Azure Monitoring Tools Explained – Part 12: Service Health
In the first part of this series, we introduced the confusion and complexity that tends to occur when looking at the long list of monitoring tools available for Azure.
We then provided a list of currently available tools that we will explore further.
- Part 2: Activity Logs
- Part 3: Application Insights
- Part 4: Azure Advisor
- Part 5: Azure Alerts
- Part 6: Azure Diagnostics
- Part 7: Azure Metrics
- Part 8: Azure Monitor
- Part 9: Azure Security Center (ASC)
- Part 10: Network Watcher
- Part 11: Operations Management Suite (OMS)
- Part 12: Service Health
- Part 13: System Center Operation Manager (SCOM)
- Part 14: Summary
We’ve already discussed Azure Activity Logs, Application Insights, Azure Advisor, Azure Alerts, Azure Diagnostics, Azure Metrics, Azure Monitor, Azure Security Center (ASC), Network Watcher, and Operations Management Suite (OMS). The next tool on the list is Service Health.
Service Health
The Azure Service Health alerts you when there is an issue with an Azure service that affects your specific resources. It also includes notices for Microsoft planned maintenance activities.
You will notice from the diagram below, that the Service Health feeds into the Azure Monitor service as well.
It’s nice that it also provides details on the exact region affected, and regular updates on what Microsoft is doing to resolve the issue.
Here is the official documentation about Azure Service Health Overview.
Real Word Example
So how is this helpful in the real world?
Aside from informing you when an issue is occurring, and what Microsoft is doing to fix it, I really like the Health History feature. It means that I can go back in history to see if there was an issue that affected any of my resources (in case I didn’t catch it while it was occurring).
And if you scan the QR code provided, you can track the issue and its status and progress on your phone via the Azure mobile app.
Conclusion
The Azure Service Health feature is a nice and welcomed addition to monitoring Azure because it gives us insight into underlying issues with the Azure fabric itself. Also, instead of just receiving a notice stating “Azure Storage is down” and that’s it, Microsoft provides lots of great details to ensure its customers are well informed; like Tracking IDs, Impacted Services, Impacted Regions, including regular updates on status and progress.
The last tool in our series will be System Center Operations Manager (SCOM).