Learn about the Azure Alert summary view

The Azure Alert Summary View provides a comprehensive, centralized view of all alerts within Azure Monitor, allowing users to monitor, manage, and act on triggered alerts. It helps users gain insights into the health and performance of their resources in real time, offering an overview of alert details, statuses, and actions. Here's a breakdown of the key elements in the Alert Summary View:

Overview of the Alert Summary View

The Alert Summary View is accessed through Azure Monitor in the Azure portal, under the Alerts section.

It provides an at-a-glance summary of alerts across various resources, subscriptions, and resource groups.

The view is designed to help users easily identify issues that need attention and track their resolution status.

Key Components in the Alert Summary View

Active Alerts

Definition:

Displays the list of currently active alerts, meaning alerts that have been triggered but not yet resolved or acknowledged.

1. Information Shown:

   • Alert Name: The name of the alert rule.

   • Severity: The severity level (e.g., Critical, Warning, Informational).

   • Triggered Time: The timestamp when the alert was triggered.

   • Resource: The Azure resource involved in the alert.

   • Condition: A brief description of the condition that triggered the alert (e.g., CPU usage > 80%).

   • Status: The status of the alert (e.g., Active, Acknowledged, Resolved).

2. Example:

   • Alert Name: "High CPU Usage on VM"

   • Severity: "Critical"

   • Triggered Time: "5 minutes ago"

   • Resource: "VM-Prod-01"

   • Status: "Active"

Alert History

Definition:

The history of previous alerts that have been triggered and resolved.

1. Information Shown: Similar to active alerts, but these alerts are resolved or no longer active. Alerts in history include details on the actions taken, such as email notifications, automated workflows, or remediation actions.

2. Usage: Review the past alerts to understand trends, recurring issues, and ensure proper incident resolution.

Alert Status Filters

Definition:

Filters available to help users quickly sort and find alerts by their status or severity.

Key Filters:

• Active vs. Resolved: Switch between viewing only active alerts or both active and resolved alerts.

• Severity: Filter alerts by their severity level (e.g., Critical, Warning, Information).

• Time Range: Choose the time frame for alerts (e.g., last 24 hours, last 7 days).

• Alert Type: Filter by metric alerts, log alerts, or activity log alerts.

Aggregated Alerts

Definition:

Alerts can be grouped into aggregated alerts, where multiple similar alerts are grouped together based on a defined logic (e.g., alerts triggered for the same resource within a short time).

Purpose:

Helps reduce alert fatigue by presenting related alerts as a single entity to avoid overwhelming users with redundant notifications.

Makes it easier to manage large volumes of alerts efficiently.

Alert Summary Metrics

Metric Indicators:

The Alert Summary View may also include high-level metrics to show how many alerts are in each category, such as:

Total number of active alerts.

Alerts by severity (Critical, Warning, Informational).

Alerts by resource type (e.g., Virtual Machines, Databases, Storage Accounts).

Actions and Resolution

1. Actionable Alerts: In the summary view, users can click on an alert to view more detailed information and take the necessary action.

2. Acknowledge: Mark the alert as acknowledged, indicating that someone is aware of the issue.

3. Resolve: Once the issue is addressed, users can mark the alert as resolved to remove it from the active alert list.

4. Take Action: Initiate specific actions from the Alert Summary View, such as triggering an Azure Automation runbook, sending notifications, or executing a Logic App workflow.

Key Action Options

1. Create a Work Item: Create an Azure DevOps work item or a task based on the alert.

2. Open Logs: Directly link to the relevant log data for deeper investigation.

3. View Resource: Navigate to the resource that triggered the alert for further troubleshooting.

Alert Details and Drilldown

When clicking on an individual alert, the detailed view offers more insights:

1. Detailed Description: Description of the condition that triggered the alert (e.g., "CPU usage exceeded 85%").

2. Resource Details: Provides a direct link to the resource causing the alert.

3. Metrics or Logs: Displays metric data or logs that provide more context about the alert.

4. Alert Timeline: A timeline view showing when the alert was triggered, acknowledged, and resolved.

Custom Views and Dashboards

1. Customizable Views: Users can customize the alert summary view to focus on alerts for specific resources, subscriptions, or severity levels.

2. Alert Dashboards: Create custom dashboards that summarize alert information and include charts, tables, and filtering options for a more tailored overview.

Example:

A dashboard that shows only critical alerts for production resources or aggregates metrics over time for trends.

Notifications and Integration with Action Groups

1. Action Group Integration: When an alert is triggered, it can notify users through Action Groups. These action groups can send emails, SMS, or integrate with other Azure services.

2. Alert Notifications: The summary view may also indicate if an action was triggered, helping users quickly determine the effectiveness of their alerting setup.

Alert Rule Management

The Alert Summary View provides easy access to manage and update the underlying alert rules:

1. Edit the rule that triggered the alert.

2. Review conditions and thresholds.

3. Modify action groups or notification methods.

Best Practices for Using the Alert Summary View

1. Set Up Filters: Use filters to focus on specific alerts based on severity, time, or resource type.

2. Monitor Trends: Regularly monitor aggregated alert data to spot recurring issues or emerging trends.

3. Acknowledge Alerts: Acknowledge alerts as you begin investigating or handling them to reduce confusion with other team members.

4. Create Alerts for Critical Resources: Ensure that the critical resources (e.g., production VMs, databases) are well-covered with alert rules, and monitor them in the alert summary view.

Summary

The Azure Alert Summary View is an essential tool for efficiently managing alerts in Azure Monitor. It provides an overview of active and resolved alerts, helps with alert organization, and allows for easy interaction with individual alerts to take corrective actions. By using filters, customizable views, and integrating action groups, users can streamline monitoring tasks and respond quickly to issues in their Azure environment.