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How to Configure Azure NetApp Files Monitoring in SolarWinds

DasettiPavan.Kumar

Hello Team,

I would like to share a working approach for monitoring Azure NetApp Files in SolarWinds when the resources do not appear as native objects in Storage Resource Monitor (SRM).

Azure NetApp Files (ANF) do not currently appear as first-class native SRM storage objects, even when the Azure subscription is added successfully. However, ANF monitoring can still be achieved by using Azure Monitor metrics together with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) API pollers.

We used the below approach successfully.

Overview

At a high level, the process is:

Confirm that Azure NetApp Files resources exist and that Azure Monitor exposes the required metrics.
Create an Azure App Registration and grant it read access to the ANF resources.
Configure OAuth 2.0 credentials in SolarWinds SAM.
Build Azure Monitor metric URLs for the required ANF capacity pool and volume metrics.
Create one or more API pollers in SAM and map the returned metric values.
Use the monitored values for dashboards and alerting.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure the following are available:

SolarWinds SAM access with permission to create API pollers.
An Azure subscription containing Azure NetApp Files resources.
One or more ANF NetApp accounts, capacity pools, and volumes.
Permission in Azure to create an App Registration and assign RBAC roles.
The following Azure details:
- Directory (Tenant) ID
- Application (Client) ID
- Client Secret
- Subscription ID
- Resource Group name
- NetApp account name
- Capacity pool name
- Volume name

Azure-Side Configuration

1. Confirm Azure NetApp Files is enabled

In the Azure portal, go to Subscriptions.
Select the required subscription.
Open Resource providers.
Search for Microsoft.NetApp.
If the provider shows NotRegistered, click Register.

2. Verify ANF resources exist

In the Azure portal, search for Azure NetApp Files and confirm that the following objects are present:

NetApp account
Capacity pool
Volume

Also note the following values because they are required when constructing Azure Monitor metric URLs:

Subscription ID
Resource Group name
Region
NetApp account name
Capacity pool name
Volume name

3. Create an App Registration

In Azure, go to Microsoft Entra ID.
Open App registrations.
Click New registration.
Enter a name such as sw-anf-monitoring-sp.
Leave the supported account type as Single tenant unless your design requires something else.
Redirect URI is not required for client credentials and can be left empty.
Click Register.
Copy the following values from the Overview page:
- Application (client) ID
- Directory (tenant) ID

4. Create a client secret

Open the same App Registration.
Go to Certificates & secrets.
Under Client secrets, click New client secret.
Add a description and choose an expiry that matches your security policy.
Click Add.
Copy the secret value immediately and store it securely.

5. Assign RBAC permissions

Grant the App Registration read access to the relevant Azure NetApp scope.

Go to the Subscription or the specific Resource Group that contains the ANF resources.
Open Access control (IAM).
Click Add role assignment.
Assign one of the following roles:
- Monitoring Reader
- Reader
In Members, select User, group, or service principal.
Search for the App Registration and select it.
Click Review + assign.

This allows SolarWinds to read ANF metrics from Azure Monitor.

6. Validate metrics in Azure Monitor

Before configuring SolarWinds, confirm that Azure is already exposing the metrics.

Open one of the ANF capacity pools.
Open Metrics.
Confirm that the required metrics are visible.

Examples:

VolumePoolTotalLogicalSizePercent
VolumeLogicalSizePercent
ReadIops
WriteIops
ReadThroughput
WriteThroughput
TotalIops
TotalThroughput

If these metrics are visible and returning data, SolarWinds can use the same Azure Monitor endpoints to poll them.

SolarWinds-Side Configuration

1. Choose or create a node for the API poller

In the SolarWinds Web Console, go to Settings > All Settings > Manage API Pollers.
If a suitable node already exists, use it.
Otherwise, create an External Node and then return to Manage API Pollers.

2. Create OAuth 2.0 credentials

In Manage API Pollers, click New.
Select the target node.
Click Create API Poller.
Under Authentication, choose OAuth 2.0.
Click Create New Credentials.
Enter the following values:
- Client ID: your Azure App Registration client ID
- Client Secret: your Azure App Registration secret value
- Access Token URL: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{TENANT_ID}/oauth2/v2.0/token
- Scope: https://management.azure.com/.default
Save the credential.

3. Build the ANF metric URL

SolarWinds uses Azure Monitor endpoints for polling. The same pattern used in built-in Azure templates can be used here, but the resource provider changes to Microsoft.NetApp.

General pattern for a capacity pool metric:

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}/resourceGroups/{RG_NAME}/providers/Microsoft.NetApp/netAppAccounts/{ACCOUNT_NAME}/capacityPools/{POOL_NAME}/providers/microsoft.insights/metrics?interval=PT5M&metricnames={METRIC_NAME}&aggregation=Average&api-version=2018-01-01

General pattern for a volume metric:

https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}/resourceGroups/{RG_NAME}/providers/Microsoft.NetApp/netAppAccounts/{ACCOUNT_NAME}/capacityPools/{POOL_NAME}/volumes/{VOLUME_NAME}/providers/microsoft.insights/metrics?interval=PT5M&metricnames={METRIC_NAME}&aggregation=Average&api-version=2018-01-01

4. Test the request and map the values

Paste one of the URLs into the API poller Request URL field.
Use Method = GET.
Use Accept = application/json.
Click Send Request.
Confirm that the request returns HTTP 200 and a valid JSON response.
In the Response pane, expand the JSON path to the returned values.
Map the required values by clicking the Monitor icon next to each metric.

Common path:

value > timeseries[0] > data[0] > average

When adding a monitored value:

Set a clear name.
Set Type = Numeric.
Choose appropriate units.
Save the metric.

Example monitored value names:

ANF_Pool_CapacityUsedPercent
ANF_Volume_CapacityUsedPercent
ANF_Volume_ReadIOPS
ANF_Volume_WriteIOPS
ANF_Volume_TotalThroughput

5. Save the poller and validate data collection

Save the API poller.
Wait for one polling cycle.
Open the node details.
Confirm that the new values appear under API Poller Monitored Value.
Use those values in alerts, dashboards, or reports.

Recommended Metrics

Capacity Pool
- VolumePoolAllocatedSize
- VolumePoolAllocatedUsed
- VolumePoolTotalLogicalSize
- VolumePoolTotalSnapshotSize
Volume
- VolumeConsumedSizePercentage
- VolumeLogicalSize
- ReadIops
- WriteIops
- ReadThroughput
- WriteThroughput
- TotalIops
- TotalThroughput

Validation Checklist

Azure provider Microsoft.NetApp is registered.
ANF capacity pool and volume metrics are visible in Azure Monitor.
App Registration was created successfully.
RBAC role assignment is complete.
OAuth 2.0 credentials were created successfully in SolarWinds.
API poller returns HTTP 200.
JSON response contains the requested metric values.
Monitored values are mapped and visible on the node.
Alerts and dashboards can read the API poller values.

Notes and Limitations

ANF is not monitored as a native SRM object.
Monitoring depends on Azure Monitor exposing the required metrics.
API pollers require a working OAuth 2.0 configuration.
The same pattern can be extended to additional pools and volumes by changing the resource names and metric list.

References

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