Monitoring Azure ExpressRoute

Monitoring your Azure ExpressRoute circuits is crucial for ensuring high performance, availability, and identifying potential issues. Azure provides several tools and metrics to help you gain insights into your ExpressRoute connectivity.

Key Monitoring Components

Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor is the central hub for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your Azure and on-premises environments. For ExpressRoute, it provides performance metrics, connection status, and health information.

ExpressRoute Circuit Metrics

You can access ExpressRoute circuit metrics directly within the Azure portal under your circuit's resource blade. Key metrics include:

• Ingress/Egress Bandwidth: Monitor the data traffic flowing into and out of your circuit.
• Peerings: Track the state of your private, public, and Microsoft peering connections.
• Packets In/Out: Observe the number of packets being transmitted.
• BGP Peering Status: Ensure your BGP sessions are established and healthy.

Connection Monitor

Connection Monitor is a cloud-based network monitoring solution that helps you monitor the connectivity of your ExpressRoute circuit. It allows you to:

• Test connectivity between your on-premises network and Azure virtual networks.
• Identify network performance issues and their root causes.
• Monitor network hops and latency.

Network Watcher

Azure Network Watcher provides a comprehensive set of tools for network monitoring, diagnostics, and analytics. For ExpressRoute, it offers features like:

• Connection Troubleshoot: Diagnose connectivity issues between virtual machines.
• IP Flow Verify: Check if traffic is allowed or denied by network security groups.
• Next Hop: Determine the next hop for traffic leaving a virtual machine.

Configuring Monitoring

Setting up Alerts

Use Azure Monitor to set up alerts based on specific metric thresholds. For example, you can configure an alert if the ingress bandwidth exceeds 80% of your provisioned capacity, or if a BGP peering status changes.

To configure alerts:

1. Navigate to your ExpressRoute circuit in the Azure portal.
2. Under "Monitoring", select "Alerts".
3. Click "+ Create alert rule".
4. Define the conditions (e.g., metric, threshold, frequency).
5. Specify the action group to notify (e.g., email, SMS, webhook).

Using Log Analytics

You can collect and analyze logs from your ExpressRoute connections using Azure Log Analytics. This provides a deeper dive into connection events and potential errors. Integrate ExpressRoute logs with Log Analytics for advanced querying and dashboarding.

Best Practices for Monitoring

• Regularly review metrics: Keep an eye on bandwidth utilization, latency, and packet loss.
• Set up proactive alerts: Be notified of potential issues before they impact your users.
• Monitor BGP status: Ensure stable peering sessions with your network provider.
• Utilize Network Watcher tools: For detailed diagnostics when issues arise.
• Document your monitoring setup: Maintain a clear record of your alert rules and dashboards.