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Connection Monitor is a tool within Azure Network Watcher for monitoring connectivity and performance across cloud and hybrid networks. You create a test by defining a Test Group, which links your source endpoints (like Azure VMs or on-premises servers) to destination endpoints (which can be IPs, URLs, or other VMs). Each test uses a Test Configuration that specifies the protocol (TCP, ICMP, or HTTP) and how often the test runs.
For the tests to work, specific software must be installed on the resources. Azure VMs need the Network Watcher extension, while on-premises machines require the Azure Arc agent and Azure Monitor Agent to act as sources. You also set Success Thresholds for metrics like round-trip time and packet loss; if performance drops below these levels, the test state changes to Warning or Fail.
After tests run, you can analyze results through a Unified Topology view. This map shows every network hop between source and destination, visually pinpointing where latency or packet loss occurs. You can also create Metric-based alerts in Azure Monitor to get automatic notifications when connectivity issues, like a high percentage of failed checks, are detected.
Azure Network Watcher is a regional service for monitoring and diagnosing network issues in Azure. To use it, you must first enable it in your desired Azure region. This can be done via the Azure portal, PowerShell, Azure CLI, or an ARM template. When created, its name is automatically set to NetworkWatcher_region and it is placed in a resource group named NetworkWatcherRG.
Network Watcher provides several diagnostic tools. Packet Capture allows you to record traffic to and from a VM for deep analysis, storing the data in a storage account. Connection Monitor (covered in detail in the previous section) is used to track network performance metrics. These tools can be integrated into automated workflows; for example, an alert from a VM could trigger an Azure Function to start a packet capture session automatically.
To use Network Watcher effectively, you need the latest Azure PowerShell module and a VM in the same region with the necessary extensions installed. By setting up Network Watcher and its tools, you gain the ability to proactively diagnose and resolve network performance and connectivity problems across your Azure resources.
Network Watcher includes several specialized tools for troubleshooting. IP flow verify checks if traffic is allowed or denied to a specific VM. It identifies the exact Network Security Group (NSG) rule causing the action, which is crucial for fixing security rule misconfigurations. Similarly, Next hop determines the routing path for traffic, showing the next hop type and route table ID to help verify if packets are being routed correctly through Azure's network.
For testing connectivity at a specific moment, Connection troubleshoot evaluates whether a source (like a VM) can reach a destination, such as an FQDN or URI. This is useful for diagnosing outbound connection failures. For ongoing, detailed traffic analysis, Packet capture can be started remotely to collect network packets, which can then be analyzed with external tools to measure round-trip time or spot unusual protocols.
For hybrid network issues, VPN troubleshoot diagnoses problems with virtual network gateways and their connections to on-premises sites. Finally, Flow logs (when enabled for NSGs) and Traffic analytics provide broad visibility into network traffic patterns. They help identify malicious activity, understand application behavior, and optimize network capacity planning across your subscriptions.
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