Launching Windows Azure Log Analytics

Logging

Logging is a necessary part of the software development process. It enables developers to see what is happening behind the scenes and what the code is really doing. Through logging, important code execution points are recorded, a vital step when debugging an issue. Without logging, it will be extremely difficult to troubleshoot an issue in production. Therefore, it is mandatory for any application to have proper logging implemented to help developers visualize the data and get to the root cause if anything breaks in production.

EDITORS NOTE:

This is the first blog in series by Nadeem Akhter, Vice President of Integration at AAJ Technologies.

In subsequent blogs we will see how to store and retrieve the data from a log. We will also be providing introduction to Kusto Query Language (KQL).

Introduction to Windows Azure Log Analytics

Windows Azure Log Analytics is a must-have tool for developers and system admins, allowing its users to quickly connect and collect log data from multiple sources. The user has the option to search and query interactively using expressive language. The data could be correlated in a number of ways using powerful joins, which can help to quickly identify the root cause of operational issues.

The purpose of this blog is to show developers and system admins how easy it is to launch Log Analytics and connect it to different sources.

This blog will only focus on the “launching portion” of launching Windows Azure Log Analytics. The details about the functionality of Log Analytics will be covered in another blog post.

Launching Windows Azure Log Analytics

To launch Log Azure Analytics, please follow these steps:

1. 1. Make sure you are logged in to Windows Azure portal. 
2. 2. Click “All Services” in the left navigation pane.
3. 3. Search for “Log Analytics” in the “All Services” search box, or find it manually in the list.
4. 4. Click on “Log Analytics”.

Creating a New Workspace

Once Log Analytics launches, you will get an option to create a new workspace, or use to an existing one which was created earlier. To create a new workspace, please follow these steps:

1. Click on the “Add” toolbar button on the top or the “Create log analytics” button available inside the panel.

2. Fill the required fields and click “OK”.

3. Once the workspace is created, all the data sources in the next steps will be logged into the workspace.

Launching Analytics

Once you have created the workspace, it’s time to connect to a data source. Log Analytics gives us the flexibility to define multiple data sources. It will collect the data from the data source that you have configured.

Currently the following data sources are available in Log Analytics:

1. 1. Custom Logs (Windows)
2. 2. Custom Logs (Linux)
3. 3. IIS Logs (Windows)
4. 4. Performance Counters (Windows)
5. 5. Performance Counters (Linux)
6. 6. SysLogs (Linux)
7. 7. Windows Event Logs (Windows)

You can connect to a data source inside the workspace. Click on the “Desires Data” source category, and from there you can connect to an existing data source.

Once the data source is selected, click “Save”. Now, it’s time to launch the Analytics by clicking on the button. According to the data source, you might see a different set of options in the page, including a query editor to write custom queries.

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