Azure Monitor Dependency virtual machine extension for Windows

Article
09/27/2024

The Azure Monitor for VMs Map feature gets its data from the Microsoft Dependency agent. The Azure VM Dependency agent virtual machine extension for Windows installs the Dependency agent on Azure virtual machines. This document details the supported platforms, configurations, and deployment options for the Azure VM Dependency agent virtual machine extension for Windows.

Operating system

The Azure VM Dependency agent extension for Windows can be run against the supported operating systems listed in the following table. All operating systems in the following table are assumed to be x64. x86 isn't supported for any operating system.

Operating system	Azure VM Dependency agent
Windows Server 2022	✓
Windows Server 2022 Core	✓
Windows Server 2019	✓
Windows Server 2019 Core	✓
Windows Server 2016	✓
Windows Server 2016 Core	✓
Windows Server 2012 R2	✓
Windows Server 2012	✓
Windows 11 Client and Pro	✓¹, ²
Windows 11 Enterprise (including multi-session)	✓
Windows 10 1803 (RS4) and higher	✓¹
Windows 10 Enterprise (including multi-session) and Pro (Server scenarios only)	✓
Windows 8 Enterprise and Pro (Server scenarios only)
Windows 7 SP1 (Server scenarios only)
Azure Stack HCI
Windows IoT Enterprise	✓

¹ Using the Azure Monitor agent client installer.
² Also supported on Arm64-based machines.

Extension schema

The following JSON shows the schema for the Azure VM Dependency agent extension on an Azure Windows VM.

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "vmName": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The name of existing Azure VM. Supported Windows Server versions:  2008 R2 and above (x64)."
      }
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "vmExtensionsApiVersion": "2017-03-30"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
      "name": "[concat(parameters('vmName'),'/DAExtension')]",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('vmExtensionsApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "dependsOn": [],
      "properties": {
          "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent",
          "type": "DependencyAgentWindows",
          "typeHandlerVersion": "9.10",
          "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
          "settings": {
                "enableAMA": "true"
		    }
      }
    }
  ],
    "outputs": {
    }
}

Property values

Name	Value/Example
apiVersion	2015-01-01
publisher	Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent
type	DependencyAgentWindows
typeHandlerVersion	9.10
autoUpgradeMinorVersion	true
settings	"enableAMA": "true"

Important

Be sure to add enableAMA to your template if you're using Azure Monitor Agent; otherwise, Dependency agent attempts to send data to the legacy Log Analytics agent.

Template deployment

You can deploy the Azure VM extensions with Azure Resource Manager templates. You can use the JSON schema detailed in the previous section in an Azure Resource Manager template to run the Azure VM Dependency agent extension during an Azure Resource Manager template deployment.

The JSON for a virtual machine extension can be nested inside the virtual machine resource. Or, you can place it at the root or top level of a Resource Manager JSON template. The placement of the JSON affects the value of the resource name and type. For more information, see Set name and type for child resources.

The following example assumes the Dependency agent extension is nested inside the virtual machine resource. When you nest the extension resource, the JSON is placed in the "resources": [] object of the virtual machine.

{
	"type": "extensions",
	"name": "DAExtension",
	"apiVersion": "[variables('apiVersion')]",
	"location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
	"dependsOn": [
		"[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('vmName'))]"
	],
	"properties": {
      "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent",
      "type": "DependencyAgentWindows",
      "typeHandlerVersion": "9.10",
      "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
      "settings": {
            "enableAMA": "true"
    		    }
    }
}

When you place the extension JSON at the root of the template, the resource name includes a reference to the parent virtual machine. The type reflects the nested configuration.

{
	"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
	"name": "<parentVmResource>/DAExtension",
	"apiVersion": "[variables('apiVersion')]",
	"location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
	"dependsOn": [
		"[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('vmName'))]"
	],
	"properties": {
      "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent",
      "type": "DependencyAgentWindows",
      "typeHandlerVersion": "9.10",
      "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
      "settings": {
            "enableAMA": "true"
    		    }
	}
}

PowerShell deployment

You can use the Set-AzVMExtension command to deploy the Dependency agent virtual machine extension to an existing virtual machine. Before you run the command, the public and private configurations need to be stored in a PowerShell hash table.


Set-AzVMExtension -ExtensionName "Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent" `
    -ResourceGroupName "myResourceGroup" `
    -VMName "myVM" `
    -Publisher "Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent" `
    -ExtensionType "DependencyAgentWindows" `
    -TypeHandlerVersion 9.10 `
    -Location WestUS

Automatic extension upgrade

A new feature to automatically upgrade minor versions of Dependency extension is now available.

To enable automatic extension upgrade for an extension, you must ensure the property enableAutomaticUpgrade is set to true and added to the extension template. This property must be enabled on every VM or VM scale set individually. Use one of the methods described in the enablement section enable the feature for your VM or VM scale set.

When automatic extension upgrade is enabled on a VM or VM scale set, the extension is upgraded automatically whenever the extension publisher releases a new version for that extension. The upgrade is applied safely following availability-first principles as described here.

The enableAutomaticUpgrade attribute's functionality is different from that of the autoUpgradeMinorVersion. The autoUpgradeMinorVersion attribute doesn't automatically trigger a minor version update when the extension publisher releases a new version. The autoUpgradeMinorVersion attribute indicates whether the extension should use a newer minor version if one is available at deployment time. Once deployed, however, the extension won't upgrade minor versions unless redeployed, even with this property set to true.

To keep your extension version updated, we recommend using enableAutomaticUpgrade with your extension deployment.

Important

If you add the enableAutomaticUpgrade to your template, make sure that you use at API version 2019-12-01 or higher.

Troubleshoot and support

Troubleshoot

Data about the state of extension deployments can be retrieved from the Azure portal and by using the Azure PowerShell module. To see the deployment state of extensions for a given VM, run the following command by using the Azure PowerShell module:

Get-AzVMExtension -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -VMName myVM -Name myExtensionName

Extension execution output is logged to files found in the following directory:

C:\WindowsAzure\Logs\Plugins\Microsoft.Azure.Monitoring.DependencyAgent\

Support

If you need more help at any point in this article, you can contact the Azure experts on the Microsoft Q & A and Stack Overflow forums. Or, you can file an Azure support incident. Go to the Azure support site and select Get support. For information about how to use Azure Support, read the Microsoft Azure support FAQ.

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