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Azure VM Insights

   October 31, 2024

Azure VM Insights is a powerful monitoring tool within Azure Monitor designed to provide deep insights into the health, performance, and dependencies of virtual machines (VMs) in Azure. With VM Insights, IT administrators and developers can track VM performance, identify issues, monitor dependencies, and optimize resource usage, making it easier to ensure the reliability and efficiency of virtualized workloads. Here’s a beginner-friendly guide covering the core concepts, features, configurations, usage, and examples.

1. Core Concepts in Azure VM Insights

Telemetry
Telemetry refers to data collected about your virtual machine’s performance, health, and usage. VM Insights captures telemetry on metrics like CPU usage, memory consumption, disk operations, and network traffic to help administrators monitor VM performance.

Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor is the overarching monitoring platform in Azure. VM Insights is a feature within Azure Monitor that specifically targets virtual machine monitoring, making it easier to track VM-specific performance metrics and health indicators.

Log Analytics Workspace
A Log Analytics workspace is a centralized location for storing telemetry data collected by Azure Monitor. VM Insights relies on a Log Analytics workspace to store logs and metrics, enabling in-depth analysis and querying with Kusto Query Language (KQL).

Metrics and Logs
Metrics are real-time numerical measurements (like CPU usage or network in/out), while logs provide detailed event records (like errors or warnings). VM Insights uses both metrics and logs to provide a comprehensive view of VM health.

Dependency Map
The dependency map is a visual representation of your VM’s connections to other resources, such as other VMs, databases, and external services. It helps you understand network flows and diagnose connectivity issues.

2. Key Features of Azure VM Insights

Performance Monitoring
VM Insights tracks essential performance metrics, such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, and network traffic. This information is vital for identifying performance bottlenecks and managing resource consumption.

Dependency Monitoring
The dependency map in VM Insights visualizes connections between your VM and other resources. It shows inbound and outbound connections, allowing you to identify dependencies and monitor network connectivity for each VM.

Alerting and Notification
VM Insights allows you to set alerts based on performance metrics or logs. For example, you can configure alerts for high CPU usage or network latency, and receive notifications when thresholds are breached.

Workbooks and Visualization
Workbooks are customizable dashboards within VM Insights that offer real-time visualization of VM metrics and logs. They enable you to create charts and tables to monitor VM health and performance at a glance.

Log Analytics and Kusto Query Language (KQL)
With Log Analytics, you can query log data for in-depth analysis. Kusto Query Language (KQL) enables you to write powerful queries to search, filter, and visualize log data collected from your VMs.

3. Configuring VM Insights

Step-by-Step Configuration

Step 1: Set Up a Log Analytics Workspace

  1. In the Azure portal, go to Create a resource > Monitoring + Management > Log Analytics.
  2. Specify a Resource Group and a Region, then click Review + create to set up the workspace.
  3. VM Insights will use this workspace to store telemetry data from your VMs.

Step 2: Enable VM Insights on a Virtual Machine

  1. Go to Virtual Machines in the Azure portal, select the VM you want to monitor, and click Insights under Monitoring.
  2. Choose your Log Analytics workspace created in Step 1, then click Enable.
  3. Azure will automatically install the Log Analytics agent and Dependency agent on your VM to collect telemetry data.

Step 3: Enable Performance Counters and Dependency Monitoring

  1. Under Configuration in VM Insights, enable performance counters for metrics like CPU, memory, disk, and network.
  2. Enable Dependency monitoring to visualize and track network connections between your VM and other services.

Step 4: Configure Alerts

  1. In the VM Insights page, go to Alerts and create a new alert rule.
  2. Choose a metric (e.g., CPU Percentage) and set a threshold.
  3. Specify the Action Group to determine how you want to be notified (email, SMS, or push notification) when the alert is triggered.

