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azure-monitor-metrics

Properties2
tagsmonitoring, azure-monitor, metrics
aliasesplatform metrics, Azure Monitor Metrics, host metrics

2 min read

Azure Monitor Metrics

What it is

Azure Monitor metrics are lightweight, numeric, time-series values that describe how a resource is performing — e.g. CPU percentage, disk I/O, network bytes in/out. They are stored in a time-series database optimized for fast, sub-minute polling and near-real-time alerting.

Why it exists

Some signals are quantitative and time-based: you want to know the value at this exact moment and how it trends over 5 minutes/hours/days. Metrics give fast, low-cost, always-on monitoring with tight alert latency — unlike heavy log queries.

Key ideas

  • Platform metrics are emitted by Azure services for free with no configuration (e.g. VM host CPU, storage account requests).
  • Guest OS metrics (inside a VM: processes, guest CPU/memory) require the Azure Monitor Agent (Azure Monitor agent).
  • Custom metrics can be pushed/injected by your apps or via the metrics API.
  • Retained by default in a rollup (e.g. ~93 days as of 2024 depending on aggregation); high-res (1-min) retained less than coarse (hourly).
  • Viewed as charts in metrics explorer, pinned to dashboards, or queried for metric alerts.

How it fits (diagram)

azure-monitor-metrics - Microsoft diagram

Diagrams courtesy of Microsoft Learn / Azure docs: azure-monitor/essentials/data-platform-metrics

Exam notes

  • No cost / no setup for platform metrics; a VM’s host metrics (CPU, network, disk) show immediately.
  • To see in-VM (guest) performance metrics you must install the Azure Monitor Agent + enable diagnostics.
  • Metric alerts are the fastest reacting alert type — good for “CPU > 90% for 10 min.”
  • Don’t confuse metric alerts (metric signal) with log/log-analytics alerts (KQL query signal) or activity-log alerts.

azure-monitor · metric-alert · log-analytics · workbooks · Home

📘 Source: Microsoft Learn — Azure Monitor Metrics

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