What is the difference between alerts and metrics?
Metrics are raw, numerical data (like CPU usage, requests per second) showing system health over time, while alerts are automated notifications triggered by specific conditions (thresholds, trends) within those metrics, turning passive data into active warnings for issues like high latency or low disk space, enabling quick responses. Metrics are the "what's happening," and alerts are the "something's wrong, pay attention!".
How do I set alerts for emails?
To set email alerts, you typically adjust settings within your email app (like Gmail, Outlook) for specific accounts/labels (sounds, vibration, pop-ups) and also check your device's main system settings to ensure notifications are allowed for the app. For desktop, your browser (Chrome, Firefox) needs permission in its settings, and you can enable/disable alerts for new/important mail within Gmail's web settings.
Where can I see Azure Alerts?
You can see Azure Alerts primarily in the Azure portal under the Monitor blade >> Alerts, or by searching "Alerts" in the portal; this central location shows triggered alerts across subscriptions, with options to view them in a list, timeline, or within specific services like Recovery Services Vaults or your Azure Mobile App.
Which Azure service can generate an alert?
The primary Azure service for generating alerts is Azure Monitor, which centralizes monitoring and allows alerts on metrics, logs, activity, and health across nearly all Azure resources (VMs, databases, functions, etc.). Other key services include Azure Service Health (for platform issues), Azure Advisor (for recommendations), and specific resource types like Cosmos DB or SQL Managed Instance, which also integrate with Azure Monitor for alerts.
Is Azure Alerts free?
Azure Alerts have free components (Activity Log, Service Health, Resource Health alerts) and paid components (Log Analytics/Prometheus Log Alerts, notification actions), so it's a mix: rules for basic monitoring are free, but advanced data/notifications cost money. You get 100 free Activity Log alert rules per subscription, while metric and log alerts incur costs for time-series monitoring, with higher frequency/more data meaning higher costs.