Azure Monitoring Basics: VM Insights, Log Analytics and Alerts

Monitoring is a critical component of any Azure environment. In this article, I summarize the core services used to monitor virtual machines and applications.

1. Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor is the central platform for collecting and analyzing telemetry data from Azure resources.

• Collects metrics and logs
• Integrates with alerts and dashboards
• Supports KQL queries

2. Log Analytics Workspace

Log Analytics is used to store and query logs from multiple resources.

• Centralized logging
• KQL-based queries
• Used by most monitoring features

3. VM Insights

VM Insights provides detailed performance data for virtual machines.

• CPU, memory, disk, network metrics
• Dependency mapping
• Requires Azure Monitor agent

4. Alerts

Alerts notify administrators when something goes wrong.

• Metric alerts (CPU, disk, etc.)
• Log alerts (based on KQL)
• Action groups (email, webhook, automation)

Best Practices

• Enable monitoring during deployment
• Use Log Analytics as central point
• Create alerts for critical resources
• Avoid alert fatigue (too many alerts)

Conclusion

A well-designed monitoring setup improves reliability, security and response time. Azure Monitor and Log Analytics are essential tools for any production environment.

← Back