Read the signals in Azure Monitor

What you’ll be able to do

Set resource scope, metric, aggregation, and time range.
Distinguish numerical metrics from event-oriented logs.
Write an actionable alert design with a clear response.

Before you beginAn accessible resource that emits metrics, such as the storage account from lesson 5, and permission to read its monitoring data. Generate a few harmless blob operations if you need activity. Data can appear after a delay.

Get the idea

Begin with an operational question

A chart is useful when it answers a question: are requests failing, is capacity growing, or is the workload unusually busy? Pick the resource and signal that match your question.

Aggregation changes the story

A total request count and an average latency answer different questions. Time range and interval can hide brief spikes or overemphasize noise. Read the aggregation and units before interpreting the graph.

Alerts need an owner

An alert should identify a condition someone can act on. A threshold without a response plan can become noise. Logs provide event detail, while metrics summarize numerical measurements; both can contribute to diagnosis.

Try it yourself

Open Azure Monitor, select Metrics, and scope the view to your practice storage account or another approved resource.
Select an available metric, such as storage Transactions. Confirm its namespace, unit, and supported aggregation.
Choose a recent time range. Perform a few harmless operations and wait for metric data to arrive. No data immediately after creation does not prove a service failure.
Compare a shorter and longer range or supported aggregations. Write one sentence about what changes and why.
Draft an alert: signal, threshold, evaluation period, notification owner, and first response step. You do not need to create a paid alert rule for this lesson.

Check your resultYou can explain the chart’s resource scope, unit, aggregation, and time window and propose one useful operational response.

Finish the lab

This exercise requires no new monitoring workspace or alert rule. If you choose to add optional alerts or log ingestion, review pricing and remove those lab resources afterward.

Quick knowledge check

Why can the same metric look different when you change the time interval?

Reveal the explanation

Measurements are grouped into different buckets and aggregated. A brief spike can be smoothed across a larger interval; check the unit and aggregation before comparing charts.

Take this with you

Monitor with a question, interpret with context, and alert with a response plan.

Go deeper

Use Azure Monitor metrics explorer

AI-assisted lesson · Reference links checked October 3, 2026. Exercises are teaching examples; they have not been executed against your Azure subscription.