Collecting and viewing metrics

1. Collecting and viewing metrics

Welcome back! In the last video, we explored Azure Monitor and its key components. Now, let's dive deeper into how to collect metrics on your Azure resources.

2. Metrics recap

Remember, metrics are like your cloud application's vital signs. They provide real-time, numerical data about your resources' performance and health. Think of them as a continuous heartbeat monitor for your storage accounts, virtual machines, databases, and other services.

3. How metrics are collected

Azure automatically collects metrics from your resources. You don't need to install anything or write code. The moment you create a storage account or deploy a web app, Azure starts tracking metrics like transaction counts, data ingress and egress, availability, and latency.

4. Example: Storage account metrics

Let's look at a practical example. Imagine you manage a storage account that hosts marketing materials and customer documents. Azure automatically tracks metrics such as: Transactions: How many read and write operations occur. Ingress: The amount of data uploaded to your storage. Egress: The amount of data downloaded from your storage. Availability: The percentage of time your storage is accessible. These metrics update in near real-time, giving you continuous visibility.

5. Customizing your view

The metrics explorer is highly customizable. You can: Change the time range to view data from the last hour, day, week, or custom period.

6. Multiple metrics

Add multiple metrics to the same chart for comparison.

7. Split metrics

Split metrics by dimensions, such as API name or response type, to drill down into specific operations.

8. Applying aggregations

Apply aggregations like sum, average, minimum, or maximum.

9. Metrics vs Logs

It's important to understand the difference between metrics and logs. Metrics are numerical and time-series based. They answer questions like "How many transactions occurred?" or "What was the average response time?" Logs, on the other hand, capture detailed event-level information. They answer questions like "Which user triggered an error?" or "What was the exact request that failed?" Logs provide rich context, while metrics provide quick, quantifiable insights.

10. Why metrics matter

Metrics help you maintain application health and performance. By tracking metrics, you can: Detect issues early before they impact users. Understand usage patterns and capacity needs. Set up alerts to notify you when thresholds are crossed. Create dashboards that provide a unified view of all your resources.

11. Let's practice!

Let's jump in and get hands on.

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