By Vipul Singh
Introduction to Windows Log Analytics
Windows Analytics is a set of solutions for Azure Portal that provide you with extensive data about the state of devices in your deployment. There are currently three solutions which you can use singly or in any combination
Device Health
Device Health provides the following:
Identification of devices that crash frequently, and therefore might need to be rebuilt or replaced.
Identification of device drivers that are causing device crashes, with suggestions of alternative versions of those drivers that might reduce the number of crashes.
Notification of Windows Information Protection misconfigurations that send prompts to end users
Update Compliance
Update Compliance shows you the state of your devices with respect to the Windows updates so that you can ensure that they are on the most current updates as appropriate. In addition, Update Compliance provides the following:
Dedicated drill-downs for devices that might need attention.
An inventory of devices, including the version of Windows they are running and their update status.
The ability to track protection and threat status for Windows Defender Antivirus-enabled devices.
An overview of Windows Update for Business deferral configurations (Windows 10, version 1607 and later)
Powerful built-in log analytics to create useful custom queries.
Cloud-connected access utilizing Windows 10 diagnostic data means no need for new complex, customized infrastructure.
Upgrade Readiness
Upgrade Readiness offers a set of tools to plan and manage the upgrade process end to end, allowing you to adopt new Windows releases more quickly. With new Windows versions being released multiple times a year, ensuring application and driver compatibility on an ongoing basis is key to adopting new Windows versions as they are released. Upgrade Readiness not only supports upgrade management from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, but also Windows 10 upgrades in the Windows as a service model.
Use Upgrade Readiness to get:
A visual workflow that guides you from pilot to production.
Detailed computer and application inventory.
Powerful computer-level search and drill-downs.
Guidance and insights into application and driver compatibility issues, with suggested fixes.
Data-driven application rationalization tools.
Application usage information, allowing targeted validation; workflow to track validation progress and decisions.
Data export to commonly used software deployment tools, including System Center Configuration Manager.
Windows Analytics uses Azure Log Analytics workspaces (formerly known as Operations Management Suite or OMS), a collection of cloud-based services for monitoring and automating your on-premises and cloud environments.
Navigation and permissions in the Azure portal
Go to the Azure portal, select All services, and search for Log Analytics workspaces. Once it appears, you can select the star to add it to your favourites for easy access in the future.
Permissions
It's important to understand the difference between Azure Active Directory and an Azure subscription:
Azure Active Directory is the directory that Azure uses. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a separate service which sits by itself and is used by all of Azure and Office 365.
An Azure subscription is a container for billing, but also acts as a security boundary. Every Azure subscription has a trust relationship with at least one Azure AD instance. This means that a subscription trusts that directory to authenticate users, services, and devices.
Important
Unlike the OMS portal (which only requires permission to access the Azure Log Analytics workspace), the Azure portal also requires access to be configured to either the linked Azure subscription or Azure resource group.
To check the Log Analytics workspaces you can access, select Log Analytics workspaces. You should see a grid control listing all workspaces, along with the Azure subscription each is linked to:
If you do not see your workspace in this view, but you are able to access the workspace from the classic portal, that means you do not have access to the workspace's Azure subscription or resource group. To remedy this, you will need to find someone with admin rights to grant you access, which they can do by selecting the subscription name and selecting Access control (IAM) (alternatively they can configure your access at the resource group level). They should either grant you "Log Analytics Reader" access (for read-only access) or "Log Analytics Contributor" access (which enables making changes such as creating deployment plans and changing application readiness states).
When permissions are configured, you can select the workspace and then select Workspace summary to see information like what was shown in the OMS overview page.
Adding Windows Analytics solutions
In the Azure portal, the simplest way to add Windows Analytics solutions (Upgrade Readiness, Update Compliance, and Device Health) is to select + Create a resource and then type the solution name in the search box. In this example, the search is for "Device Health":
Select the solution from the list that is returned by the search, and then select Create to add the solution.
Navigating to Windows Analytics solutions settings
To adjust settings for a Windows Analytics solution, first navigate to the Solutions tab for your workspace, and then select the solution to configure. In this example, Upgrade Readiness is being adjusted by selecting CompatibilityAssessment:
From there, select the settings page to adjust specific settings:
Introduction to Power BI
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Your data may be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize, and discover what’s important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want.
Power BI can be simple and fast, capable of creating quick insights from an Excel spreadsheet or a local database. But Power BI is also robust and enterprise-grade, ready for extensive modelling and real-time analytics, as well as custom development. It can be your personal report and visualization tool and serve as the analytics and decision engine for group projects, divisions, or entire corporations. The parts of Power BI
Power BI consists of:
A Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop.
An online SaaS (Software as a Service) service called the Power BI service.
Power BI mobile apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.
These three elements—Power BI Desktop, the service, and the mobile apps—are designed to let people create, share, and consume business insights in the way that serves them, or their role, most effectively.
Why use Power BI for Log Analytics
Power BI is a cloud-based business analytics service from Microsoft that provides rich visualizations and reports for analysis of different sets of data. You can import the results of an Azure Monitor log query into a Power BI dataset so you can take advantage of its features such as combining data from different sources and sharing reports on the web and mobile devices.
Connecting Log Analytics with Power BI
To import data from a Log Analytics workspace in Azure Monitor into Power BI, you create a dataset in Power BI based on a log query in Azure Monitor. The query is run each time the dataset is refreshed. You can then build Power BI reports that use data from the dataset. To create the dataset in Power BI, you export your query from Log Analytics to Power Query (M) language. You then use this to create a query in Power BI Desktop and then publish it to Power BI as a dataset. The details for this process are described below.
Export query from Log Analytics
Start by creating a log query that returns the data that you want to populate the Power BI dataset. You then export that query to Power Query (M) language which can be used by Power BI Desktop.
Create the log query in Log Analytics to extract the data for your dataset.
2. Select Export > Power BI Query (M). This exports the query to a text file called PowerBIQuery.txt.
3. Open the text file and copy its contents.
Export query from Log Analytics Workspace to Power BI
When Log Analytics report is already being built in Azure portal itself, and we must migrate all the report to Power BI.
Go to Log analytics Workspace in you Azure Resources, and mark as favourites for ease of use.
2. Go to Workspace Summary.
3. Click on Individual Report and it will redirect to the code behind each visual used in the report.
4. Select Export > Export to Power BI (M Query). This exports the query to a text file called PowerBIQuery.txt.
5. Next, Import the query from the exported text file to Power BI.
Import query into Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is a desktop application that allows you to create datasets and reports that can be published to Power BI. You can also use it to create a query using the Power Query language exported from Azure Monitor.
Install Power BI Desktop if you don't already have it and then open the application.
2. Select Get Data > Blank Query to open a new query. Then select Advanced Editor and paste the contents of the exported file into the query. Click Done.
3. The query runs, and its results are displayed. You may be prompted for credentials to connect to Azure.
4. Type in a descriptive name for the query. The default is Query1. Click Close and Apply to add the dataset to the report.
Publish to Power BI
When you publish to Power BI, a dataset and a report will be created. If you create a report in Power BI Desktop, then this will be published with your data. If not, then a blank report will be created. You can modify the report in Power BI or create a new one based on the dataset.
Create a report based on your data. Use Power BI Desktop documentation if you're not familiar with it.
When you're ready to send it to Power BI, click Publish.
3. When prompted, select a destination in your Power BI account. Unless you have a specific destination in mind, use My workspace.
4. When the publishing completes, click Open in Power BI to open Power BI with your new dataset.
Komentáre