Create rich, interactive reports of Defender for Cloud data
Note
Azure Security Center and Azure Defender are now called Microsoft Defender for Cloud. We've also renamed Azure Defender plans to Microsoft Defender plans. For example, Azure Defender for Storage is now Microsoft Defender for Storage.
Learn more about the recent renaming of Microsoft security services.
Azure Monitor Workbooks provide a flexible canvas for data analysis and the creation of rich visual reports within the Azure portal. They allow you to tap into multiple data sources from across Azure, and combine them into unified interactive experiences.
Workbooks provide a rich set of capabilities for visualizing your Azure data. For detailed examples of each visualization type, see the visualizations examples and documentation.
Within Microsoft Defender for Cloud, you can access the built-in workbooks to track your organization’s security posture. You can also build custom workbooks to view a wide range of data from Defender for Cloud or other supported data sources.
Availability
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Release state: | General availability (GA) |
| Pricing: | Free |
| Required roles and permissions: | To save workbooks, you must have at least Workbook Contributor permissions on the target resource group |
| Clouds: | 
Commercial clouds
National (Azure Government, Azure China 21Vianet) |
Workbooks gallery in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
With the integrated Azure Workbooks functionality, Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it straightforward to build your own custom, interactive workbooks. Defender for Cloud also includes a gallery with the following workbooks ready for your customization:
- 'Secure Score Over Time' workbook - Track your subscriptions' scores and changes to recommendations for your resources
- 'System Updates' workbook - View missing system updates by resources, OS, severity, and more
- 'Vulnerability Assessment Findings' workbook - View the findings of vulnerability scans of your Azure resources
- 'Compliance Over Time' workbook - View the status of a subscription's compliance with the regulatory or industry standards you've selected
Choose one of the supplied workbooks or create your own.
Tip
Use the Edit button to customize any of the supplied workbooks to your satisfaction. When you're done editing, select Save and your changes will be saved to a new workbook.
Use the 'Secure Score Over Time' workbook
This workbook uses secure score data from your Log Analytics workspace. That data needs to be exported from the continuous export tool as described in Configure continuous export from the Defender for Cloud pages in Azure portal.
When you set up the continuous export, set the export frequency to both streaming updates and snapshots.
Note
Snapshots get exported weekly, so you'll need to wait at least one week for the first snapshot to be exported before you can view data in this workbook.
Tip
To configure continuous export across your organization, use the supplied Azure Policy 'DeployIfNotExist' policies described in Configure continuous export at scale.
The secure score over time workbook has five graphs for the subscriptions reporting to the selected workspaces:
| Graph | Example |
|---|---|
| Score trends for the last week and month Use this section to monitor the current score and general trends of the scores for your subscriptions. |
|
| Aggregated score for all selected subscriptions Hover your mouse over any point in the trend line to see the aggregated score at any date in the selected time range. |
|
| Recommendations with the most unhealthy resources This table helps you triage the recommendations that have had the most resources changed to unhealthy over the selected period. |
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| Scores for specific security controls Defender for Cloud's security controls are logical groupings of recommendations. This chart shows you, at a glance, the weekly scores for all of your controls. |
|
| Resources changes Recommendations with the most resources that have changed state (healthy, unhealthy, or not applicable) during the selected period are listed here. Select any recommendation from the list to open a new table listing the specific resources. |
|
Use the 'System Updates' workbook
This workbook is based on the security recommendation "System updates should be installed on your machines".
The workbook helps you identify machines with outstanding updates.
You can view the situation for the selected subscriptions according to:
- The list of resources with outstanding updates
- The list of updates missing from your resources
Use the 'Vulnerability Assessment Findings' workbook
Defender for Cloud includes vulnerability scanners for your machines, containers in container registries, and SQL servers.
Learn more about using these scanners:
- Find vulnerabilities with Microsoft threat and vulnerability management
- Find vulnerabilities with the integrated Qualys scanner
- Scan your registry images for vulnerabilities
- Scan your SQL resources for vulnerabilities
Findings for each resource type are reported in separate recommendations:
- Vulnerabilities in your virtual machines should be remediated (includes findings from Microsoft threat and vulnerability management, the integrated Qualys scanner, and any configured BYOL VA solutions)
- Vulnerabilities in Azure Container Registry images should be remediated (powered by Qualys)
- SQL databases should have vulnerability findings resolved
- SQL servers on machines should have vulnerability findings resolved
This workbook gathers these findings and organizes them by severity, resource type, and category.
Use the 'Compliance Over Time' workbook
Microsoft Defender for Cloud continually compares the configuration of your resources with requirements in industry standards, regulations, and benchmarks. Built-in standards include NIST SP 800-53, SWIFT CSP CSCF v2020, Canada Federal PBMM, HIPAA HITRUST, and more. You can select the specific standards relevant to your organization using the regulatory compliance dashboard. Learn more in Customize the set of standards in your regulatory compliance dashboard.
This workbook tracks your compliance status over time with the various standards you've added to your dashboard.
When you select a standard from the overview area of the report, the lower pane reveals a more detailed breakdown:
You can keep drilling down - right down to the recommendation level - to view the resources that have passed or failed each control.
Tip
For each panel of the report, you can export the data to Excel with the "Export to Excel" option.
Import workbooks from other workbook galleries
If you've built workbooks in other Azure services and want to move them into your Microsoft Defender for Cloud workbooks gallery:
Open the target workbook.
From the toolbar, select Edit.
From the toolbar, select </> to enter the Advanced Editor.
Copy the workbook's Gallery Template JSON.
Open the workbooks gallery in Defender for Cloud and from the menu bar select New.
Select the </> to enter the Advanced Editor.
Paste in the entire Gallery Template JSON.
Select Apply.
From the toolbar, select Save As.
Enter the required details for saving the workbook:
- A name for the workbook
- The desired region
- Subscription, resource group, and sharing as appropriate.
You'll find your saved workbook in the Recently modified workbooks category.
Next steps
This article described Defender for Cloud's integrated Azure Monitor Workbooks page with built-in reports and the option to build your own custom, interactive reports.
- Learn more about Azure Monitor Workbooks
- The built-in workbooks pull their data from Defender for Cloud's recommendations. Learn about the many security recommendations in Security recommendations - a reference guide