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Lab: Create a Monitoring Dashboard

Updated Mar 29, 2021 ·

Overview​

In this lab, we will create an Azure Dashboard and add metrics from a Storage account and Application Insights to monitor resource health in one place.

Creating the Dashboard​

  1. From the Azure Portal menu, navigate to Dashboard hub.

    Create a new custom dashboard named "Resource Monitoring Dashboard".

  2. Select Custom to create a custom dashboard.

  3. Provide a name, such as "Resource Monitoring Dashboard", and click Save.

    Note: If the Save button does not appear, close the Tile Gallery and try again.

Storage Account Metrics​

  1. Go to Storage account ➔ select your storage account ➔ Metrics.

    Display the "Transactions" metric.

    Note: I've already created a storage account prior to this lab. For more information, please see Create an Azure storage account

  2. Click Save to dashboard ➔ Pin to dashboard

  3. Select your dashboard and ensure it is set to private, then click Pin.

  4. Create another chart to track storage availability.

    In Metrics Explorer ➔ New chart

  5. Select the Availability metric.

  6. Pin the chart to the Resource Monitoring Dashboard.

App Service Metrics​

  1. Create an App Service with Application Insights

    Navigate to App Services and click Create

  2. Fill in the required details for your App Service.

  3. Enable Application Insights during deployment.

    • Go to the Monitoring tab
    • Enable Application Insights
    • Click Review + create and then Create

    Azure will create or connect an Application Insights resource automatically.

  4. Open a web browser and navigate to your deployed web application.

    In the example below, <appname> represents your App Service name.

    https://<appname>.azurewebsites.net

    Refresh the page 10–20 times.

    Each refresh generates request telemetry events that Application Insights will collect and analyze.

Application Insights Metrics​

  1. Go to Application Insights and access your resource.

  2. Pin a chart to your dashboard by clicking the pin icon.

  3. Select your dashboard and click Pin.

Organize the Dashboard​

Return to your Resource Monitoring Dashboard and verify that all tiles appear.

  • Confirm Storage and Application Insights metrics are visible
  • Rearrange and resize tiles for better visibility
  • Save the dashboard layout

With these tiles combined, the dashboard provides a unified monitoring view across multiple Azure resources.