Microsoft: Azure PowerPack Release Notes, version 115

Version 115 of the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack includes new Dynamic Applications and new Device Classes.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 10.2.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 10.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing Microsoft: Azure version 115.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the appropriate Release Notes.

NOTE: As of Microsoft Azure ClassicPowerPack version 106, Data Collectors running CentOS can no longer discover and monitor Microsoft Azure.

Prior to using the multiple subscription functionality introduced in version 104, ScienceLogic recommends that you review your device capacity and load limits to determine the best method for implementation.

Installation Process

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 10.2.0 or later release.
  3. Download the Microsoft: Azure version 115PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import Microsoft: Azure version 115.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

See the manual Monitoring Microsoft Azure for instructions on using the new PowerPack.

Upgrading the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack from Version 104 and Later

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

To upgrade the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack from version 104 and later:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the minimum required platform version or later release.
  3. Download this version of the PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  1. Before importing and installing this version of the PowerPack, you must disable the existing tree of Azure parent and component devices, recursively. To do so:
  • Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components)
  • Collapse the root Azure component device.
  • Select the root Azure device's checkbox.
  • Click the Select Action drop-down menu. Under Change Collection State, select Disabled (recursive), and then click [Go].
  1. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import the Version 115 of the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  2. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  3. If you are implementing the multiple subscription feature, go to the Credential Management page (System > Manage > Credentials) and create a new credential or edit an existing one as needed for use with the multiple subscription configuration. (For more information, see the manual Monitoring Microsoft Azure.)
  4. You must now enable the existing tree of Azure parent and component devices, recursively. To do so:
  • Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components)
  • Collapse the root Azure component device.
  • Select the root Azure component device's checkbox.
  • Click the Select Action drop-down menu. Under Change Collection State, select Active (recursive), and then click [Go].

Upgrading from a Microsoft: Azure PowerPack Version Prior to v104

To upgrade the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack from a version earlier than v104:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the minimum required platform version or later release.
  3. Download this version of the PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  1. Before importing and installing this version of the PowerPack, you must disable the existing tree of Azure parent and component devices, recursively. To do so:
  • Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components).
  • Collapse the root Azure component device.
  • Select the root Azure component device's checkbox.
  • Click the Select Action drop-down menu. Under Change Collection State, select Disabled (recursive), and then click [Go].
  1. Because the following Dynamic Applications were force-removed from v103 and v104, when you upgrade to version 111, you must manually remove the device components discovered by these Dynamic Applications.
  • Microsoft: Azure Backup Jobs Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Backup Policies Service Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Backup Policy Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Recovery Jobs Service Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Storage Blob Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure Storage Blob Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Storage Container Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Storage Table Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Storage Queue Discovery
  1. Go to the Device Manager page (Registry > Devices > Device Manager).
  2. Filter the list of devices by Device Class | Sub-Class. Type the following in the filter:

Azure Storage Container, Azure Storage Blob, Azure Storage Queue, Azure Storage Table, Backup Policies Service, Backup Policy, Jobs Service, Backup Job

  1. The Device Manager page now displays only devices with the specified Device Classes. Click the Select All checkbox in the upper right to select all these devices.
  2. Click on the Select Action field, and choose DELETE Selected Devices. Click the Go button. Confirm that you want to delete the device.
  3. Next, you must delete the Device Classes associated with the Dynamic Applications that were force-removed. Go to the Device Class Editor page (System > Customize > Device Classes).
  4. Filter the list of Device Classes. To do so, enter the following:
  • Device Class. In this field, type Microsoft.
  • Description. In this field , type Backup Policies Service, Backup Policy, Jobs Service, Backup Job, Azure Storage Container, Azure Storage Blob, Azure Storage Queue, Azure Storage Table.
  1. The Device Class Editor page should now display only the following Device Classes:
  • Azure Backup Job
  • Azure Backup Policies Service
  • Azure Backup Policy
  • Azure Jobs Service
  • Microsoft Azure Storage Container
  • Microsoft Azure Storage Blob
  • Microsoft Azure Storage Table
  • Microsoft Azure Storage Queue
  1. Click the Select Action field, choose DELETE Device Classes, and click the Go button. Confirm that you want to delete the device.
  1. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import this version of the PowerPack. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  2. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

  1. Enable the existing tree of Azure parent and component devices, recursively. To do so:
  • Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components).
  • Collapse the root Azure component device.
  • Select the root Azure component device's checkbox.
  • Click the Select Action drop-down menu. Under Change Collection State, select Enabled (recursive), and then click [Go].

  1. See the manual Monitoring Microsoft Azure for instructions on using the new PowerPack.

Features

Version 115 of the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications that enable SL1 to discover, model, and monitor performance metrics and collect configuration data for Azure resources
  • Event Policies that are triggered when Azure resources meet certain status criteria
  • Device Classes for each Azure data center location and all of the Azure resources that SL1 monitors
  • Example credentials for discovering Azure resources
  • A Credential Test to ensure that your Azure credential works as expected
  • Run Book Action and Automation policies that can automate certain Azure monitoring processes

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included in version 115 of the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack:

