Manage an Azure virtual machine with inventory collection

  • 4 minutes to read
  • Contributors
    • Jenny Hunter
    • George Wallace
    • Dan Mabee
    • craigcaseyMSFT
    • Eric Slesar

You can enable inventory tracking for an Azure virtual machine from the virtual machine's resource page. You can collect and view inventory for software, files, Linux daemons, Windows Services, and Windows Registry keys on your computers. This method provides a browser-based user interface for setting up and configuring inventory collection.

Before you begin

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account.

This article assumes you have a VM to configure the solution on. If you don't have an Azure virtual machine, create a virtual machine.

Sign in to the Azure portal

Sign in to the Azure portal.

Enable inventory collection from the virtual machine resource page

  1. In the left pane of the Azure portal, select Virtual machines.
  2. In the list of virtual machines, select a virtual machine.
  3. On the Resource menu, under Operations, select Inventory.
  4. Select a log analytics workspace for storing your data logs. If no workspace is available to you for that region, you are prompted to create a default workspace and automation account.

  5. To start onboarding your computer, select Enable.

    View onboarding options

    A status bar notifies you that the solution is being enabled. This process can take up to 15 minutes. During this time, you can close the window, or you can keep it open and it notifies you when the solution is enabled. You can monitor the deployment status from the notifications pane.

    View the inventory solution immediately after onboarding

When the deployment is complete, the status bar disappears. The system is still collecting inventory data, and the data might not be visible yet. A full collection of data can take 24 hours.

Configure your inventory settings

By default, software, Windows services, and Linux daemons are configured for collection. To collect Windows registry and file inventory, configure the inventory collection settings.

  1. In the Inventory view, select the Edit Settings button at the top of the window.
  2. To add a new collection setting, go to the setting category that you want to add by selecting the Windows Registry, Windows Files, and Linux Files tabs.
  3. Select the appropriate category and click Add at the top of the window.

The following tables provide information about each property that can be configured for the various categories.

Windows Registry

Property Description
Enabled Determines if the setting is applied
Item Name Friendly name of the file to be tracked
Group A group name for logically grouping files
Windows Registry Key The path to check for the file For example: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Common Startup"

Windows Files

Property Description
Enabled Determines if the setting is applied
Item Name Friendly name of the file to be tracked
Group A group name for logically grouping files
Enter Path The path to check for the file For example: "c:\temp\myfile.txt"

Linux Files

Property Description
Enabled Determines if the setting is applied
Item Name Friendly name of the file to be tracked
Group A group name for logically grouping files
Enter Path The path to check for the file For example: "/etc/*.conf"
Path Type Type of item to be tracked, possible values are File and Directory
Recursion Determines if recursion is used when looking for the item to be tracked.
Use Sudo This setting determines if sudo is used when checking for the item.
Links This setting determines how symbolic links dealt with when traversing directories.
Ignore - Ignores symbolic links and does not include the files/directories referenced
Follow - Follows the symbolic links during recursion and also includes the files/directories referenced
Manage - Follows the symbolic links and allows alter the treatment of returned content

Manage machine groups

Inventory allows you to create and view machine groups in Log Analytics. Machine groups are collections of machines defined by a query in Log Analytics.

To view your machine groups select the Machine groups tab on the Inventory page.

View machine groups on the inventory page

Selecting a machine group from the list opens the Machine groups page. This page shows details about the machine group. These details include the log analytics query that is used to define the group. At the bottom of the page, is a paged list of the machines that are part of that group.

View machine group page

Click the + Clone button to clone the machine group. Here you must give the group a new name and alias for the group. The definition can be altered at this time. After changing the query press Validate query to preview the machines that would be selected. When you are happy with the group click Create to create the machine group

If you want to create a new mchine group, select + Create a machine group. This button opens the Create a machine group page where you can define your new group. Click Create to create the group.

Create new machine group

Disconnect your virtual machine from management

To remove your virtual machine from inventory management:

  1. In the left pane of the Azure portal, select Log Analytics, and then select the workspace that you used when you onboarded your virtual machine.
  2. In the Log Analytics window, on the Resource menu, under the Workspace Data Sources category, select Virtual machines.

  3. In the list, select the virtual machine that you want to disconnect. The virtual machine has a green check mark next to This workspace in the OMS Connection column.

    Note

    OMS is now referred to as Log Analytics.

  4. At the top of the next page, select Disconnect.

  5. In the confirmation window, select Yes. This action disconnects the machine from management.

Next steps