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Azure Network Watcher is a suite of tools that provides network monitoring, diagnostic, and visualization capabilities to network administrators for their Azure resources. Considering the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam, understanding how to utilize Azure Network Watcher is vital for managing and troubleshooting an organization’s network infrastructure within Azure.
Azure Network Watcher offers several features helpful for network troubleshooting and management:
Here are some ways Azure Network Watcher can be used to solve common network issues faced by Azure Administrators:
Task: You need to monitor ongoing communication between two VMs to ensure compliance with the SLAs.
Solution with Azure Network Watcher:
Task: VMs within a virtual network are experiencing connectivity issues with an external endpoint.
Solution with Azure Network Watcher:
Task: A network administrator needs to capture and analyze network traffic from a production VM for diagnostic purposes.
Solution with Azure Network Watcher:
Task: An admin has to visualize the network topology for compliance checks.
Solution with Azure Network Watcher:
Feature | Purpose | Example Use Case |
---|---|---|
Topology | Visualizes network topology | Mapping the network to understand resource interactions |
IP Flow Verify | Verifies packet allow/deny status | Debugging communication issues to a VM |
Next Hop | Finds next hop for traffic | Resolving network routing problems |
Connection Monitor | Monitors network connectivity | Ensuring SLAs for network performance are met |
NSG Flow Logging | Logs NSG traffic data | Auditing and analyzing network traffic through NSGs |
By mastering the use of Azure Network Watcher’s tools, Azure Administrators can effectively monitor, diagnose, and visualize network-related issues, ensuring that cloud resources maintain optimal performance and security. This knowledge is instrumental for the AZ-104 exam as it demonstrates the practical application of Azure Network management and troubleshooting.
Azure Network Watcher provides tools to monitor, diagnose, view metrics, and enable or disable logs for resources in an Azure virtual network.
NSG flow logs are a feature of Network Watcher that allows you to view information about ingress and egress IP traffic through an NSG.
Answer: C. Topology
The Topology feature enables you to view the network topology within a virtual network, subnet, or resource group.
Connection Troubleshoot is designed to diagnose connectivity issues from VMs in Azure to other Azure VMs, FQDNs, URIs, and IPv4 addresses. It does not diagnose on-premises connectivity issues.
Answer: B. IP Flow Verify
IP Flow Verify checks if packets are allowed or denied to or from a VM based on the effective security rules.
VPN Diagnostics can support troubleshooting of Azure VPN Gateway and third-party VPN connections as well.
Answer: B. Packet Capture
Packet Capture allows you to create capture sessions to track traffic to and from a VM.
Answer: C. To monitor network performance and detect network issues
NPM is a cloud-based network performance monitoring solution that monitors network performance and detects network issues.
Answer: D. All of the above
Traffic Analytics is a cloud-based solution that provides visibility into user and application activity in the network, including the origins and destinations of traffic.
Connection Monitor tracks and monitors the performance of service endpoints, network connections, and overall network health.
Answer: A. Connection Monitor
Connection Monitor can be used to test DNS resolution and Internet connectivity as part of its network performance monitoring features.
Answer: B. Yes, using Azure Logic Apps
You can integrate Azure Network Watcher with Azure Logic Apps to automate responses to certain findings or alerts.
Azure Network Watcher is a monitoring and diagnostic service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables network performance monitoring, packet capture, flow log analysis, and diagnostic tools for virtual networks in Azure.
Azure Network Watcher provides the following monitoring options 1. Topology 2. Connection Monitor 3. Packet Capture 4. IP Flow Verify 5. Next Hop 6. Security Group View 7. Log Analytics
Topology in Azure Network Watcher provides a graphical representation of network topology for virtual networks, including the relationships between resources and the number of hops between them.
Connection Monitor is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that enables you to monitor network connections between resources in your virtual network and diagnose connectivity issues.
Packet Capture is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that enables you to capture network traffic between virtual machines in your virtual network and diagnose connectivity issues.
IP Flow Verify is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that enables you to validate the path that network traffic takes between two endpoints in your virtual network.
Next Hop is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that enables you to diagnose connectivity issues by determining the next hop for network traffic from a source to a destination.
Security Group View is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that provides a graphical view of security group rules and the resources that they apply to.
Log Analytics is a feature in Azure Network Watcher that enables you to collect, analyze, and act on data generated by your virtual network.
No, Azure Network Watcher is designed to monitor only virtual networks deployed within the Azure cloud platform.
Azure Network Watcher is a paid service and the cost varies based on the amount of data stored and the number of resources being monitored.
No, Azure Network Watcher is not available in all Azure regions. You can check the availability of Azure Network Watcher in your region by visiting the Azure Services by Region page.
Azure Network Watcher is a preconfigured service in the Azure portal. You can enable it by navigating to the Network Watcher blade in the Azure portal and selecting the virtual network you want to monitor.
Yes, Azure Network Watcher can be used in conjunction with other Azure monitoring services such as Azure Monitor, Azure Log Analytics, and Azure Application Insights.
You can get support for Azure Network Watcher by visiting the Azure Support Center or by contacting Microsoft Azure Support.
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