Monitor Azure Synapse Analytics

This document provides comprehensive guidance on monitoring your Azure Synapse Analytics resources. Effective monitoring is crucial for understanding performance, identifying issues, and optimizing your data warehouse and analytics solutions.

Key Monitoring Areas

Azure Synapse Analytics offers various tools and metrics to monitor different aspects of your workspace. Key areas include:

  • Performance Metrics: Track query execution times, resource utilization (CPU, memory, data I/O), and data processing throughput.
  • Activity Logs: Review historical data for operations performed on your Synapse workspace, such as creation, deletion, or configuration changes.
  • Workload Management: Monitor resource allocation, identify bottlenecks, and manage concurrency for your SQL pools and Spark pools.
  • Cost Management: Track spending and identify cost-saving opportunities for your Synapse resources.
  • Data Pipeline Monitoring: Observe the status and performance of your data integration pipelines, including data movement and transformation jobs.

Azure Monitor Integration

Azure Synapse Analytics integrates seamlessly with Azure Monitor, a powerful platform for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your Azure and on-premises environments. You can leverage Azure Monitor for:

  • Metrics: Access a rich set of predefined metrics for Synapse SQL pools, Spark pools, and pipelines. Visualize these metrics in dashboards and create alerts based on thresholds.
  • Logs: Collect diagnostic logs from Synapse resources. You can query these logs using Kusto Query Language (KQL) in Azure Log Analytics to perform deep analysis and troubleshooting.
  • Alerts: Set up alerts for critical events or performance degradations. Alerts can trigger notifications or automated actions.
  • Application Insights: For custom applications interacting with Synapse, integrate with Application Insights for detailed telemetry.

To configure diagnostic settings for Synapse Analytics:

  1. Navigate to your Synapse workspace in the Azure portal.
  2. Under "Monitoring," select "Diagnostic settings."
  3. Click "+ Add diagnostic setting."
  4. Choose the categories of logs and metrics you want to send.
  5. Select a destination for your logs (e.g., Log Analytics workspace, Storage Account, Event Hubs).

Monitoring SQL Pools

For Dedicated SQL pools, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure optimal query performance and resource usage:

  • Active Queries: Monitor the number of queries currently running.
  • CPU Usage: Track CPU utilization to identify potential overloads.
  • Memory Usage: Monitor memory pressure.
  • Data Movement: Observe data input/output rates.
  • Wait Statistics: Analyze wait types to understand blocking and performance bottlenecks.

You can view these metrics directly in the Azure portal, using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio, or by querying Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) within the SQL pool.

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_pdw_exec_requests WHERE status = 'Running';

Monitoring Spark Pools

For Apache Spark pools in Synapse, monitor job execution, resource allocation, and application performance:

  • Spark UI: Access the Spark UI directly from your Synapse workspace to monitor running applications, view job stages, task execution, and shuffle read/write statistics.
  • Resource Utilization: Track CPU, memory, and network usage of Spark nodes.
  • Driver and Executor Logs: Examine logs for detailed error messages and performance insights.
  • Job Failures: Identify and diagnose the root cause of failed Spark jobs.

Monitoring Data Pipelines

The Monitor hub in Azure Synapse Studio provides a centralized view for monitoring your data pipelines:

  • Pipeline Runs: Track the status (succeeded, failed, in progress) of all pipeline executions.
  • Activity Runs: Drill down into individual activities within a pipeline to view their status, duration, and input/output details.
  • Triggers: Monitor the execution of scheduled and event-based triggers.
  • Alerts: Configure pipeline-specific alerts for failures or long-running jobs.

Tip: Regularly review pipeline run history to identify recurring issues or opportunities for optimization.

Alerting Best Practices

Proactive alerting is key to maintaining the health of your Synapse environment:

  • Set up alerts for critical metrics like high CPU usage, query failures, or long-running queries.
  • Configure alerts for pipeline failures or timeouts.
  • Define appropriate severity levels for your alerts.
  • Ensure alert notifications are routed to the correct teams or individuals.

Warning: Avoid creating too many noisy alerts, as this can lead to alert fatigue.

Further Reading