Windows Azure Storage Analytics SDP Package

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In a previous post we looked at the Windows Azure PaaS SDP package which allows you to quickly and easily gather all of the log data to determine root cause for a variety of PaaS compute issues. This post will look at a new SDP package which allows you to quickly and easily gather all of the storage analytics logs.

 

Getting the SDP Package

This package will only work on a Windows 7 or later, or Windows Server 2008 R2 or later computer.

  1. Open PowerShell
  2. Copy/Paste and Run the following script

md c:\Diagnostics; Import-Module bitstransfer; Start-BitsTransfer https://dsazure.blob.core.windows.net/azuretools/AzureStorageAnalyticsLogs_global.DiagCab c:\Diagnostics\AzureStorageAnalyticsLogs_global.DiagCab; c:\Diagnostics\AzureStorageAnalyticsLogs_global.DiagCab

Alternatively you can download and save the .DiagCab directly from https://dsazure.blob.core.windows.net/azuretools/AzureStorageAnalyticsLogs_global.DiagCab.

 

Running the SDP Package

  1. Enter the storage account name.
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  2. Enter the storage account key. Note that this key is only temporarily used within the SDP package utility. It is not saved or transferred.
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  3. Enter the starting time and ending time. The default values will gather logs from the past 24 hours
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  4. Select the analytics logs to gather.
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  5. When the tool is finished gathering data click Next and an Explorer window will open showing the latest.cab which is a compressed file containing the most recent set of data, along with folders containing the data from each time the SDP package was run.
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The Results

There will be several files created as a result of running this SDP package. The important ones are:

  1. ResultReport.xml. This file lists the data collected and includes the storage account name and time range specified. In the future we will include intelligent analytics results within this file (ie. “Event <x> found in Blob logs. This usually indicates <y>. You can find more information at <link>”).
  2. *.csv. This are the raw data files containing the logs and metrics. A header line is included in the file to make analysis easy. The headers correspond to the Logs format and Metrics format.
  3. *.xlsx. If Excel is installed on the computer running the SDP package then these .xlsx files will be created which include pre-built charts showing the most commonly used metrics along with the option to select additional metrics.

 

Excel charts (*.xlsx)

You can add or remove metrics from the Excel charts using the standard Chart filter tools:

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Logs (*.csv)

You can easily filter and sort the .CSV files within Excel. The following filter can help identify potentially inefficient queries by identifying requests that take longer than X number of milliseconds on the server:

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Look for additional blog posts in the future which walk through using the analytics data to identify and solve common issues.

 

Additional Resources

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh343270.aspx – In depth documentation about storage analytics and what each field means.

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-monitor-storage-account/ – How to enable and use metrics from the Azure Management Portal.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/DIY-Windows-Azure-Troubleshooting/Storage-Analytics – A short 5 and a half minute video showing how to enable and use storage analytics.