Analytics WorkSpace makes Web connections (https) outside the Datacenter [Switzerland North]

Question

Dear Azure Community,

we are going to change our proxy setup between OnPrem and Azure.

While these operations we found some strange Web Connections going out of my vNet / sNet to destinations all over the world comming out of my AnalyticsWorkSpace.

Here a short overview:

The NSG Flow Log shows the same destinations, and these are (short list):

api.applicationinsights.io
api1.applicationinsights.io
api2.applicationinsights.io
api3.applicationinsights.io
api4.applicationinsights.io
api5.applicationinsights.io
dev.applicationinsights.io
dev.applicationinsights.microsoft.com
dev.aisvc.visualstudio.com
www.applicationinsights.io
www.applicationinsights.microsoft.com
www.aisvc.visualstudio.com
api.loganalytics.io
dev.loganalytics.io
docs.loganalytics.io
www.loganalytics.io

The question now is - what is the Purpose of these Web-Connections over Port 443 ?
And what is going to happen when we cut off these connections with a new proxy setting ?

I hope anyone can give us a good hint. Thank you.

Regards from Switzerland - Roger

Answer 1

@Roger Bossard The web connections that you are seeing going out of your vNet to the destinations you listed are related to Azure Application Insights and Azure Log Analytics. These services are used for monitoring and analyzing the performance and usage of your applications and infrastructure.

The connections to the applicationinsights.io and loganalytics.io domains are used for sending telemetry data from your applications and infrastructure to the Azure Application Insights and Azure Log Analytics services. This data includes information about the performance, usage, and errors of your applications and infrastructure, and is used to generate reports and alerts that can help you identify and troubleshoot issues.

If you cut off these connections with a new proxy setting, you may experience issues with your Azure Application Insights and Azure Log Analytics resources. Specifically, you may not be able to receive telemetry data from your applications and infrastructure, and you may not be able to manage and configure your resources using the Azure portal or other management tools. The IP addresses you are referring to are used by Application Insights and Log Analytics by agents and other external resources to access Azure Monitor.

For more information, please refer to this document.