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Pradeep Kumar CSupport Escalation Engineer

Windows Azure Diagnostics Logging and Monitoring in the Cloud

Agenda• WAD overview & Architecture• How to Enable WAD• Storage Considerations• Common Diagnostic Tasks• Issues & Troubleshooting• Q&A

WAD overview & Architecture

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Diagnostics: Single Server vs. the Cloud

CloudDynamic Environment

Distributed, scaled-out data

Single ServerStatic Environment

Local Access FeasibleAll in one TS sessionData & tools co-locatedIn-Place Changes

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Windows Azure Diagnostics

Reason for Diagnostics in Azure1. Save diagnostic data that would be lost during a reimaging of the

instance (an Azure Cloud Service is stateless)2. Provide a central repository for diagnostics from multiple role

instances

Diagnostic Strategy• Spend time considering a diagnostic strategy for your Azure application i.e. do want to record, errors, deployment status, monitor performance• How will diagnostics setting be changed once deployed?• Consider cost of logging, both performance wise and financially• How will you access diagnostic information?

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WAD overview• SDK Component provides distributed

monitoring & data Collection• Supports standard diagnostic APIs• Cloud – Friendly

• Manage Multiple role instances centrally

• Scalable• Build on Windows Azure Storage & used by scale-out/Scale-in

Windows Azure Platform feature

• Developer in control• What to Collect & When to collect

How to Enable WAD

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Configuring Diagnostics• Enable Programmatically :

using DiagnosticMonitor.Start()

• Enable Diagnostic with : Configuration (diagnostic.wadcfg)

• Enable Diagnostic with Windows Azure SDK 2.0 via Visual Studio

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Diagnostic Monitor (Role Startup)

DiagnosticMonitorConfiguration dc =DiagnosticMonitor.GetDefaultInitialConfiguration();

dc.WindowsEventLog.DataSources.Add("Application!*");dc.WindowsEventLog. ScheduledTransferLogLevelFilter = LogLevel.Error;dc.WindowsEventLog.ScheduledTransferPeriod = System.TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5.0);// add other sources

DiagnosticMonitor.Start("DiagnosticsConnectionString", dc);

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Diagnostic Monitor (diagnostics.wadcfg)<DiagnosticInfrastructureLogs bufferQuotaInMB="512" scheduledTransferLogLevelFilter="Verbose" scheduledTransferPeriod="PT1S" /> <Logs bufferQuotaInMB="1024" scheduledTransferLogLevelFilter="Verbose" scheduledTransferPeriod="PT1S" />

<WindowsEventLog bufferQuotaInMB="512" scheduledTransferLogLevelFilter="Verbose" scheduledTransferPeriod="PT5M"> <DataSource name="Application!*" /> </WindowsEventLog>

</DiagnosticMonitorConfiguration>

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Diagnostic Monitor (SDK 2.0)

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Diagnostic Monitor (SDK 2.0)

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Role Instance

How Does It Work (in a nutshell)?• Role Instance Starts• Diagnostic Monitor Starts• Monitor is configured

• Imperatively at Start time• Remotely any time via configuration file• Configuration is saved in Storage

• Monitor buffers data locally• User can set a quota (FIFO)

• Initiates transfer to Azure storage from local buffer

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Diagnostic Data Locations

Windows Event Logs WADWindowsEventLogsTable

Performance Counters WADPerformanceCountersTable

Windows Azure Logs WADLogsTable

Diagnostic Infrastructure Logs WADDiagnosticInfrastructureLogsTable

IIS Logs wad-iis-logfiles

IIS Failed Request Logs wad-iis-failedreqlogfiles

Crash Dumps wad-crash-dumps

Custom File Based Logs (must be configured)

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D E M O

Storage Considerations

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Storage Considerations

• Set up a separate Diagnostic Storage account

• Choose only required Diagnostic data • Use an affinity group• Periodically copy and clear the Diagnostic

Data from Storage• Be aware of cost of logging, both physical

and bandwidth

Common Diagnostic Tasks

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Scenarios for using WAD

• Monitoring application performance• CPU and memory usage• Requests to application

• Troubleshooting and Debugging issues• Errors or exceptions in code

• Capacity planning • Identify need for more compute resource

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Role Instance

Remote Configuration

Poll Interval

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RoleInstanceDiagnosticManager (anytime)• CloudStorageAccount storage = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(…);

• RoleInstanceDiagnosticManager rdm = new • RoleInstanceDiagnosticManager(storage, DeploymentId,

• RoleName, RoleInstanceId);

• DiagnosticMonitorConfiguration config = rdm.GetCurrentConfiguration();

• dc.WindowsEventLog.DataSources.Add("Application!*");• dc.WindowsEventLog. ScheduledTransferLogLevelFilter = • LogLevel.Error;• dc.WindowsEventLog.ScheduledTransferPeriod = • TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5.0);• // add other sources

• rdm.SetCurrentConfiguration(config);

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Diagnostic Monitor (SDK 2.0)

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D E M O

Issues & Troubleshooting

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Troubleshooting issues with WADScenario

Logs no longer or never copied to Azure Storage• Could be all logs configured• Specific logs• All instances of a role or specific ones

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Troubleshooting issues with WADTroubleshooting steps

• Check WAD configuration • RDP onto instance to check WAD processes• Locally check WAD configuration • Ensure logs actually exist• Raise a support case

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Troubleshooting issues with WADIssue Identified

• WAD correctly configured• No logs present to be copied i.e. IIS stopped and

therefore no new IIS logs• Custom logs missing due to an exception in custom

code• WAD incorrectly configured• OverallQuotaInMb same size or larger than

DiagnosticsStore for sizeInMb

Referenceshttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh771389.aspx

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/storage/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432992.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn205075.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh411551.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/04/17/windows-azure-storage-explorers.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg433048.aspx

Summary

Consider WAD requirements • Logging level• What to log• Financial cost of using WAD

Decide how to monitor logs or alter• Use Visual Studio or third party storage viewer

Raise a support case, we are here to help

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Questions

Visit CIE Blog, Join the Webinar - Windows Azure Diagnostics - Logging and Monitoring in the Cloud on August 6th at 3PM IST (UTC +5:30)

For additional questions / feedback

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