  • The "silo_apps" content library was updated to support SL1 version 11.2.0.
  • Support was added for the following billable device classes:
  • Azure Data Factory
  • Azure SQL Managed Instance
  • The "Microsoft: Azure Unified Alerts Performance" Dynamic Application has been updated to support all discoverable services, including SQL Managed Instance and Data Factory services.
  • The following Dynamic Applications were added to the PowerPack:
  • Microsoft: Azure Data Factory Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure Data Factory Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Data Factory Performance
  • Microsoft: Azure Data Factory Service Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Dynamic Resources Cache
  • Microsoft: Azure Resource List Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure Resource List Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure Resource List Service Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Database Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Database Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Discovery
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Failover Configuration
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Performance
  • Microsoft: Azure SQL Managed Instance Service Discovery
  • The "Microsoft: Azure Application Gateway Performance" Dynamic Application was updated to collect metrics for Application Gateway V2. (Support Case: 00210210; JIRA ID: SOL-16285)
  • The "Cloud.DataFactory" Device Category was added to the PowerPack.
  • The "Microsoft: Azure Discover from IP" Run Book Action was updated to use PowerShell instead of SNMP by default.
  • The following Device Classes were added to the PowerPack:
  • Azure Data Factory
  • Azure Data Factory Service
  • Azure SQL Managed Instance
  • Azure SQL Managed Instance Database
  • Azure SQL Managed Instance Service
  • Azure Resource
  • Azure Resource List Service
  • An issue was addressed in which Azure virtual machines that contained Japanese characters in their names were causing a Unicode error in SL1 and data collection to stop. (Support Case: 00190296; JIRA ID: SOL-15116)

  • Limited monitoring capabilities have been added for additional services based on the Azure Resource List and Azure Resource Health APIs. The services are modeled as device components which can be used for CMDB syncing. Availability information is collected and used for alerts, and Azure alerts are collected and aligned to the related service. There is no performance monitoring, so all the device components created by the "AWS: Resource List Discovery" Dynamic Application are non-billable. The services included are:

  • API Management
  • Azure Analysis Services
  • Azure Arc
  • Azure Bastion
  • Azure Cognitive Services
  • Azure Data Lake Storage
  • Azure Database for MariaDB
  • Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server
  • Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
  • Azure Database Migration Service
  • Azure Dedicated Host
  • Azure Digital Twins
  • Azure Front Door
  • Azure IoT Hub
  • Azure Purview
  • Azure Service Fabric
  • Azure Spring Cloud
  • Azure Stream Analytics
  • Azure Synapse Analytics
  • Data Lake Analytics
  • Event Hubs
  • HDInsight
  • Log Analytics
  • Media Services
  • Microsoft Purview
  • Mobile Apps
  • Notification Hubs
  • Power BI Embedded

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 115 of the Microsoft: Azure PowerPack:

  • Some environments could experience an issue when installing the PowerPack in which the installation window will show that the PowerPack is still installing when the PowerPack has finished being installed. If this occurs, users can close the window and check the PowerPack version number in the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks) to confirm that installation has completed.
  • The PowerPack will not install on SL1 systems configured to be Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)-compliant until the new user interface available with SL1 version 10.1.0 and later supports FIPS systems.
  • Azure CosmosDB SVG icons for device classes are not available in this version.
  • The default metric System Availability requires an availability report every five minutes by default. However, the "Microsoft Azure: Virtual Machine Discovery" Dynamic Application runs every 15 minutes by default, which causes gaps in the data. To avoid seeing gaps in System Availability, reduce the default poll time for the Discovery Dynamic Application to five minutes.
  • When discovering a large number of component devices, the discovery process can cause the appearance of numerous critical events with the message, "Large backlog of asynchronous jobs detected".
  • The Dynamic Application "Microsoft: Azure Backup Policy Configuration" retrieves an additional parameter (HourlyLogBackup) that is not displayed in the Azure portal. The parameter does not contain a value. This issue is caused by a parameter being available in the Azure API but not in the Azure portal.

NOTE: This issue does not occur for Microsoft Azure Government subscribers.

  • In Microsoft Azure, no count appears for Recovery Service Vault > Backup items > Azure Backup Server. This is a bug in the Azure API.
  • The API for Microsoft Azure Government does not currently provide performance data for Azure Application Gateways. This is a bug in the Azure API.
  • The API for Microsoft Azure Government does not currently support the following performance data for Azure SQL Databases: deadlock, dtu_consumption_percent, dtu_limit, dtu_used, log_write_percent, sessions_percent, storage, storage_percent, workers_percent, and xtp_storage_percent. This is a bug in the Azure API.

Workarounds

Version 103 fixed an issue where the Dynamic Application "Microsoft: Azure Virtual Machine Discovery" was not automatically assigning a device class to each discovered device.

As a result, if you are upgrading from a version of the PowerPack prior to version 103, after the upgrade you must either re-discover the Azure Virtual Machine devices that previously had no device class, or you must manually assign the device class "Microsoft | Azure Virtual Machine Service" to each of those devices.

To manually re-discover the Azure Virtual Machine devices that previously had no device class:

  1. Go to the Dynamic Applications Manager page (System > Manage > Applications).
  2. Find the Dynamic Application "Microsoft: Azure Virtual Machine Discovery" and select its checkbox.
  3. Click the Select Action field and choose DISCOVER Applications. Click the Go button.

To manually assign a device class to the Azure Virtual Machine devices, perform these steps on each device:

  1. Go to the Device Manager page (Registry > Devices > Device Manager).
  2. Find the device you want to edit and select its wrench icon ().
  3. In the Device Properties page, find the Device Class field and select the toolbox icon ().
  4. In the Select New Device Class modal page, select the device class that matches the Azure Virtual Machine in both size and type.
  5. The newly selected device class is now associated with the device.