/Active-Directory-Performance-Assessment-with-Azure-Monitor-workbook

MIT LicenseMIT

Active Directory Performance Assessment workbook (v4)

Overview

Do you know how to monitor custom performance counters by using Log Analytics and the Azure Monitor workbooks? In this case, I will use the Active Directory Domain Controllers as example. Below, you will be able to find an Azure Workbook to assess the essential Active Directory performance counters.

You have likely heard or read about VM Insights as a quick and easy method for getting started monitoring the client workloads on your virtual machines, especially if you are looking for a solution to manage OS Performance Counters. This solution is available for Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Machines out of Azure through Azure ARC agent for both Linux and Windows. That is interesting and, many times, the easiest way to do it.

But, what happens if you want to collect and start monitoring custom Performance Counters? Here, a good option is to use Data Collection Rules (DCRs) to collect that custom information and then use Azure Monitor Workbooks for visualization or Azure Alerts (log alerts) to notify and alert.

I want to share the Active Directory Performance Assessment workbook, which I have been working on and will help you to monitor your Active Directory environment. You can use this as an example of a custom Azure Workbook to visualize Performance Counters. Specifically, you are going to find tiles, graphs, and dashboards for Operating System and Active Directory performance counters listed on Materials/List_of_Performance_Counters.txt file.

To use this workbook, you only need to follow these steps:

  1. Use the Azure Monitor Agent to connect your Domain Controllers to Log Analytics.
  2. Create a Data Collection Rule to collect the performance counters and associate it to your Domain Controllers. (You will find the DCR-ADPAS-PerformanceCounters-TEMPLATE.json file to do that in the Materials folder).
  3. Deploy the Active Directory Performance Assessment Workbook you will find in the Materials folder.
  4. Before saving the workbook in Edit mode, you need to configure two hidden parameters: 'Subscriptions' and 'Workspace'. Here, you will select the Log Analytics workspaces from which you want to display performance information. image

Workbook Summary

ADPA with Azure Monitor workbook The Azure Workbook is divided into four sections (Availability, Operating System, Active Directory, and Detailed).

image

Availability

This view summarizes how the servers send heartbeats to the Log Analytics workspace. It shows data from the last hour and the last TimeRange parameter days.

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Operating System

This section allows you to analyze the evolution of Operating System Performance Counters (Processor, Memory, LogicalDisk, Network). Computer filter is available to select the servers to show. There are two graphs per counter: • Left: Counter evolution. • Right: Detailed table per instance: Status (if it applies), name, average, standard deviation, and percentiles (50, 75, and 95) in the selected TimeRange. image

Active Directory

Active Directory tab analyzes the evolution of Active Directory Performance Counters (Authentications, Directory Services, lsass, DNS, DFSRS, and NTDS). A computer filter is available to select the servers to show. You can find the same graphs that OS tab has per counter: Evolution and detailed table. image

Detailed

It allows the detailed analysis of the selected counter and computer. Customized granularity can be selected. image

Version History

v4 (11/01/2024)

  • Workbook: Typos and links improved. Added Top tables to Operating System tab.
  • Data Collection Rule template provided.