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For a connected Azure Local deployment, monitor two layers: use Azure Monitor to track cluster and host health, and use the Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server Performance Dashboard for SQL-specific signals when your instance meets its prerequisites. Comparing both helps distinguish infrastructure pressure from SQL workload issues. In disconnected deployments, the SQL Server Arc extension is not supported, so use supported local monitoring tools instead.
Why monitor Azure Local and SQL Server separately?
Azure Local metrics and Insights describe infrastructure performance and health: compute, storage, network, virtual machines and cluster components. The Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server dashboard adds SQL-level observations collected from dynamic management view (DMV) datasets. A SQL symptom such as slow requests can coincide with host CPU pressure, storage latency or network issues; comparing the two layers helps narrow the investigation.
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These are complementary views, not interchangeable measurements. A healthy platform metrics view does not mean a SQL instance qualifies for the Arc dashboard, and SQL counters alone do not show the full condition of the host or cluster.
Choose the monitoring path for your connectivity mode
| Deployment | Monitoring path | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Connected Azure Local | Azure Monitor Metrics, Insights and Workbooks for infrastructure; Azure Arc SQL Performance Dashboard for SQL-level data, if eligible | Platform and SQL monitoring have separate extension and configuration prerequisites. |
| Disconnected Azure Local | Supported local monitoring tools | The SQL Server Arc extension and its Azure SQL management experiences are not supported for disconnected operations. Microsoft’s deployment guidance does not specify a particular local tool. Microsoft’s disconnected operations overview. |
Set up Azure Local infrastructure monitoring
Azure Local integrates with Azure Monitor. Insights uses Azure Monitor Agent to collect performance and health logs, stores them in Log Analytics, queries them with Kusto Query Language (KQL), and presents results in Azure Workbooks. Its documented views cover nodes, virtual machines and storage, including CPU and memory use, network use, and storage IOPS, throughput and latency. Azure Local monitoring overview.
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Azure Local Metrics stores numeric cluster data in a time-series database and makes it available through Azure Monitor and Metrics Explorer. Microsoft documents over 60 infrastructure metrics, including CPU, memory, storage performance, network throughput and virtual-machine metrics. This is infrastructure coverage, not a SQL Server performance benchmark. Monitor Azure Local with Metrics.
Check the platform prerequisites
- The Azure Local system must be deployed, registered and connected to Azure.
- The
AzureEdgeTelemetryAndDiagnosticsextension must be installed for Azure Local Metrics. - Open the Azure Local resource’s Monitoring tab to view platform graphs. Use Metrics Explorer for interactive analysis, filtering and drilling into data; graphs can also be used to create alerts.
Microsoft’s Single Cluster and Multi Cluster Performance Metrics workbooks group visualizations into Storage Performance, Network Performance and Compute. Depending on the view, they include volume, VHD and physical-disk reads and writes, operations per second, latency and capacity; adapter and RDMA traffic; and host, guest and VM CPU and memory. Single-cluster views can drill into nodes, volumes, network adapters and LUNs; multi-cluster views span subscriptions and resource groups. Azure Local Metrics documentation.
Check eligibility for the SQL Server Arc dashboard
Microsoft documents a SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc Performance Dashboard in the Azure portal. It collects DMV datasets and sends metrics through Azure’s telemetry pipeline for near-real-time processing. The feature is marked preview in Microsoft’s documentation; preview terms apply, and post-general-availability fees are to be determined. Collection can be switched in the portal or with Azure CLI, subject to the prerequisites below. Monitor SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.
- Extension: Azure Extension for SQL Server (
WindowsAgent.SqlServer) version 1.1.2504.99 or later. - Operating system and connection: SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc on Windows, with connectivity to
*.<region>.arcdataservices.com. Windows Server 2012 R2 and older are unsupported. - SQL Server: Standard or Enterprise edition, version 2016 SP1 or later.
- Licensing: Software Assurance or pay-as-you-go licensing.
- Access: An Azure role that includes
Microsoft.AzureArcData/sqlServerInstances/getTelemetry/. The built-in Azure Hybrid Database Administrator – Read Only Service Role includes this action. - Unsupported configuration: Failover cluster instances are currently excluded.
Microsoft says the dashboard collects DMV datasets and does not collect personal data or customer content. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc sends usage and monitoring data to Microsoft through the documented regional Arc data-services endpoints; review the linked documentation for the applicable data-collection details.
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What SQL signals does the dashboard collect?
The documented collection intervals indicate how frequently samples are taken; they are not performance targets or recommended alert thresholds.
| Signal group | Documented interval | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Active sessions | Every 30 seconds | Active-session samples |
| CPU and memory utilization | Every 10 seconds | CPU and memory utilization samples |
| Common performance counters | Every minute | Batch Requests/sec, Buffer cache hit ratio, deadlocks/sec, page reads and writes/sec, processes blocked, memory measures, transactions/sec and log flush activity |
| Detailed performance counters | Every minute | Wait and backup/restore measures |
Use these observations to investigate changes and compare behavior with your own workload baseline. Microsoft’s cited guidance does not establish universal SQL alert thresholds.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A practical monitoring and investigation workflow
- Confirm connectivity mode. Establish whether the Azure Local deployment is connected or disconnected. For a disconnected system, plan around supported local monitoring; do not expect the SQL Server Arc extension to work.
- Verify each extension independently. Check
AzureEdgeTelemetryAndDiagnosticsfor platform Metrics, then validate the SQL Server Arc extension, version, edition, operating system, licensing, network and role requirements separately. - Review platform health and utilization. In Azure Monitor Metrics or the relevant workbook, inspect compute, storage and network data for the affected cluster, node or VM. Use Insights and Workbooks when log-based or health-oriented context is useful.
- Compare SQL-level observations. If the instance is eligible, examine SQL sessions, utilization and performance counters over the same period. Look for timing that aligns with infrastructure changes rather than treating an isolated counter as a diagnosis.
- Build representative baselines. Capture normal behavior at different times and under different workload conditions. Microsoft recommends setting baseline performance metrics under different times and load conditions; use those baselines and operational impact to choose alert conditions, rather than applying a universal threshold.
- Choose an alert type to fit the signal. Azure Local supports system-generated OS health alerts, metric alerts for lightly processed numeric data and log alerts for query-based logic. Recommended alert templates include CPU percentage and available memory. Azure Local monitoring overview.
- Account for history limits during investigations. Microsoft documents 93 days of platform-metric storage, but a single Metrics chart query can cover at most 30 days. Plan longer-term comparisons accordingly. Azure Local Metrics documentation.
Interpret metrics without mistaking coverage for a benchmark
Microsoft documents more than 80 Azure Local OS health issue types, including storage capacity and QoS, disk and network-adapter hardware, server CPU and memory, and cluster configuration. That number describes health-service coverage; it does not measure SQL Server speed or predict how a workload should perform. Azure Local health monitoring.
Likewise, the documented count of over 60 Azure Local metrics describes available infrastructure measurements, not a target for SQL performance. Use the signals to identify where to investigate, then judge changes against the instance’s workload and established baseline.
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