Microsoft Azure Observability and Monitoring

Azure Observability

Microsoft Azure Observability, Monitoring and Performance Management

Microsoft Azure is a commonly used Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) platform developed and supported by Microsoft. Instana’s Azure Monitoring is part of Application Monitoring, Infrastructure Monitoring and Cloud Monitoring. To help optimize application performance in Azure environments (including hybrid cloud and multi-cloud), Instana’s Enterprise Observability Platform on Azure goes beyond simple metrics to provide comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities:

  • Discovery of services and applications running in Microsoft Azure VMs
  • Automatic code instrumentation of service technologies when applicable
  • Creation of real-time service dependency maps
  • Tracing of 100% of requests across all systems
  • VM, application and service health monitoring

Comprehensive Microsoft Azure Observability requires performance visibility for the virtual host, discovery of all infrastructure components operating in the Azure instance, and mapping all applications and services within the instance. Instana is the quickest and easiest way to monitor Azure across the stack to deliver comprehensive application insights. The Instana agent automatically discovers all applications and services deployed into Microsoft Azure VMs, deploys the necessary monitoring sensors and begins tracing applications and requests. Instana also automatically determines the health of Azure VMs, the operating system and running applications and services.

Monitoring Azure Performance and Observing Applications in Azure

Once the Azure VM is started, the installed Instana Agent automatically identifies all running applications and services, automatically deploying and configuring Observability sensors up and down the stack (infrastructure, containers, kubernetes, services, applications). Instana’s curated knowledge base already knows what performance metrics are relevant for collection and how to collect them. To monitor Azure virtual host health, additional metrics are also collected. Since Instana’s automatic configuration collects all relevant information, monitoring Microsoft Azure VMs couldn’t be easier.

To determine overall service health, the Instana Monitoring sensors also collects KPIs on the monitored environment to determine its health status.

With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and health signatures from the curated knowledge base, Instana automatically detects issues with individual Azure VMs and files service incidents. Based on severity, Instana automates incident escalation and root cause identification, helping you solve issues before users are impacted.

Microsoft Azure Observability Data

Azure Performance and Configuration Data

Instana Azure Monitoring includes three types of data; Performance measurements, Configuration Data, and Health KPIs:

Azure Configuration Data Azure Performance Metrics Azure Health Signatures
OS Name and Version CPU Usage CPU Steal, Usage, Wait
Memory CPU Usage per Core System Load
Host Name System Load Disk Space Saturation
Fully qualified domain name Memory Usage Memory
Network interfaces File System per Device
Network Traffic per Interface
Network Errors per Interface
Process Top List

Further information on the sensor information is available in the Instana Azure Host Management Documentation.

Microsoft Azure Sensor Installation: Getting Started

Ready to start? You’ll need an Instana Trial or Account first. Already got one? The best place to begin is Instana’s Getting Started Guide.

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