Setting up diagnostics for Windows Azure Web Role

3
votes

I have recently deployed my web role to Windows Azure. In the properties of my WebRole I have set Enable Diagnostics.

I can also see that it correctly maps to a storage account once deployed by viewing the configuration file of the hosted service.

I have not setup anything else for diagnostics, I am unaware that I need to do anything else.

I am now setting up AzureWatch (by paraleap) to monitor my instances however it reports that WADPerformanceCountersTable does not exist.

I am very new to Azure, don't have a clue how the diganostics work and can't find anything on Google that shows me how. Could someone please show me the way.

2
asp.netazureazure-diagnostics

2 Answers

2
votes

Ok I figured it out and will leave this here for others to follow.

Step 1

If you follow http://dunnry.com/blog/2012/02/27/SettingUpDiagnosticsMonitoringInWindowsAzure.aspx Windows Azure Diagnostics will start saving data into your attached Blob storage, full of diagnostic information.

  • Special Note: These count towards your storage transaction, which is why you will see them go up.

Step 2

However I needed the WADPerformanceCounterTable, which should have been located in the tables section of the storage account but it never was created. I needed this to use services like AzureWatch to monitor and spin up or down instances.

  • Special Note: This is performance counters, a specific subset of diagnostic information and this isn't stored in the blob section by default.

Step 3

In your project you need to add which performance counters to monitor in the WebRole.cs.

  • Special Note: You won't have this if you just added an existing project to an Azure deployment project. Unless you specifically started the project from scratch and chose the Azure templates, you will need to create this manually. You would also need to add: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime and Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient as References. Best way to see how it all works is to create a blank project from an Azure template and copy over the necessary items.

Step 4

Next you need to define which performance counters to monitor. As such here is a great sample: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure/Windows-Azure-PerformanceCo-7d80ebf9

Extra Reference

Microsoft also has a few steps you can follow here that might help out if things still aren't working: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh411521.aspx