How do I disable Log Analytics Workspace without deleting it?

Question

How do I disable Log Analytics Workspace without deleting it?

BJ Kea 21

I have a Free Tier Azure account and I use Log Analytics for my container application. However, I get a charge every month for Log Analytics, and I want to avoid that. I don't want to delete my workspace because it will break my application and it will be hard to restore it. Is there a way to keep my workspace but stop the charge? I need a professional solution to this problem.

shiva patpi 13,366 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2023-09-05T22:32:42.2533333+00:00

@BJ Kea ,

Is that container application is an AKS resource type ?

Regards,

Shiva.
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-06T01:08:49.79+00:00

I am working on a proof-of-concept project that involves an Azure Container App. I deployed it on Azure and enabled analytic logging. However, I noticed that logging is generating some charges every month. I want to avoid these costs when I am not using the app. I tried to delete the logging service before, but it caused some errors with my app. Another Microsoft representative told me that I could just turn off logging instead of deleting it. How can I do that?
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-06T05:25:07.89+00:00

Using Container Apps Not AKS.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-06T09:59:37.07+00:00
@BJ Kea , How are you using Log Analytics for this application?

Note that Log Analytics is not included under Azure free tier and charges are incurred based on the logs stored and queries run against it. For pricing details of Log Analytics, see Azure Monitor pricing

The following points should help you in this regard:

The LA workspace cannot be disabled but can only be deleted.

The LA workspace does not start collecting any data on its own. Sources (Azure resources, VMs etc.) etc. are configured to send data to LA workspace through multiple options. I would suggest reviewing the logs to understand the sources which are sending data to this LA and disable it there (for example, if enabled using Diagnostic Setting of the resource, disable it from there.

Based on the question, I see that you use "container application" with LA workspace. How has it been configured to send telemetry to LA workspace or is there a different type of dependency? Can you share more details about it?

If the LA workspace already has logs stored in it from the past, the charges would continue to incur, even though there are no new logs getting to it. For details, see Analyze usage in a Log Analytics workspace. Therefore, you might also want to purge the data that is already there, for details see this link and also the following link for API - Workspace Purge - Purge. Please do review the "Important" and introductory notes on these articles for delete/purge operation, as the support is only available for GDPR compliance management.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any questions.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-14T10:38:48.6133333+00:00

@BJ Kea, following up to check if you had a chance to review the reply above. If the reply did not help, please share additional details and answers to the questions provided in reply to help us better understand the scenario.
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-14T15:32:07.69+00:00
Hi,

Thank you for the follow-up. To answer your question:

I was online with a MS tech who had to help me recreate my LA because I deleted it and it is required for my Container App to work. P.S. I love Container Apps; thank you MS. I do not like the fact I need LA configured.

Using the workspace associated with my subscription, LA and my container application are connected.

I am being charged for LA usage that I haven't paid to MS yet because I want to stop using LA first. MS won't allow me to see the LA because I haven't paid my account. LOL. I need to get past this. I am going to try to delete the workspace, pay MS, and be done with this until someone can tell me how to create a Container App without LA or a cost.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-20T10:31:10.35+00:00

BJ Kea, Following-up to check if you had a chance to review my previous reply. If it did not help, please add more context/follow-up question for it, and we will help you out.

3 answers

Your answer

shiva patpi 13,366 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2023-09-05T22:32:42.2533333+00:00

@BJ Kea ,

Is that container application is an AKS resource type ?

Regards,

Shiva.
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-06T01:08:49.79+00:00

I am working on a proof-of-concept project that involves an Azure Container App. I deployed it on Azure and enabled analytic logging. However, I noticed that logging is generating some charges every month. I want to avoid these costs when I am not using the app. I tried to delete the logging service before, but it caused some errors with my app. Another Microsoft representative told me that I could just turn off logging instead of deleting it. How can I do that?
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-06T05:25:07.89+00:00

Using Container Apps Not AKS.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-06T09:59:37.07+00:00

@BJ Kea , How are you using Log Analytics for this application?

Note that Log Analytics is not included under Azure free tier and charges are incurred based on the logs stored and queries run against it. For pricing details of Log Analytics, see Azure Monitor pricing

The following points should help you in this regard:

The LA workspace cannot be disabled but can only be deleted.

The LA workspace does not start collecting any data on its own. Sources (Azure resources, VMs etc.) etc. are configured to send data to LA workspace through multiple options. I would suggest reviewing the logs to understand the sources which are sending data to this LA and disable it there (for example, if enabled using Diagnostic Setting of the resource, disable it from there.

