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Visualizing VMInsights data in SquaredUp

Following the release of Azure Monitor for VMs in January 2020, some changes have been made to how its performance data is stored in Log Analytics. The most significant of these changes is that this data is now stored in the InsightsMetrics table rather than in the Perf table, as we discussed in our ‘What is Azure VM Insights?’ article.

ServiceNow IRE: Identification Rules Explained

Following our Identification and Reconciliation post in this series, I wanted to briefly introduce the Identification Rule, a key part of the IRE system. We’ll continue to dig into IRE with this series, check back for more soon. Now that you’ve decided to funnel all of your Configuration Items (CIs) into ServiceNow via IRE, we need to sort out what each item is, and how it should be marked as unique. Identifications Rules perform this step with two distinct parts.

BREAKING NEWS: SCOMaaS from Microsoft is coming

Before we get into it, let’s get one thing straight, by SCOMaaS, I am in no way referring to Azure Monitor here. I truly mean that the SCOM Management Groups themselves would be hosted and managed by Microsoft SaaS style! This is the biggest announcement from the SCOM Product Team at SCOMathon 2020, for this single reason – it sets the direction on the future of SCOM as a product and clearly positions it along side Azure Monitor.

SCOM gets Auditing for Admin activities and SCOM's future after 2019 UR2

There where a raft of announcements at SCOMathon 2020 from Aakash Basavaraj from the SCOM Product Team and one of the most exciting things was a sneak peek at what to expect after SCOM 2019 UR2 is out of the door: PowerBI Dashboards – being developed in partnership with Silect, experts in this area, this will be launched in SCOM 2019 UR2. No info was given on what to expect here, but as Silect’s PowerBI dashboards are already public, we expect this to look similar.

SCOM 2019 UR2 Features unveiled at SCOMathon 2020

Aakash Basavaraj, Program Manager in the SCOM Team at Microsoft, showcased their latest plans at SCOMathon 2020. So, what can we expect to see on SCOM’s roadmap in 2020? There will be some standard bug fixes for SCOM 2016 to keep this version ticking over, but for all of you planning to upgrade, the great news is the next rollup of SCOM 2019 is where the SCOM Product Team are focussing their efforts.

SCOM MP development from Microsoft announced at SCOMathon 2020

The SCOM 2019 UR2 feature list is clear (read our blog on it here), but what have the Microsoft SCOM Team got planned for MP development? After all what is SCOM without its MPs? Aakash Basavaraj – Program Manager at Microsoft, gave us a heads up on their plans, during SCOMathon 2020 and recapped the key features from the latest MPs.

Azure Monitor Agents: their different functions

In the Azure Monitor Learning Path, we talked about metrics and collecting data in a Log Analytics workspace to be operated on with KQL. As a part of it, we also talked about Monitoring Solutions and how they help you collect data into the workspace that is more focused for specific purposes. In that series, our main focus was on the Log Analytics Agent and I briefly talked about Diagnostics extension.

SCOMathon 2020 Can virtual events actually be better than face-to-face ones?

The short answer is “yes they can” but let me elaborate. In 2009 I joined the team behind Mobile World Congress, an event brand that hosts over 100k attendees in Barcelona, 75k in Shanghai and 22k in Los Angeles. I spent the next 9 years with the GSM Association, owner of Mobile World Congress, and Global Expansion Summit organizing over 50 large scale events across all 5 continents.