The Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) is the background worker that collects telemetry from supported virtual machines and sends it to monitoring destinations. It gathers performance data, event logs, and system health information so Azure Monitor and Log Analytics can turn quiet machines into observable ones. section 3.7.2
AMA is the recommended choice for new deployments, replacing the older Log Analytics Agent, also called MMA or OMS. Its main advantage is flexible, centralized configuration through data collection rules (DCRs), with less resource overhead on monitored machines. section 3.7.2
A practical setup usually looks like this:
- Open the virtual machine in the Azure portal, select Insights under Monitoring, and enable VM Insights. Azure installs AMA and creates a DCR automatically. section 3.7.2
- Use the Insights view to confirm that CPU, memory, disk, and network charts begin reporting. If they remain empty, check that the VM is running and allow time for reporting to start. section 3.7.2
- Edit the linked DCR in Azure Monitor to choose performance counters, Windows Event Logs, or syslog, and to select a destination such as a Log Analytics workspace. section 3.7.2
Example: making a VM observable
A newly deployed VM has no useful monitoring data. An administrator enables VM Insights, lets Azure install AMA, and then adjusts the generated DCR to collect the required guest operating-system logs. Log Analytics can then query the resulting data with Kusto Query Language, while Monitor uses metrics and logs for alerts. section 3.7.2 section 3.8
