Monitoring and Troubleshooting in Azure CLI
📖 8.1 Why Monitor Azure Resources?
Monitoring helps you:
Detect issues early
Spot problems before they cause downtime
Optimize performance
Track resource usage and adjust accordingly
Improve security
Detect suspicious activities
Audit changes
Track who made what changes and when
✅ Monitoring is proactive — it’s the key to maintaining a healthy Azure environment!
📜 8.2 Viewing Activity Logs with Azure CLI
The Activity Log records operations on resources at the control plane (e.g., resource creation, deletion).
🛠️ View Recent Activity Logs
bashCopyEditaz monitor activity-log list --output table✅ Displays recent activities like create, delete, and update operations.
Filter by Resource Group
bashCopyEditaz monitor activity-log list \
--resource-group myResourceGroup \
--output table✅ Only shows activity in a specific Resource Group.
Filter by Time
Get logs from the past hour:
bashCopyEditaz monitor activity-log list --start-time $(date -u -d '1 hour ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) --output table✅ Useful for investigating recent changes.
📊 8.3 Viewing Metrics for Resources
Azure Metrics provide near real-time data on resource performance.
🛠️ List Available Metrics for a VM
bashCopyEditaz monitor metrics list-definitions \
--resource /subscriptions/<sub-id>/resourceGroups/<rg-name>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name> \
--output table✅ Shows all available metrics for the VM (CPU usage, Disk IO, etc.).
🛠️ Get CPU Usage Metrics
bashCopyEditaz monitor metrics list \
--resource /subscriptions/<sub-id>/resourceGroups/<rg-name>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name> \
--metric "Percentage CPU" \
--interval PT1M \
--output table2025-04-05T14:00:00Z
12.5
2025-04-05T14:01:00Z
14.2
✅ See how busy your VM is!
🩺 8.4 Diagnosing Virtual Machine Issues
When VMs act weird (fail to boot, slow down, crash), diagnostics are your friend.
🛠️ Enable Boot Diagnostics
bashCopyEditaz vm boot-diagnostics enable \
--resource-group myResourceGroup \
--name myVM✅ Captures screenshots and logs during VM startup.
🛠️ View Boot Diagnostics Info
bashCopyEditaz vm boot-diagnostics get-boot-log \
--resource-group myResourceGroup \
--name myVM✅ See the boot log and screenshot to help diagnose issues.
⚙️ 8.5 Configuring Diagnostics Settings
Azure resources can send logs and metrics to:
Log Analytics Workspace
Storage Account
Event Hub
✅ You can set this up with Azure CLI too!
🛠️ Example: Send Diagnostics to a Log Analytics Workspace
bashCopyEditaz monitor diagnostic-settings create \
--name myDiagnosticsSetting \
--resource /subscriptions/<sub-id>/resourceGroups/<rg-name>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name> \
--workspace <workspace-id> \
--metrics '[{"category": "AllMetrics","enabled": true}]' \
--logs '[{"category": "Administrative","enabled": true}]'✅ Centralized logging = easier troubleshooting!
🔥 8.6 Real-World Troubleshooting Example
Problem: You can't connect to your new Linux VM.
✅ Here’s a basic troubleshooting flow:
1
az vm show
Verify VM exists and is running
2
az network nic show
Check NIC (network interface) status
3
az network nsg rule list
Verify NSG allows SSH inbound (port 22)
4
az vm boot-diagnostics get-boot-log
Check if VM booted properly
If SSH port is blocked or the VM failed to boot — you’ll know fast.
🛡️ 8.7 Best Practices for Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Enable diagnostics from the start
Avoid scrambling during incidents
Send logs to Log Analytics
Centralized monitoring and analysis
Regularly review Activity Logs
Detect unauthorized or suspicious changes
Monitor key metrics (CPU, Disk)
Avoid outages from resource exhaustion
Script common troubleshooting tasks
Save time during incidents
📝 Module 8 Summary
View Activity Logs
az monitor activity-log list
Monitor Metrics
az monitor metrics list
Diagnose VMs
Boot diagnostics help fix startup problems
Configure Diagnostics Settings
Send logs/metrics to centralized locations
Troubleshooting best practices
Proactive monitoring saves time and resources
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