Based on the question, I see that you use "container application" with LA workspace. How has it been configured to send telemetry to LA workspace or is there a different type of dependency? Can you share more details about it?

If the LA workspace already has logs stored in it from the past, the charges would continue to incur, even though there are no new logs getting to it. For details, see Analyze usage in a Log Analytics workspace. Therefore, you might also want to purge the data that is already there, for details see this link and also the following link for API - Workspace Purge - Purge. Please do review the "Important" and introductory notes on these articles for delete/purge operation, as the support is only available for GDPR compliance management.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any questions.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-14T10:38:48.6133333+00:00

@BJ Kea, following up to check if you had a chance to review the reply above. If the reply did not help, please share additional details and answers to the questions provided in reply to help us better understand the scenario.
BJ Kea 21 Reputation points

2023-09-14T15:32:07.69+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for the follow-up. To answer your question:

I was online with a MS tech who had to help me recreate my LA because I deleted it and it is required for my Container App to work. P.S. I love Container Apps; thank you MS. I do not like the fact I need LA configured.

Using the workspace associated with my subscription, LA and my container application are connected.

I am being charged for LA usage that I haven't paid to MS yet because I want to stop using LA first. MS won't allow me to see the LA because I haven't paid my account. LOL. I need to get past this. I am going to try to delete the workspace, pay MS, and be done with this until someone can tell me how to create a Container App without LA or a cost.
AnuragSingh-MSFT 21,546 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-20T10:31:10.35+00:00

BJ Kea, Following-up to check if you had a chance to review my previous reply. If it did not help, please add more context/follow-up question for it, and we will help you out.

Answer 1

BJ Kea, thank you for the reply.

I think I understood the issue here. I assume that you are following the steps as highlighted in the following link to create the container apps - Quickstart: Deploy your first container app using the Azure portal

In this set of steps, the 4th step under "Create an environment" option mentions to "Select the Monitoring tab to create a Log Analytics workspace.".

Note that this "Monitoring" setting is optional, and you can choose "Don't save log" from this tab, if you do not want the container apps to store logs. You will still be able to stream them live but historical logs will not be available.

In case, you have already created container apps using the steps above, you can still disable the saving of logs to "Log Analytics", by following the steps below:

In Azure portal, navigate to your "Container App" instance.
From the "Overview" menu, click on the "Container Apps Environment" link as shown below. The Azure Container App environment is the secure boundary around one or more container apps and jobs. This is what provides the runtime environment for container apps.

User's image

This opens up the "Container Apps Environment" instance in Azure portal. Select "Logging options" from resource menu, and click on "Don't save logs"

User's image

Once you click "Save" on this page, the dependency on LA workspace will be removed. The logs will be only available under the "Log Stream" option, but you will not be able to review them later.
There is also a possibility that you might see "Diagnostic Settings" too along with "Logging Option" here, if you have selected "Azure monitor" when creating the Container Apps Environment. In that case, you can review the settings under "Diagnostic Settings" and delete any setting which says that it is forwarding logs to "Log Analytics Workspace"

For more details on these options, please see Log storage and monitoring options in Azure Container Apps. Although these log saving settings are optional, they play a critical role in diagnosing and troubleshooting issues with container apps. Therefore, these options are enabled by default.

Hope this helps.

In case this still does not resolve your issue, can you please share the following information:

How are you creating container apps? A link to the relevant document or cmdline/template (if creating using script/cmdline/PowerShell) should help us understand the issue better.
What do you see under "Logging options" and "Diagnostic Settings" as mentioned in the steps in earlier part of this reply.
When you deleted the "LA workspace" (as it needed to be recreated based on your last reply), did it break the container apps? Did you start receiving any specific error/s?
"...workspace associated with my subscription" - can you please clarify this? A LA workspace is a resource, just like Virtual machines or App Service, in Azure Subscription. Like other resources, there can be multiple LA workspace in a single subscription. Why did you say that it is associated with your subscription? By chance, have you enabled "Send Activity logs to Log Analytics workspace"? If yes, you can follow the steps below to remove that dependency as well, in case it is not required:

In Azure Portal --> Monitor --> click "Export Activity Logs".
If you have any entry in this view, you can click on respective "Edit Setting" option in the row and "Delete" the setting which forwards the "Activity Logs" to Log Analytics Workspace.

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Earla Veera Kumar 0

I want to disable Log analytics workspace without deleting it. because i have logs in it which are collected before. wants to keep them for an interval of 1 year. so i want to disable the communication/ break the log collection link with other Azure resources, so that the log analytics workspace will be in standalone.

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How do I disable Log Analytics Workspace without deleting it?

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