AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam

Interpret metrics in Azure Monitor

Metrics in Azure Monitor provide time-series numerical data that reflects the performance and health of Azure resources. These resource metrics give insights into aspects like CPU usage, memory consumption, and input/output operations. By capturing metrics at regular intervals, you gain real-time visibility into how your infrastructure is behaving.

You can view and customize metrics in the Azure portal using Metric Explorer, which lets you build charts and pin them to dashboards. The portal supports filtering by dimension, selecting aggregation types (sum, average, count), and grouping data for granular analysis. This helps in spotting trends and anomalies quickly.

Integrating metrics with autoscale rules and metric alerts automates responses to changing workloads. For example, you can trigger an alert when CPU usage exceeds a threshold, or scale out VM instances when demand rises. This level of automation ensures resources remain available without manual intervention.

Configure log settings in Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor’s log settings control which resource logs are collected and where they are sent. Through diagnostic settings, you decide which categories of logs and metrics each resource emits. This setup is critical for capturing detailed operational data.

You can route logs to multiple destinations:

• Log Analytics workspaces for query and analysis
• Storage accounts for long-term retention
• Event Hubs for streaming to external systems

Using these destinations ensures that logs are stored, analyzed, or forwarded according to your needs and compliance requirements.

Fine-tuning diagnostic settings allows you to filter specific log categories and adjust retention periods. This reduces noise and storage costs by focusing on the most relevant data. Properly configured log settings form the foundation for effective monitoring and troubleshooting.

Query and analyze logs in Azure Monitor

Once logs are in a Log Analytics workspace, you use Kusto Query Language (KQL) to query and analyze them. KQL offers powerful operators like where, summarize, and extend to filter, aggregate, and shape data. This query-driven approach delivers deep insights into resource behavior over time.

You can build interactive charts and visualizations directly from query results, making it easier to spot patterns. Queries can also be parameterized and combined with functions to create reusable components. Sharing these queries with teams promotes consistency in troubleshooting and reporting.

Log queries can trigger log alerts when specific conditions are met. By saving frequently used queries and scheduling them for alert evaluation, you gain proactive notification of potential issues. This tight integration between querying and alerting enhances operational efficiency.

Set up alert rules, action groups, and alert processing rules in Azure Monitor

Alert rules in Azure Monitor evaluate metrics, logs, and activity logs to detect abnormal conditions. You can create three main types of alert rules:

• Metric alerts based on metric thresholds
• Log alerts based on query results
• Activity log alerts for subscription-level events

Each rule delivers timely warnings when resources deviate from expected performance or state.

When an alert fires, action groups define the notifications and responses. An action group can include:

• Emails and SMS messages
• Push notifications through the Azure mobile app
• Webhooks and Azure Functions
• Automation runbooks

This flexibility lets you notify the right people and trigger corrective actions automatically.

To manage alert noise and routing, use alert processing rules. These rules can suppress, modify, or route alerts based on criteria like severity or source. Implementing processing rules ensures that you focus on the most critical alerts and streamline incident response.

Configure and interpret monitoring of virtual machines, storage accounts, and networks by using Azure Monitor Insights

Azure Monitor Insights provide specialized monitoring for different resource types. VM Insights deploys agents to collect performance counters, event logs, and dependency maps. This offers a comprehensive view of VM health, including CPU, disk, and network metrics.

Storage Insights tracks account-level metrics such as capacity, transactions, and request latency. It visualizes throughput and error trends, helping you optimize performance and cost. The insights dashboard highlights hot and cold data usage patterns for better capacity planning.

Network Insights captures topology, flow logs, and connection data to reveal traffic paths and performance bottlenecks. You can analyze packet-level metrics and network latency to troubleshoot connectivity issues. Together, these insights deliver deep diagnostics across your infrastructure.

Use Azure Network Watcher and Connection Monitor

Azure Network Watcher is a suite of tools for monitoring and diagnosing network issues in Azure. It provides visibility into network traffic, topology, and health. By analyzing flow logs and packet captures, you can pinpoint the root cause of connectivity problems.

Key Network Watcher features include:

• IP flow verify to test packet reachability
• Next hop to identify routing paths
• Packet capture for deeper analysis
• Network topology visualization

These tools give you a clear picture of how network traffic moves through your virtual networks.

Connection Monitor continuously tests connectivity between endpoints, such as VMs or public URLs. It tracks metrics like latency and packet loss over time, triggering alerts when performance degrades. With Connection Monitor, you maintain reliable network performance and quickly detect emerging issues.

Conclusion

Monitoring resources in Azure revolves around collecting and interpreting both metrics and logs. Metrics offer fast, numerical insights for autoscaling and performance alerts, while logs provide detailed diagnostic data for deeper analysis using Kusto Query Language.

Effective alerting combines metric and log-based rules with action groups and alert processing rules to deliver timely notifications and automated responses. Azure Monitor Insights extends this capability by offering specialized dashboards for VMs, storage accounts, and networks, giving you comprehensive health overviews.

Finally, Azure Network Watcher and Connection Monitor equip you with advanced network diagnostics and connectivity checks. Together, these tools ensure that your Azure environment remains reliable, performant, and secure.