Azure Monitor

Overview

Azure Monitor provides a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on‑premises environments. It helps you maximize the performance and availability of your applications and services.

  • Unified monitoring platform for metrics, logs, and traces.
  • Integrated with Azure services and third‑party tools.
  • Intelligent analytics and AI‑driven insights.

Getting Started

Follow these steps to enable Azure Monitor on a new resource group.

  1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to Resource groups.
  2. Select your target resource group.
  3. Under Monitoring click Enable Azure Monitor.
  4. Choose the data collection settings and click Save.

Example CLI command:

az monitor diagnostic-settings create \
  --name myDiagSetting \
  --resource /subscriptions/xxxx/resourceGroups/MyRG \
  --logs '[{"category":"Administrative","enabled":true}]' \
  --metrics '[{"category":"AllMetrics","enabled":true}]' \
  --workspace /subscriptions/xxxx/resourceGroups/MyRG/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/MyWorkspace

Key Features

FeatureDescription
Metrics ExplorerVisualize and analyze metric data in real time.
Log AnalyticsRun rich queries against collected log data.
Alerts & ActionsAutomated notifications and remediation.
Application InsightsDeep performance monitoring for applications.
Network WatcherDiagnostics for network resources.

Pricing

Azure Monitor pricing is based on data ingestion, retention, and alerts. The following table provides a quick overview.

ComponentUnitCost (USD)
Data IngestionGB per month$2.30
Log Retention (first 31 days)GB per month$0.10
Log Retention (beyond 31 days)GB per month$0.12
Metric AlertsPer alert rule$0.10
Log AlertsPer alert rule$0.10

For detailed pricing, see the official pricing page.

FAQ

Q: How long are logs retained by default?

A: Logs are retained for 31 days at no extra cost. Additional retention incurs a per‑GB charge.

Q: Can I export logs to an external SIEM?

A: Yes. Use the Log Analytics Workspace export feature or stream logs via Event Hub.

Resources