Network Watcher Agent virtual machine extension for Linux

Overview

Azure Network Watcher is a network performance monitoring, diagnostic, and analytics service that allows monitoring for Azure networks. The Network Watcher Agent virtual machine (VM) extension is a requirement for some of the Network Watcher features on Azure VMs, such as capturing network traffic on demand, and other advanced functionality.

This article details the supported platforms and deployment options for the Network Watcher Agent VM extension for Linux. Installation of the agent doesn't disrupt, or require a reboot, of the VM. You can deploy the extension into virtual machines that you deploy. If the virtual machine is deployed by an Azure service, check the documentation for the service to determine whether or not it permits installing extensions in the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Operating system

The Network Watcher Agent extension can be configured for the following Linux distributions:

Distribution	Version
Ubuntu	16+
Debian	7 and 8
Red Hat	6.10, 7 and 8+
Oracle Linux	6.10, 7 and 8+
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server	12 and 15
OpenSUSE Leap	42.3+
CentOS	6.10 and 7

Note

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.X and Oracle Linux 6.x have reached their end-of-life (EOL). RHEL 6.10 has available ELS support through June 30, 2024. Oracle Linux version 6.10 has available ELS support through July 1, 2024.

Internet connectivity

Some of the Network Watcher Agent functionality requires that the virtual machine is connected to the Internet. Without the ability to establish outgoing connections, some of the Network Watcher Agent features may malfunction, or become unavailable. For more information about Network Watcher functionality that requires the agent, see the Network Watcher documentation.

Extension schema

The following JSON shows the schema for the Network Watcher Agent extension. The extension doesn't require, or support, any user-supplied settings. The extension relies on its default configuration.

{
    "type": "extensions",
    "name": "Microsoft.Azure.NetworkWatcher",
    "apiVersion": "[variables('apiVersion')]",
    "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
    "dependsOn": [
        "[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('vmName'))]"
    ],
    "properties": {
        "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.NetworkWatcher",
        "type": "NetworkWatcherAgentLinux",
        "typeHandlerVersion": "1.4",
        "autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true
    }
}

Property values

Name	Value / Example
apiVersion	2022-11-01
publisher	Microsoft.Azure.NetworkWatcher
type	NetworkWatcherAgentLinux
typeHandlerVersion	1.4

Template deployment

You can deploy Azure VM extensions with an Azure Resource Manager template. To deploy the Network Watcher Agent extension, use the previous json schema in your template.

Azure classic CLI deployment

Important

VMs created through the classic deployment model will be retired on March 1, 2023.

If you use IaaS resources from Azure Service Management, please complete your migration by March 1, 2023. We encourage you to make the switch sooner to take advantage of the many feature enhancements in Azure Resource Manager.

For more information, see Migrate your IaaS resources to Azure Resource Manager by March 1, 2023.

The following example deploys the Network Watcher Agent VM extension to an existing VM deployed through the classic deployment model:

azure config mode asm
azure vm extension set myVM1 NetworkWatcherAgentLinux Microsoft.Azure.NetworkWatcher 1.4

Azure CLI deployment

The following example deploys the Network Watcher Agent VM extension to an existing VM deployed through Resource Manager:

az vm extension set --resource-group myResourceGroup1 --vm-name myVM1 --name NetworkWatcherAgentLinux --publisher Microsoft.Azure.NetworkWatcher --version 1.4

Troubleshooting and support

Troubleshooting

You can retrieve data about the state of extension deployments using either the Azure portal or Azure CLI.

The following example shows the deployment state of the NetworkWatcherAgentLinux extension for a VM deployed through Resource Manager, using the Azure CLI:

az vm extension show --name NetworkWatcherAgentLinux --resource-group myResourceGroup1 --vm-name myVM1

Support

If you need more help at any point in this article, you can refer to the Network Watcher documentation, or contact the Azure experts on the MSDN Azure and Stack Overflow forums. Alternatively, you can file an Azure support incident. Go to the Azure support site and select Get support. For information about using Azure Support, see the Microsoft Azure support FAQ.