8 Best Practices for Monitoring Azure Environments in LogicMonitor Envision

This is the twelfth blog in our Azure Monitoring series, focusing on the practical implementation of LogicMonitor Envision. Having a powerful observability platform is just the first step; getting the most out of it means configuring it correctly. We’ll walk you through eight real-world best practices CloudOps teams use to master Azure monitoring, covering everything from automated discovery to alert tuning, cost optimization, and automation. Missed our earlier posts? Check out the full series.

Cloud monitoring isn’t getting easier. As Azure environments grow, so does the complexity: new services, hybrid stacks, sprawling resource groups, security blind spots, runaway costs—you name it.

And while LogicMonitor Envision gives you the right tools to stay on top of it all, success isn’t automatic. Smart teams take a service-oriented approach, aligning an observability strategy to the outcomes that actually matter: uptime, performance, security, and cost control.

Here’s how to set yourself up for success—and skip the common pitfalls.

TL;DR

These best practices will make sure your Azure environments are properly monitored, cost-efficient, and secure.

Implement automated discovery to instantly capture new resources as they're deployed

Create a multi-tier alerting strategy with clear severity levels to cut through the noise

Optimize cost monitoring with comprehensive tagging strategies and budget threshold alerts

Set up auto-remediation workflows to fix common problems without manual intervention

1. Automate Resource Discovery

If you’re still manually adding Azure resources to monitoring, you’re already behind. LM Envision can auto-discover resources the moment they spin up, and map them directly to the services they support.

• Enable automated discovery: Configure LM Envision to find all Azure resources using the Azure API automatically. This way, new services get monitored as soon as they’re provisioned.
• Use resource groups: Match LM Envision’s monitoring with your existing Azure resource groups. Why reinvent the wheel when you can keep the same structure?
• Use tag-based monitoring: Configure LM Envision to inherit Azure resource tags. This makes filtering and reporting so much easier when everything’s consistently tagged.
• Verify discovery completeness: Regularly audit discovered resources in LM Envision against your Azure Resource Graph. Better to find monitoring gaps during a check than during an outage.

2. Customize Metrics to What Actually Matters

Default metrics are a starting point, not a strategy. Here’s how to customize your metrics in LM Envision:

• Focus on what matters to the business: Prioritize metrics that directly impact your users and business operations. Not all metrics are created equal.
• Adjust collection timing based on importance: Poll your critical systems more frequently and less important ones less often. No need to check everything at the same rate.
• Use JSON path to get specific data: Extract the Azure metrics you need with LM Envision’s JSON path functionality. This gets you more detailed performance data.
• Build your own combined metrics: Create calculated metrics that bring multiple data points together. This gives you insights that single metrics just can’t provide.

3. Implement Multi-Tier Alerting

Not all alerts deserve a 3 AM wake-up call. Alert effectiveness depends on proper configuration in LM Envision:

• Define clear severity levels. Set up clear alert levels: Create at least three different alert levels with separate notification channels. 

• Implement dynamic thresholds: Take advantage of LM Envision’s AIOps to establish baselines that understand normal patterns. This catches issues that static thresholds miss.
• Configure escalation chains: Set up automatic alert escalation based on how long issues remain unacknowledged or unresolved. Critical problems shouldn’t sit in someone’s inbox.
• Cut down the noise: Use LM Envision’s alert tuning to reduce false positives and alert storms. Your team needs to trust alerts, not ignore them because they’re overwhelmed.

4. Proactively Monitor Azure Costs

Cloud spend spirals when nobody’s watching. LM Envision helps you get proactive, not reactive.

Implement comprehensive tagging strategies: Configure LM Envision to monitor Azure resources with these tags:

• Environment (prod/dev/test)
• Department/Business Unit
• Application/Service
• Cost Center
• Owner

Build cost monitoring dashboards: Create dedicated LM Envision dashboards showing:

• Daily/weekly/monthly spending trends
• Cost by resource type
• Cost by application
• Cost anomalies

Configure spending alerts: Set up LM Envision alerts for:

• Budget thresholds (80%, 90%, 100%)
• Unusual spending patterns
• Resources with rapidly increasing costs

Schedule regular cost reports: Use LM Envision’s reporting capabilities to keep stakeholders informed.

