Troubleshooting Heartbeat Data Issues for Azure Virtual Machine Using AMA

Question

Why am I unable to receive the heartbeat data for my Azure Virtual Machine (VM) using the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA)?

PS - Based on common issues that we have seen from customers and other sources, we are posting these questions to help the Azure community.

Answer 1

The issue of not receiving heartbeat data for your Azure Virtual Machine (VM) using the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) typically occurs when the agent cannot connect to the monitoring endpoints to fetch the configuration. In this specific case, the problem was identified as a connectivity issue due to the machine not being whitelisted for the AMA agent endpoints. Here are the steps taken to resolve the issue:

1. Check Agent Status: Ensure that the AMA extension status is provisioned successfully with the latest version.
2. Log Analysis: Review the logs to identify any connection errors. For instance, the error message "WinHttpSendRequest: 12002: The operation timed out" indicates a connectivity problem.
3. Network Connectivity Test: Perform a connectivity check to the monitoring endpoint from the VM using the command:

   
      Test-NetConnection global.handler.control.monitor.azure.com -Port 443
   
   

   This will help determine if the VM can reach the monitoring endpoint.
4. Firewall Whitelisting: Verify if there is a firewall in place that might be blocking the connection. Ensure the VM is whitelisted for the AMA agent endpoints as per the firewall requirements documented here: Azure Monitor Agent Data Collection Endpoint Firewall Requirements.

Once the endpoints are whitelisted, check if the heartbeat data starts appearing in the Log Analytics workspace. In this case, after whitelisting the endpoints, the heartbeat data was successfully received for the VM.

Resources:

• Azure Monitor Agent Overview
• Azure Monitor Agent Data Collection Endpoint Firewall Requirements

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