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Using the Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) (Public preview)

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Use Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) parsers instead of table names in your Microsoft Sentinel queries to view data in a normalized format and to include all data relevant to the schema in your query. Refer to the table below to find the relevant parser for each schema.

Important

ASIM is currently in PREVIEW. The Azure Preview Supplemental Terms include additional legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.

Unifying parsers

When using ASIM in your queries, use unifying parsers to combine all sources, normalized to the same schema, and query them using normalized fields. The unifying parser name is _Im_<schema> for built-in parsers and im<schema> for workspace deployed parsers, where <schema> stands for the specific schema it serves.

For example, the following query uses the built-in unifying DNS parser to query DNS events using the ResponseCodeName, SrcIpAddr, and TimeGenerated normalized fields:

_Im_Dns(starttime=ago(1d), responsecodename='NXDOMAIN')
  | summarize count() by SrcIpAddr, bin(TimeGenerated,15m)

The example uses filtering parameters, which improve ASIM performance. The same example without filtering parameters would look like this:

_Im_Dns
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)
  | where ResponseCodeName =~ "NXDOMAIN"
  | summarize count() by SrcIpAddr, bin(TimeGenerated,15m)

Note

When using the ASIM parsers in the Logs page, the time range selector is set to custom. You can still set the time range yourself. Alternatively, specify the time range using parser parameters.

The following table lists the available unifying parsers:

Schema Unifying parser
Audit Event _Im_AuditEvent
Authentication imAuthentication
Dns _Im_Dns
File Event imFileEvent
Network Session _Im_NetworkSession
Process Event - imProcessCreate
- imProcessTerminate
Registry Event imRegistry
Web Session _Im_WebSession

Optimizing parsing using parameters

Using parsers may impact your query performance, primarily from filtering the results after parsing. For this reason, many parsers have optional filtering parameters, which enable you to filter before parsing and enhance query performance. With query optimization and pre-filtering efforts, ASIM parsers often provide better performance when compared to not using normalization at all.

When invoking the parser, always use available filtering parameters by adding one or more named parameters to ensure optimal performance of the ASIM parsers.

Each schema has a standard set of filtering parameters documented in the relevant schema documentation. Filtering parameters are entirely optional. The following schemas support filtering parameters:

Every schema that supports filtering parameters supports at least the starttime and endtime parameters and using them is often critical for optimizing performance.

For an example of using filtering parsers see Unifying parsers above.

The pack parameter

To ensure efficiency, parsers maintain only normalized fields. Fields which are not normalized have less value when combined with other sources. Some parsers support the pack parameter. When the pack parameter is set to true, the parser will pack additional data into the AdditionalFields dynamic field.

The parsers list article notes parsers which support the pack parameter.

Next steps

Learn more about ASIM parsers:

Learn more about the ASIM in general: