating a hassle-free reality
Azure Logic Apps are a hero detail in the transformation of XML and rationalization of the conditional operations tasks. Taking advantage of a simple layout instead of writing long lines of code, your backend team can plan APIs and steps for the steps
If you’ve ever used an Enterprise Service Bus or a Server Service Bus, Azure Logic Apps may come across to you as kind of similar They are drafted to conduct operations, perform automation, and provide easy integration with other services, thus help to invent modular and powerful solutions
Integrating Data with Azure Logic Apps
One of the advantages of the architectural dimensions of Azure Logic Apps is the ability to stand out clearly, even when we compare it to Azure Functions.
While Azure Functions grant the operation of the code to be done inside of a particular 5-minute-time frame, Logic Apps can run forever and thus are more suitable for the coordinating of huge long-running processes.
These apps fulfil workflows one by one consequently confirming the exact performance of every task. Azure Logic Apps unlock the door to over 3,000 connectors, enabling you to link to an endless number of data sources.
If it’s a question of fetching, inserting, updating or deleting data, Logic Apps are the tool to go to as they make everything so much easier and faster to work with.
Additions also come with on-premises system advantages. Azure grants the gateways with the help of Service Bus. You can use open API specifications , and interact with your habit services without having to change anything.
Azure’s Complete AI Integration
Azure Logic Apps have opened up AI and cognitive services to many people. With things like sentiment detection and AI-powered analytics, you can raise responses and also the decision-making process easily and effectually.
Did you use Microsoft Flow or Power Automate? In case you did, you’ll understand how Azure Logic Apps implement AI builders to enrich the general capability, hence, making your operations smarter and more answering.
Catalysts from Azure Logic Apps are implemented to generate vital workflows. For case, if your brand is mentioned by someone in a tweet, then you can use text analytics to detect the sentiment of the message, and then chose to insert data into an SQL server or send new entries to teams
Construction Workflows with Azure Logic Apps
Microsoft Azure Logic App Designer is the right tool to make workflows simple to understand Either by the browser or Visual Studio, you get a sleek experience as you drag and drop actions for the construction of a sequence, the designer generates JSON files for deployment automatically
Azure Logic Apps bundles ready-made designs that are useful for a variety of tasks one might be carrying out . No matter if you want to apply the HTTP requests or process the documents from OneDrive or keep an eye on the messages in Service Bus queues, the templates make things easier for the initial and execution stages.
Capitalizing on Azure Logic Apps, you are allowed to describe actions, such as conveying emails, attaching files, or connecting to storage accounts on the fly. Preconfigured tasks can be automatically executed whenever a certain storage account’s container is updated, thus enabling a more lithe and productive work process.

Vanitha
Author