Monitoring Logs, Storage, Networking & Costs
What it is
This umbrella concept covers how monitoring is configured and applied across Azure resources — enabling diagnostic settings to route platform/application logs, and monitoring-specific dimensions such as storage account telemetry, networking flow/watch data, and cost tracking — all analyzed and visualized through Azure Monitor + Log Analytics.
Why it exists
Monitoring is only useful when data is actually collected and routed. Most services need a diagnostic setting turned on to stream their logs/metrics to a workspace. And beyond generic resources, you must monitor storage (access/performance), networking (traffic, packet loss, NSG flows), and spend (budgets) — the operational and fiscal health of the environment.
Key ideas
- Diagnostic settings — per-resource config streaming selected logs (
AuditLogs,ResourceLogs) and metrics to LAW / storage / event hub. - Storage monitoring: metrics (requests, egress) + logs (Data-plane read/write) + Storage Insights workbook.
- Networking monitoring: Network Metrics, Network Watcher (flow logs, NSG flow), and network health in Monitor.
- Cost monitoring: Cost Management + Billing — budgets, cost alerts, and spend analysis (not a Monitor resource, but “monitoring costs”).
- Analyze in workbooks/dashboards and alert via metric/log alerts.
How it fits (diagram)
Exam notes
- Diagnostic settings are the on/off switch for log collection — nothing in Log Analytics without them (except activity log default).
- Storage/network logs require enablement (storage logging, NSG flow logs) — not on by default.
- Cost alerts / budgets live in Cost Management, separate from performance alerts in Monitor.
- Be able to pick the right source of truth: metrics vs activity log vs resource logs vs cost.
Related
log-analytics · azure-monitor · azure-monitor-metrics · azure-monitor-activity-log · kql · workbooks · Home
📘 Source: Microsoft Learn — Azure Logs Monitor