Track Azure billing data: Configure LM Envision to collect detailed billing information.

• Connect to Azure Cost Management API
• Monitor spending across subscriptions
• Spot usage spikes and surprise charges
• Analyze resource-specific cost allocation

Use tags for cost allocation. Use LM Envision to:

• Track costs by business unit
• Create charge-back reports
• Find untagged resources that may be adding to mystery costs
• Compare what dev/test environments cost versus production

5. Strengthen Azure Active Directory Monitoring

Azure AD is the security foundation of your cloud environment. Cyber attacks have increased in the last two years by 30%. Here’s how to monitor it effectively with LM Envision.

Track authentication activities: 

• Watch for failed login attempts
• Flag logins from unusual locations
• Identify brute force attack patterns
• Notice successful logins that follow multiple failures

Keep an eye on privileged accounts:

• Create dashboards showing Global Administrator actions
• Monitor role assignment changes
• Track password policy modifications
• Watch conditional access policy changes

Monitor directory synchronization:

• Check Azure AD Connect health
• Track synchronization errors
• Identify password hash sync failures
• Monitor directory sync service health

Set up security alerts:

• Get notified about multiple failed logins
• Catch privilege escalation activities
• Know when security configurations change
• Spot user accounts created outside normal processes

6. Build Dashboards for the People Who Need Them

LM Envision dashboards should be tailored to specific audience needs.

7. Monitor Backup and Recovery—Not Just Production

Protecting your data and ensuring business continuity is critical. Here’s how to use LM Envision to monitor your Azure backup and recovery:

Track backup operations:

• Monitor successful and failed backup jobs
• Watch backup completion times and identify trends
• Track backup storage consumption
• Verify that your systems follow backup policies

Monitor Recovery Services vaults: 

• Keep count of protected items across vaults
• Track storage consumption and growth trends
• Verify that geo-redundancy settings are correct
• Monitor creation and expiration of recovery points

Set up critical backup alerts and get notified immediately about:

• Backup failures
• Missed backup windows
• Failed recovery attempts
• Retention policy violations
• Backup storage approaching capacity limits

Find backup coverage gaps: 

• Compare Azure resources against backup protection status
• Identify resources missing backup policies
• Monitor backup policy assignments
• Track changes to backup configurations

Monitor recovery readiness: 

• Verify that recovery points are being created and remain valid
• Monitor successful test restores
• Confirm cross-region recovery capabilities work
• Track recovery time metrics from test operations

8. Automate Common Fixes Before They Cause Problems

LM Envision’s automation capabilities let you resolve common issues without manual intervention, saving time and reducing downtime.

Set up auto-remediation workflows:

Have LM Envision fix common problems without you lifting a finger.

• Restart services that crash
• Add more resources when things get busy
• Clear log files before disks fill up
• Clean up old data before your databases choke

Connect with Azure Automation for bigger fixes:

Pair LM Envision with Azure Automation when you need more muscle.

• Fix VM issues with multi-step troubleshooting
• Handle database maintenance tasks
• Correct network configuration problems
• Keep your storage optimized

Keep track of what gets fixed:

When automation handles a problem, you can see how.

• See exactly what happened in the logs
• Make sure the right people know about it
• Keep records for your auditors
• Know whether the fix worked or not

Implementation Checklist for LM Envision

To effectively implement these best practices, follow this phased approach:

Elevate Your Azure Monitoring Strategy

Smart Azure monitoring isn’t just about checking boxes. It’s also about keeping services healthy, users happy, and costs predictable.

By following these eight best practices with LM Envision, you’ll:

• Stay ahead of downtime
• Cut manual work
• Strengthen security
• Keep your cloud spend under control
• Map everything back to real business services, not just raw infrastructure
  

And that’s the real goal: smarter monitoring that actually makes life easier for CloudOps teams.

Ready to Make Azure Monitoring Work for You?

With LM Envision, you’re getting the visibility, automation, and service focus you need to catch issues early, protect your users, and keep your cloud running strong.