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Metrics in Azure are numerical values that describe some aspect of a system at a particular point in time. They are lightweight and capable of supporting near real-time scenarios. Metrics are typically available through Azure Monitor almost immediately after they are collected and are retained for 93 days.
To configure metrics in Azure, you must first understand the different types of metrics available and then how to enable the collection of these metrics.
Types of Metrics:
Enabling Metrics Collection:
After enabling metric collection, you can visualize the data using dashboards, Azure Monitor Views, and workbooks, which allow for deeper analysis and comparison across different resources and timeframes.
Understanding how to read and analyze metrics is crucial for maintaining the health of your Azure resources. Here are steps to interpret them effectively:
Examples of Metrics Interpretation:
Here is a comparison of metrics interpretations across different scenarios:
Scenario | Metric | Expected Value | Alert Trigger Threshold | Interpretation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Normal Operation | CPU Utilization | <70% | >80% for 5 minutes | Within expected range, no action required. |
High Demand | CPU Utilization | ~80-95% | >95% for 5 minutes | Possible scaling required, monitor closely. |
Memory Leak | Memory Usage | Steady increase overtime | >80% for 10 minutes | Investigate application memory handling. |
Disk Bottleneck | Disk IOPS | Near maximum provisioned | >3000 IOPS for 5 minutes | Evaluate disk performance or move to higher SKU. |
When a metric crosses the defined threshold, Azure Monitor can trigger an alert. These alerts can be configured to send notifications via email, SMS, or even push notifications to the Azure mobile app. Additionally, they can trigger automated actions, such as running Azure Functions, Logic Apps, or scaling out an Azure App Service plan.
In summary, configuring and interpreting metrics in Azure involves enabling and collecting the appropriate data, understanding the baseline and threshold values to spot anomalies, and responding accordingly through alerts and automated actions. By effectively monitoring and analyzing these metrics, you can maintain performance and availability of your Azure resources.
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Monitor is the primary tool within Azure for configuring and interpreting metrics for Azure resources.
Answer: All of the above
Explanation: Azure Monitor allows you to monitor multiple types of resources including Virtual Machines, Blob Storage, and Azure SQL Databases.
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure allows you to create alerts based on specific metrics that can notify you about the state of your resources.
Answer: To visualize and query the metrics of your Azure services
Explanation: Azure Metrics Explorer is a feature within Azure Monitor used for visualizing and querying the metrics data of Azure resources.
Answer: CPU Usage Percentage
Explanation: While all these metrics can point to performance bottlenecks, a consistently high CPU Usage Percentage is a common indicator of potential performance issues.
Answer: Every minute
Explanation: Azure Monitor typically collects metric data for resources every minute by default, although the frequency can vary depending on the type of resource and metric.
Answer: False
Explanation: Metric data collection is enabled by default for most Azure resources, and no manual steps are typically required to start collecting the metrics.
Answer: A collection of related metrics
Explanation: A metric namespace is a logical container that groups a collection of related metrics that apply to a particular Azure resource.
Answer: False
Explanation: Metrics in Azure have a retention policy which varies depending on the tier of service. They are not retained indefinitely.
Answer: Log Analytics
Explanation: Log Analytics within Azure Monitor allows you to write queries that combine or correlate data from various data sources.
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure allows configuring diagnostic settings to send metric data to different destinations for archiving, streaming, or analyzing.
Answer: Azure Stream Analytics
Explanation: Azure Stream Analytics is the service designed to provide real-time analytics on streaming data, integrating with Azure services such as Event Hubs and IoT Hub.
Azure Metrics are numerical values collected for a specific time period that represent the performance and health of a monitored resource.
Metrics are used to evaluate the performance of an application or service over time, to identify issues and optimize performance, and to set alerts when certain thresholds are exceeded.
Azure Monitor can collect metrics on a wide range of resource types, including virtual machines, storage accounts, and Azure services like Azure SQL Database.
Metrics can be viewed in the Azure portal, through REST APIs, or using Azure Monitor’s command-line interface.
Azure Monitor for Containers is a feature of Azure Monitor that collects performance and diagnostic data from container workloads in Kubernetes clusters, Docker Compose environments, and other container orchestrators.
Azure Monitor for VMs is a feature of Azure Monitor that provides performance monitoring and diagnostics for virtual machines.
Metrics are numerical values that represent the performance and health of a monitored resource over time, while logs are text-based records of events and activities in a monitored system.
Alerts can be set up in the Azure portal, using Azure Monitor’s command-line interface, or through REST APIs. Alerts can be based on various types of metrics, and can trigger notifications via email, SMS, or other means.
Application Insights is a feature of Azure Monitor that provides application performance monitoring, diagnostics, and analytics for web applications and services.
A metric alert rule in Azure Monitor is a rule that is triggered when a certain metric crosses a predefined threshold. These rules can be used to trigger notifications and take automated actions when a monitored resource is experiencing issues.
Metrics for a specific resource can be viewed in the Azure portal by navigating to the resource’s Metrics blade, or by using Azure Monitor’s command-line interface or REST APIs.
Custom metrics can be configured in Azure Monitor using the Azure Monitor Metrics API or by using Application Insights for custom telemetry data.
Azure Monitor collects metrics for Azure services by using the Azure Monitor agent or by pulling data directly from Azure services that publish metrics.
The Azure Monitor data platform is a collection of services and tools in Azure that provide monitoring and diagnostics capabilities for applications and services.
Azure Monitor can be used to monitor hybrid environments by deploying the Azure Monitor agent to on-premises servers and configuring it to send data to Azure Monitor. This allows administrators to view metrics and logs for on-premises resources alongside Azure resources.
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