Configure Azure Monitor Alerts for AVD Resources

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive native monitoring solution that can be utilized to send alerts for given parameters. See this Microsoft article for details.

Of the many capabilities Azure Monitor possesses, AVD administrators and engineers are most interested in its ability to monitor session host VMs, storage accounts, and other resources used by Nerdio Manager and AVD. While Nerdio Manager does not incorporate alert functionality, it is possible to construct custom Azure monitor alerts to achieve the same desired effect.

The following table shows some examples of Azure monitoring.

 

Area to Monitor

Azure Signal

Description

Session Host VMs

Data IOPS

This is a common issue with some VM sizes because the VM disk bandwidth is too low, and loading a large FSLogix profile causes long sign in times. By monitoring for this, you can determine if you have under-provisioned the session host VMs.

Storage Account Metrics (FSLogix Profiles and AppAttach)

Used Capacity

You can set a GB size threshold that is near the quota.

Note: In most cases the quota is created to an excessively large size as IOPS performance is tied to file share quota size. This alert is not useful for these situations. However for cost-savings or smaller environments, a small quota or standard-tier may be provisioned.

For example, set the threshold to 2 GB (make sure to select the correct value under "Unit", default is GB, not GiB). The granularity and frequency of evaluation can be set as desired.

SQL Databases (Nerdio ManagerApp Backend)

DTU Percentage

SQL databases can be monitored as well. For some operations, such as viewing auto-scale history, a large amount of logs may be queried and parsed, causing a large demand for DTUs.

SQL tends to be notoriously tricky to evaluate in terms of performance. However, this monitoring should suffice to detect a significant throttling of DTUs which affects Nerdio Manager's functionality, and can manifest itself in errors such as "Execution Timeout Expired."

App Service (Nerdio ManagerApplication)

N/A

See To create a Service Health Alert below.

To create an Alert Rule:

  1. In the Azure portal, navigate to Virtual machines.

  2. Select the VM you wish to work with.

  3. On the blade on the left side, in the Monitoring section, select Alerts.

  4. Select + Create > Alert rule.

  5. Enter the following information in the following tabs:

    • Scope: Select the scope.

      Note: When creating Alert rules, you can select multiple resources of the same type. For example, you may want to select all VMs in this resource group. Doing so means the alerting does not need to be enabled on each VM individually. This is entirely up to your discretion.

    • Condition: Select the condition to monitor. See the table above.

      Note: After selecting the specific value to be measured, you are then prompted for additional parameters. These settings need to be adjusted depending on your specific situation. See this Microsoft article for details.

    • Actions: Select the actions to take. For example, you can create a simple email notification.

      Note: If no action groups have been previously created, you can do that now. See this Microsoft article for details.

    • Details: Enter the Alert rule name, description, etc.

      Note: Severity is up to your preference, as it is used to sort alerts from the Alerts panel. See this Microsoft article for details.

    • Review + create: Review the information and select Create.

      The Alert Rule is created.

To create a Service Health Alert

  1. In the Azure portal, navigate to Service Health.

  2. Select + Add service health alert.

  3. Enter the Conditions, Actions, and Alert rule details as desired.

  4. Once you have entered all the required information, select Create alert rule.