Configure collection of telemetry by using Azure various services

In this lesson, you'll learn how to set up telemetry collection using several Azure services. This guide covers Application Insights, VM Insights, Container Insights, Storage Insights, and Network Insights. Collecting and analyzing telemetry data is crucial for ensuring high application performance, quick issue resolution, and efficient operations.

Application Insights

Application Insights is an advanced Application Performance Management (APM) service designed to help developers and DevOps teams monitor live application performance, detect issues, and gain valuable user behavior insights in real time.

The image is an introduction to Application Insights, an Application Performance Management (APM) service for developers and DevOps professionals, highlighting its features: monitoring live app performance, detecting performance issues, and understanding user interactions.

Key Features

Monitoring and Performance Metrics: Continuously tracks request rates and response times.
Dependency Tracking: Reveals how various parts of your application interact.
Exception Logging: Automatically detects and logs any exceptions.
User Analytics: Offers detailed insights into user interactions with your application.

The image lists key features of Application Insights, including application monitoring, request rates, response times, dependency tracking, exception logging, and user analytics.

Benefits

Gain in-depth insights into application performance and user behavior.
Quickly pinpoint and resolve performance issues.
Configure alerts to receive real-time notifications on critical events.
Integrate seamlessly with other development and operations tools.

The image outlines the benefits of Application Insights, highlighting insights into app performance, identifying bottlenecks, proactive monitoring, and integration with development tools.

Configuration Steps

Add Application Insights to Your Code: Choose the appropriate Application Insights SDK based on your application type (e.g., ASP.NET, Java, Node.js). For an ASP.NET project, add the SDK via NuGet and update your startup file.
Integrate the SDK: Follow the specific integration instructions for your chosen development environment.
View Telemetry Data: After setup, log in to the Azure Portal to review telemetry data such as application maps, performance charts, and diagnostic logs.

Note

Before you begin, ensure you have created a new Application Insights resource in the Azure Portal and selected the correct application type.

The image shows a configuration screen for setting up Application Insights, detailing project, instance, and workspace details. It also includes a section labeled "Code integration methods."

VM Insights

VM Insights is tailored for monitoring the performance and health of your virtual machines in Azure. It delivers detailed metrics on CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network traffic, along with visual dependency maps that illustrate the relationship between your VMs and other resources.

Key Features

Comprehensive performance metrics for virtual machines.
Visual dependency maps to outline resource interactions.
Guest OS monitoring integrated with Log Analytics for deeper insights.

Benefits

Detect and address performance bottlenecks efficiently.
Enhance VM operations for better cost-effectiveness.
Proactively resolve issues before they escalate.

Configuration Steps

Access your virtual machine in the Azure Portal.
Click on the Insights tab and then click Enable.
Install any required monitoring extensions and configure Log Analytics to capture telemetry data.
Review key performance metrics (e.g., CPU usage, memory, disk I/O, network traffic) directly from the portal.

The image shows a screenshot of the Azure portal interface for configuring VM Insights, highlighting the "Insights" section and an "Enable" button for monitoring. There's also a note about enabling monitoring in the Azure portal.

Container Insights

Designed for containerized environments and Kubernetes clusters, Container Insights offers deep visibility into container performance, resource utilization, and overall health. It is an indispensable tool for managing modern containerized applications.

Key Features

Detailed performance metrics for containers and Kubernetes clusters.
Collection and analysis of container logs.
Health monitoring for containerized applications.
Integration with Azure Monitor for a unified telemetry view.

Benefits

Monitor resource usage and container health effectively.
Quickly tackle performance issues to optimize containerized workloads.
Enjoy seamless integration with a broad range of Azure monitoring services.

Configuration Steps

Navigate to your Kubernetes cluster in the Azure Portal.
Select the Insights tab and click Enable.
Follow on-screen instructions to install the necessary monitoring agents.
Once active, review performance metrics like CPU usage, memory consumption, node health, and container status.

The image shows a dashboard for configuring container insights, displaying performance metrics such as CPU and memory utilization, node count, and active pod count. It includes graphs and options for filtering data over a specified time range.

Storage Insights

Storage Insights enables thorough monitoring and diagnostics for your Azure Storage accounts. It provides performance metrics, assists with capacity planning, and offers diagnostic logs that help troubleshoot issues.

Key Features

In-depth performance metrics for storage accounts.
Tools for capacity planning and access pattern analysis.
Diagnostic logs to facilitate issue resolution.

Benefits

Achieve comprehensive visibility into storage account performance and health.
Optimize storage usage while planning for future needs.
Configure alerts to monitor and respond to issues promptly.

Configuration Steps

Access your storage account using the Azure Portal.
Click on the Insights tab then select Enable.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up monitoring and diagnostic settings.
Ensure Log Analytics is enabled to collect the necessary telemetry data.
Monitor key metrics like throughput, latency, and capacity usage.

The image is an introduction slide for "Storage Insights," a tool for monitoring and diagnostics of Azure storage accounts, highlighting performance tracking, issue identification, and storage resource optimization.

The image outlines the benefits of storage insights, including performance insights, optimized usage, proactive monitoring, and integration with Azure services. Each benefit is accompanied by an icon and a brief description.

The image shows a screenshot of the Azure portal interface, highlighting the "Insights" option under the "Monitoring" section for configuring storage insights. There's also a note about enabling monitoring in the Azure portal.

The image shows a dashboard for configuring storage insights, displaying performance metrics and logs with graphs and statistics. It includes sections for availability, transactions, and latency.

Network Insights

Network Insights is a robust tool for monitoring Azure network resources. It tracks network performance, visualizes topology, analyzes traffic patterns, and provides diagnostic logs to optimize your network infrastructure.

Key Features

Detailed performance metrics for various network resources.
Visualization of network topology to understand resource interactions.
Analysis of traffic patterns to identify trends.
Diagnostic logs to troubleshoot connectivity issues.

The image is an introduction to network monitoring, highlighting "Network Insights" as a tool for monitoring Azure network resources, focusing on performance tracking, issue identification, and network infrastructure optimization.

The image outlines key features of network monitoring, including performance metrics, network topology, traffic analysis, and diagnostic logs, each represented with icons and different colors.

Benefits

Obtain deep insights into network performance and health.
Quickly identify and resolve connectivity issues.
Set up proactive alerts for monitoring network changes.
Integrate with Azure monitoring services for an all-inclusive view.

Configuration Steps

Open your network resource (such as a network interface) in the Azure Portal.
Click the Insights tab then select Enable.
Follow the configuration instructions to set up monitoring and diagnostic settings.
Verify that Log Analytics is configured to capture telemetry data.
Analyze performance metrics such as throughput, latency, and packet loss, and use diagnostic logs to troubleshoot issues.

The image outlines the benefits of network monitoring, including insights into network performance, optimization and connectivity fixes, proactive monitoring with alerts, and integration with Azure services.

The image shows a screenshot of the Azure portal interface for configuring network monitoring, specifically highlighting the "Diagnostic settings" section with an option to add a diagnostic setting. It includes a label indicating the process of enabling monitoring in the Azure portal.

The image shows a network monitoring dashboard with throughput statistics and metric charts for packets sent and received. It includes a section labeled "Accessing performance metrics and logs."

By following these steps and leveraging each service's unique insights, you can effectively monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize your Azure resources. This comprehensive telemetry collection strategy ensures high performance, improved reliability, and efficient operations across your applications, virtual machines, containers, storage, and network infrastructure.

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