20 Azure Monitor Interview Questions and Answers

Azure Monitor is a service that provides visibility into the performance and health of Azure resources. It is used to collect, analyze, and act on data collected from Azure resources. Azure Monitor is an important tool for any Azure administrator, and knowing how to use it can be a valuable asset during a job interview. In this article, we will review some common Azure Monitor interview questions and how to answer them.

Azure Monitor Interview Questions and Answers

Here are 20 commonly asked Azure Monitor interview questions and answers to prepare you for your interview:

1. What is Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor is a service that provides data collection, analysis, and monitoring capabilities for Azure resources. It can be used to monitor the performance and health of Azure resources, as well as to detect and diagnose issues. Azure Monitor also provides a set of tools for visualizing and analyzing data, such as Azure Log Analytics and Azure Application Insights.

2. Can you explain how to create a custom log search in Azure Monitor?

To create a custom log search in Azure Monitor, you will first need to create a Log Analytics workspace. Once you have done this, you can then add the Azure Monitor for VMs solution to the workspace. After the solution has been added, you can then create a custom log search by going to the Log Search blade and clicking the New Search button. From here, you can enter in the query that you want to use to search the logs.

3. How do you scale up your Azure monitor application?

There are a few ways to scale up your Azure monitor application. One way is to use multiple Azure monitor instances. Another way is to use the Azure autoscale feature. This will allow you to automatically scale your Azure monitor application based on demand.

4. What are the different types of diagnostic logs supported by Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor supports four different types of diagnostic logs: activity, metric, diagnostic, and Azure Monitor logs. Activity logs provide information about the actions that have been taken within your Azure account. Metric logs provide information about the performance of your Azure resources. Diagnostic logs provide detailed information about the operation of your Azure resources. Azure Monitor logs provide information about the health and status of Azure resources.

5. What are the key features of Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor is a service that provides a single pane of glass for monitoring all your Azure resources. It gives you visibility into the health, performance, and availability of your resources, and enables you to diagnose and resolve issues faster. Azure Monitor also provides you with rich monitoring data and insights to help you improve the performance and availability of your applications.

6. What are some best practices for using Azure Monitor effectively?

Some best practices for using Azure Monitor effectively include using it to collect data across all your Azure resources, setting up alerts to notify you of potential issues, and using the data to troubleshoot and optimize your Azure resources.

7. What’s the advantage of using Azure Monitor over other tools like Nagios or Zabbix?

Azure Monitor is a cloud-based monitoring service that provides you with visibility into the performance and health of your Azure resources. It can help you detect and diagnose issues, and provides you with actionable insights to help you improve the performance and availability of your applications. Azure Monitor is also integrated with other Azure services, which makes it easy to set up and use.

8. What are the differences between Azure Application Insights and Azure Monitor?

Azure Application Insights is a service that helps you monitor your web applications. It provides performance monitoring, exception tracking, and other features. Azure Monitor is a service that provides monitoring for Azure resources. It includes features like performance monitoring, activity logging, and metric collection.

9. What are some common use cases for Azure Monitor in DevOps?

Azure Monitor is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of DevOps tasks. Some common use cases include monitoring the performance of applications, tracking the health of systems and services, and debugging issues. Azure Monitor can also be used to generate alerts when certain conditions are met, which can help DevOps teams respond quickly to problems.

10. Can you explain what Log Analytics is, and why it’s useful with Azure Monitor?

Log Analytics is a service in Azure that helps you collect and analyze data from your resources in Azure. It can be used to help you troubleshoot issues, monitor your resources, and gain insights into your data. Azure Monitor uses Log Analytics to provide you with data about your resources so that you can better understand what is happening with them.

11. How does integrating SCOM with Azure Monitor help improve security?

By integrating SCOM with Azure Monitor, you can get a more comprehensive view of your environment and identify potential security issues more quickly. Additionally, Azure Monitor can help you automate the response to security incidents.

12. Is it possible to integrate Azure Monitor with other monitoring systems like AWS CloudWatch? If yes, then how?

Yes, it is possible to integrate Azure Monitor with other monitoring systems like AWS CloudWatch. You can do this by using the Azure Monitor REST API to collect data from Azure Monitor and then send it to AWS CloudWatch.

13. What is the difference between Basic and Standard tiers in Azure Monitor? Which one would you recommend under certain circumstances?

The Basic tier in Azure Monitor is designed for small deployments and only offers a subset of the features available in Standard. The Standard tier is recommended for most users, as it offers a more comprehensive set of features and allows for more data to be collected.

14. What are the benefits of using Azure Monitor as opposed to Azure App Service Diagnostics?

Azure Monitor is a newer tool that offers a number of benefits over Azure App Service Diagnostics. First, Azure Monitor is designed to work with a wider range of Azure services, not just App Services. This means that you can get a more comprehensive view of your Azure environment. Additionally, Azure Monitor offers a number of features that App Service Diagnostics does not, such as the ability to set up alerts and create custom dashboards.

15. What is the pricing structure for Azure Monitor?

Azure Monitor is a free service that provides a single pane of glass for monitoring all your Azure resources. There is no charge for using Azure Monitor.

16. Are there any limitations when using Azure Monitor? If yes, what are they and can we work around them?

There are some limitations when using Azure Monitor, but they can be worked around. One such limitation is that Azure Monitor can only collect data from Azure resources. If you want to collect data from on-premises or other cloud resources, you will need to use a different tool. Additionally, Azure Monitor has a maximum data retention period of 90 days. If you need to retain data for longer periods of time, you will need to export it to another storage location.

17. What are some real-world applications of Azure Monitor that have been implemented successfully?

Azure Monitor has been used in a number of different ways in the real world. One example is using it to monitor web traffic in order to identify potential security threats. Another example is using it to monitor the performance of cloud-based applications in order to identify potential issues that need to be addressed.

18. Does Azure Monitor support Linux operating systems? If yes, then which ones?

Yes, Azure Monitor supports Linux operating systems. Specifically, it supports the following distributions: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Ubuntu, CentOS, Oracle Linux, and Debian.

19. Can you give me an example of how Azure Monitor might be used to troubleshoot performance issues on a server running Microsoft SQL Server 2016?

Azure Monitor can be used to collect data about the performance of a server running Microsoft SQL Server 2016 in a number of ways. For example, you can use Azure Monitor to collect data about the CPU utilization of the server, the amount of data being read from or written to the database, and the number of active connections to the database. This data can then be used to identify performance bottlenecks and to troubleshoot performance issues.

20. Why is Azure Monitor considered to be more efficient than traditional network monitoring tools like SolarWinds and Cacti?

Azure Monitor is designed to be more efficient than traditional network monitoring tools by providing a centralized platform for monitoring all of your Azure resources. With Azure Monitor, you can collect data from multiple Azure resources and view it in a single place. This makes it easier to identify trends and problems across your entire Azure environment. Additionally, Azure Monitor can automatically scale to meet the needs of your environment, which makes it more efficient than traditional network monitoring tools that require manual scaling.