4. Usage and Working Examples

Example 1: Monitoring CPU and Memory Usage in a Web Server VM

  1. Enable VM Insights: Enable VM Insights on a VM hosting a web server.
  2. Set Up Performance Counters: Enable performance counters for CPU and memory.
  3. Create Alerts: Configure an alert for CPU usage above 80% to notify the admin team.
  4. Analyze Performance: In VM Insights, go to Performance and view charts for CPU and memory usage over time. If CPU spikes occur frequently, consider scaling up resources or optimizing application performance.

Example 2: Troubleshooting Network Latency Between VMs

  1. Enable Dependency Monitoring: Use VM Insights’ dependency map to monitor network connections between two VMs.
  2. View Dependency Map: Check the dependency map to see if there are any latency issues or dropped packets in connections between VMs.
  3. Isolate Network Bottlenecks: Identify if network latency is due to a specific dependency, such as an overloaded database. Resolve by optimizing the resource or redistributing workloads.

Example 3: Visualizing Disk Usage Trends for Storage Optimization

  1. Enable Disk Performance Counters: In VM Insights, enable counters for Disk Read/Write operations.
  2. Analyze Disk Usage Trends: Go to the Workbooks section and select a workbook focused on Disk Usage.
  3. Optimize Storage: If disk operations are consistently high, consider upgrading storage or moving frequently accessed files to faster storage (e.g., SSD).

Example 4: Creating a Custom Dashboard for Multiple VMs

  1. Use Workbooks: In VM Insights, go to Workbooks and create a workbook to track CPU, memory, and disk usage across multiple VMs.
  2. Customize Dashboard: Customize the workbook with graphs and tables to monitor performance indicators across the selected VMs.
  3. Monitor in Real-Time: Use the dashboard for real-time monitoring, allowing you to quickly detect and respond to performance anomalies.

5. Monitoring and Managing VM Insights

Analyzing Metrics and Logs

  1. Metrics: In VM Insights, go to the Performance tab to view CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics in real-time.
  2. Logs: Go to Logs and use KQL queries to search for specific events, errors, or warnings. Example KQL query for CPU usage:
   Perf
   | where CounterName == "Processor Time"
   | summarize avg(CounterValue) by bin(TimeGenerated, 1h), Computer

Dependency Map Monitoring

  1. Open Map in VM Insights to view network dependencies and connections for your VM.
  2. Use the dependency map to diagnose connectivity issues, such as failing or slow connections to databases or APIs.

Configuring and Managing Alerts

  1. Go to the Alerts tab in VM Insights and configure alerts for high CPU, memory, or network usage.
  2. Set up Action Groups to specify how notifications will be sent, such as via email or SMS.

Workbooks for Custom Visualization

  1. Use Workbooks to create custom views of your VM’s performance data. Select from templates or create custom visualizations for metrics like CPU load, memory usage, or disk I/O.
  2. Pin workbooks to your Azure dashboard to get a quick overview of VM health and performance.

6. Best Practices for Using VM Insights

  • Enable Dependency Tracking: Visualize connections between VMs and other resources to diagnose network-related issues.
  • Set Alerts on Key Metrics: Configure alerts on CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics to stay informed about performance issues.
  • Use Workbooks for Real-Time Monitoring: Customize workbooks to monitor multiple VMs and key metrics at a glance.
  • Adjust Sampling to Reduce Data Volume: Configure sampling or filtering if you are monitoring many VMs, as this can help control data volume and cost.
  • Use KQL for Advanced Analysis: Leverage Log Analytics and KQL for in-depth troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
  • Automate Responses to Alerts: For critical applications, automate responses (e.g., scaling resources or rebooting VMs) when alerts are triggered.

Summary

Azure VM Insights is a powerful tool for monitoring the health, performance, and dependencies of Azure VMs. By capturing telemetry, tracking dependencies, and setting up alerts, VM Insights allows for proactive monitoring and troubleshooting. Its features, such as dependency maps, workbooks, and real-time metrics, offer visibility into the performance of individual VMs or VM fleets, enabling better decision-making and resource optimization.

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Author: tonyhughes