Monitoring Portal Capture Briefs
Audience: contributors and agents, not readers
This page is an author-facing reference for the portal screenshot campaign tracked in azure-container-apps-practical-guide#389. It documents which Azure Monitor blades to capture for each wave-1 page, the stable shot() ids the pages will reference, and what each capture must show. Readers consume the captures from the platform and operations pages directly.
Why this file exists
The series' verified baseline: portal screenshots exist only in App Service (95 pages) and AKS (8). Monitoring is the agreed next campaign because the product itself is visual — workbooks, metrics explorer, alert rules, and diagnostic settings are portal-first surfaces where a screenshot teaches more than prose.
The captures themselves will live under docs/assets/captures/ (WebP produced by the azure-guide-capture-toolkit pipeline) and are referenced from markdown via the capture macro — shot("<id>") wrapped in the custom triple-square-bracket Jinja delimiters configured in mkdocs.yml (see scripts/capture/README.md for the exact invocation syntax; the delimiters are deliberately not written literally here because the macros plugin would render them). This page exists so a capture session on a fresh environment produces the same ids in the same order, and so the human-in-the-loop step (Conditional Access requires an interactively signed-in, device-compliant browser — see AGENTS.md → Portal Screenshot Capture) is turnkey.
Prerequisites for a capture session
- Human-signed-in debug Chrome over CDP — the agent cannot pass MFA. Launch with the dedicated debug profile from AGENTS.md, sign in interactively, navigate to the target blade; the agent attaches via
chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222') and applies the PII helper before screenshotting. - A demonstrator environment with at least: one Log Analytics workspace with real query history, one Application Insights resource with live traffic, at least one alert rule that has fired, and one workbook.
- Toolkit CLIs (
capture-optimize-webp, capture-diff-gate) available locally — see scripts/capture/README.md.
Manifest registration rule
Do not pre-register manifest entries for captures that do not exist yet. At capture time, register each PNG/WebP in scripts/capture/manifest.yaml with the stable id proposed below (equal to the file stem), the file path, and accurate alt text. The ids below are proposals — if a blade is renamed by the Portal, keep the id stable and update the brief instead.
Wave 1 capture matrices
Priority order = highest reader value first. Every capture must pass the PII verification checklist in AGENTS.md before the markdown reference lands.
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-overview-hub | Azure Monitor Overview (Monitor > Overview) | The three pillar tiles (Metrics, Logs, Alerts) | Hub loads with no per-resource scope |
mon-insights-menu | Monitor > Insights / Virtual machines insight blade | Insight center entries (VMs, Storage, Networks) | Full insight gallery visible |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-platform-settings-sources | Monitor > Settings > Data sources | Connected VMs / containers / apps counts | At least one connected source type |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-metrics-explorer | Metrics explorer with a VM scoped Percentage CPU chart | Chart, namespace/metric pickers, dimension split | Live line for the chosen time range |
mon-metrics-dimensions-split | Metrics explorer with Split by applied | Split legend rows | One series per dimension value |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-workspace-overview | