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Enable VM insights for a hybrid virtual machine

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This article describes how to enable VM insights for a virtual machine outside of Azure, including on-premises and other cloud environments.

Important

The recommended method of enabling hybrid VMs is first enabling Azure Arc for servers so that the VMs can be enabled for VM insights using processes similar to Azure VMs. This article describes how to onboard hybrid VMs if you choose not to use Azure Arc.

Note

This article describes VM insights using the Log Analytics agent. VM insights with the Azure Monitor agent is currently in public preview. See Enable VM insights overview for details on installing with this agent.

Prerequisites

Overview

Virtual machines outside of Azure require the same Log Analytics agent and Dependency agent that are used for Azure VMs. Since you can't use VM extensions to install the agents though, you must manually install them in the guest operating system or have them installed through some other method.

See Connect Windows computers to Azure Monitor or Connect Linux computers to Azure Monitor for details on deploying the Log Analytics agent. Details for the Dependency agent are provided in this article.

Firewall requirements

Firewall requirements for the Log Analytics agent are provided in Log Analytics agent overview. The VM insights Map Dependency agent doesn't transmit any data itself, and it doesn't require any changes to firewalls or ports. The Map data is always transmitted by the Log Analytics agent to the Azure Monitor service, either directly or through the Operations Management Suite gateway if your IT security policies don't allow computers on the network to connect to the internet.

Dependency agent

Note

The following information described in this section is also applicable to the Service Map solution.

You can download the Dependency agent from these locations:

File OS Version SHA-256
InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe Windows 9.10.15.22060 39427C875E08BF13E1FD3B78E28C96666B722DA675FAA94D8014D8F1A42AE724
InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin Linux 9.10.15.22060 5B99CDEA77C6328BDEF448EAC9A6DEF03CE5A732C5F7C98A4D4F4FFB6220EF58

Install the Dependency agent on Windows

You can install the Dependency agent manually on Windows computers by running InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe. If you run this executable file without any options, it starts a setup wizard that you can follow to install the agent interactively. You require Administrator privileges on the guest OS to install or uninstall the agent.

The following table highlights the parameters that are supported by setup for the agent from the command line.

Parameter Description
/? Returns a list of the command-line options.
/S Performs a silent installation with no user interaction.

For example, to run the installation program with the /? parameter, enter InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe /?.

Files for the Windows Dependency agent are installed in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dependency Agent by default. If the Dependency agent fails to start after setup is finished, check the logs for detailed error information. The log directory is %Programfiles%\Microsoft Dependency Agent\logs.

PowerShell script

Use the following sample PowerShell script to download and install the agent:

Invoke-WebRequest "https://aka.ms/dependencyagentwindows" -OutFile InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe

.\InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe /S

Install the Dependency agent on Linux

The Dependency agent is installed on Linux servers from InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin, a shell script with a self-extracting binary. You can run the file by using sh or add execute permissions to the file itself.

Note

Root access is required to install or configure the agent.

Parameter Description
-help Get a list of the command-line options.
-s Perform a silent installation with no user prompts.
--check Check permissions and the operating system, but don't install the agent.

For example, to run the installation program with the -help parameter, enter InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin -help. Install the Linux Dependency agent as root by running the command sh InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin.

If the Dependency agent fails to start, check the logs for detailed error information. On Linux agents, the log directory is /var/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/log.

Files for the Dependency agent are placed in the following directories:

Files Location
Core files /opt/microsoft/dependency-agent
Log files /var/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/log
Config files /etc/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/config
Service executable files /opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/bin/microsoft-dependency-agent
/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/bin/microsoft-dependency-agent-manager
Binary storage files /var/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/storage

Shell script

Use the following sample shell script to download and install the agent:

wget --content-disposition https://aka.ms/dependencyagentlinux -O InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin
sudo sh InstallDependencyAgent-Linux64.bin -s

Desired State Configuration

To deploy the Dependency agent using Desired State Configuration (DSC), you can use the xPSDesiredStateConfiguration module with the following example code:

configuration VMInsights {

    Import-DscResource -ModuleName xPSDesiredStateConfiguration

    $DAPackageLocalPath = "C:\InstallDependencyAgent-Windows.exe"

    Node localhost
    {
        # Download and install the Dependency agent
        xRemoteFile DAPackage
        {
            Uri = "https://aka.ms/dependencyagentwindows"
            DestinationPath = $DAPackageLocalPath
        }

        xPackage DA
        {
            Ensure="Present"
            Name = "Dependency Agent"
            Path = $DAPackageLocalPath
            Arguments = '/S'
            ProductId = ""
            InstalledCheckRegKey = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\DependencyAgent"
            InstalledCheckRegValueName = "DisplayName"
            InstalledCheckRegValueData = "Dependency Agent"
            DependsOn = "[xRemoteFile]DAPackage"
        }
    }
}

Troubleshooting

VM doesn't appear on the map

If your Dependency agent installation succeeded, but you don't see your computer on the map, diagnose the problem by following these steps.

  1. Is the Dependency agent installed successfully? You can validate this by checking to see if the service is installed and running.

    Windows: Look for the service named "Microsoft Dependency agent."

    Linux: Look for the running process "microsoft-dependency-agent."

  2. Are you on the Free pricing tier of Log Analytics? The Free plan allows for up to five unique computers. Any subsequent computers won't show up on the map, even if the prior five are no longer sending data.

  3. Is the computer sending log and perf data to Azure Monitor Logs? Perform the following query for your computer:

    Usage | where Computer == "computer-name" | summarize sum(Quantity), any(QuantityUnit) by DataType

    Did it return one or more results? Is the data recent? If so, your Log Analytics agent is operating correctly and communicating with the service. If not, check the agent on your server: Log Analytics agent for Windows troubleshooting or Log Analytics agent for Linux troubleshooting.

Computer appears on the map but has no processes

If you see your server on the map, but it has no process or connection data, that indicates that the Dependency agent is installed and running, but the kernel driver didn't load.

Check the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dependency Agent\logs\wrapper.log file (Windows) or /var/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/log/service.log file (Linux). The last lines of the file should indicate why the kernel didn't load. For example, the kernel might not be supported on Linux if you updated your kernel.

Next steps

Now that monitoring is enabled for your virtual machines, this information is available for analysis with VM insights.