Troubleshoot VM insights

Article
09/28/2023

This article provides troubleshooting information to help you with problems you might have experienced when you tried to enable or use VM insights.

Can't enable VM insights on a machine

When you onboard an Azure virtual machine from the Azure portal, the following steps occur:

A default Log Analytics workspace is created if that option was selected.
Azure Monitor Agent is installed on Azure virtual machines by using a VM extension if the agent is already installed.
The Dependency agent is installed on Azure virtual machines by using an extension if it's required.

During the onboarding process, each of these steps is verified and a notification status appears in the portal. Configuration of the workspace and the agent installation typically takes 5 to 10 minutes. It takes another 5 to 10 minutes for data to become available to view in the portal.

If you receive a message that the virtual machine needs to be onboarded after you've performed the onboarding process, allow for up to 30 minutes for the process to finish. If the issue persists, see the following sections for possible causes.

Is the virtual machine running?

If the virtual machine has been turned off for a while, is off currently, or was only recently turned on, you won't have data to display until data arrives.

Is the operating system supported?

If the operating system isn't in the list of supported operating systems, the extension fails to install and you see a message that we're waiting for data to arrive.

Important

Post April 11, 2022, if you aren't seeing your virtual machine in the VM insights solution, you might be running an older version of the Dependency agent. For more information, see the blog post Potential breaking changes for VM insights Linux customers. Not applicable for Windows machines and before April 11, 2022.

Did the extension install properly?

If you still see a message that the virtual machine needs to be onboarded, it might mean that one or both of the extensions failed to install correctly. Check the Extensions page for your virtual machine in the Azure portal to verify that the following extensions are listed.

Operating system	Agents
Windows	MicrosoftMonitoringAgent Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent
Linux	OMSAgentForLinux DependencyAgentLinux

If you don't see both the extensions for your operating system in the list of installed extensions, they must be installed. If the extensions are listed but their status doesn't appear as Provisioning succeeded, remove the extensions and reinstall them.

Do you have connectivity issues?

For Windows machines, you can use the TestCloudConnectivity tool to identify connectivity issue. This tool is installed by default with the agent in the folder %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Monitoring Agent\Agent. Run the tool from an elevated command prompt. It returns results and highlights where the test fails.

More agent troubleshooting

See the following articles for troubleshooting issues with the Log Analytics agent:

Performance view has no data

If the agents appear to be installed correctly but you don't see any data in the Performance view, see the following sections for possible causes.

Has your Log Analytics workspace reached its data limit?

Check the capacity reservations and the pricing for data ingestion.

Is your virtual machine agent connected to Azure Monitor Logs?

Open Log Analytics from Logs in the Azure Monitor menu in the Azure portal. Run the following query for your computer:

Heartbeat
| where Computer == "my-computer"
| sort by TimeGenerated desc

If you don't see any data or if the computer hasn't sent a heartbeat recently, you might have problems with your agent. See the preceding section for agent troubleshooting information.

Virtual machine doesn't appear in the Map view

See the following sections for issues with the Map view.

Is the Dependency agent installed?

Use the information in the preceding sections to determine if the Dependency agent is installed and working properly.

Are you on the Log Analytics free tier?

The Log Analytics free tier is a legacy pricing plan that allows for up to five unique Service Map machines. Any subsequent machines won't appear in Service Map, even if the prior five are no longer sending data.

Is your virtual machine sending log and performance data to Azure Monitor Logs?

Use the log query in the Performance view has no data section to determine if data is being collected for the virtual machine. If no data is being collected, use the TestCloudConnectivity tool to determine if you have connectivity issues.

Virtual machine appears in the Map view but has missing data

If the virtual machine is in the Map view, the Dependency agent is installed and running, but the kernel driver didn't load, check the log file at the following locations:

Operating system	Log
Windows	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dependency Agent\logs\wrapper.log
Linux	/var/opt/microsoft/dependency-agent/log/service.log

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

For more information on onboarding VM insights agents, see Enable VM insights overview.