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Enable Azure Monitor from Windows Admin Center

  • October 24, 2019
  • 6 min read
IT and Virtualization Consultant. Romain is specializing in Microsoft technologies such as Hyper-V, System Center, storage, networking, and MS Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and MCSE in Server Infrastructure and Private Cloud.
IT and Virtualization Consultant. Romain is specializing in Microsoft technologies such as Hyper-V, System Center, storage, networking, and MS Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and MCSE in Server Infrastructure and Private Cloud.

Windows Admin Center provides an easy way to enable Azure Monitor for On-Prem servers (physical or virtual). However, the alerts are configurable only from the Microsoft Azure Portal. Currently, the Azure Monitor in Windows Admin Center is still in preview. This topic, I’ll introduce how to enable Azure Monitor from Windows Admin Center and how to create your first alert.

Open Windows Admin Center with the latest preview and select a server. Then click on Azure hybrid services. Click on Discover Azure services.

Windows Admin Center

In the right menu that just appeared, click on Set up in the Azure Monitor section.

Azure Monitor section

Next, click on Sign in to Azure and set up.

Sign in to Azure and set up

In the right pane that just raised, you can select your Azure Subscription, an existing resource group and log analytics workspace. If you don’t have a resource group and a log analytics workspace, you can select Create new and Windows Admin Center will take care of the creation of these resources in Azure.

Azure Subscription

Once you click on Set up, two new notifications should raise. From now, it can take a few minutes before everything is ready.

Notifications

Create your first alert

Once Azure Monitor is configured, you should get the following information in Windows Admin Center (connect to a server | General | Monitoring alerts). From this view, you can’t create an alert. For that, you need to click on Create and view alerts in Azure. When you click on this link, you are redirected to the Azure portal.

General | Monitoring alerts

The Azure portal is automatically opened in your Log Analytics resource (Monitoring | Alerts section). To create your first rule, click on the New Alert Rule.

Alert Rule

An Azure Monitor alert has a condition to trigger an action (a notification for example). First, we need to define a condition. For this example, I’ll check if at least 30% of memory is available. If not, an E-mail will be sent. First, click on Add in the condition section.

Condition section

Then we need to find a source for the condition (a signal). So, I look for a Metrics signal type. Then I select % Available Memory.

Metrics signal type

Then I choose the operator Less than or equal to and I choose a threshold value of 30.

Choose the operator

Next click on Create action group. This action will be triggered when less the memory available is less than or equal to 30%. Give a name to your action group and a short name. You have a different kind of action such as a notification or a script run in an Automation Account. For this example, I choose Notification and I set an E-mail address. You can also configure an SMS.

Create action group

Then specify a name for this rule and click on OK.

Rule configurations

At this point, your rule is created and you should receive an alert when your server has a few amounts of available memory.

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Dmytro Malynka StarWind Virtual SAN Product Manager
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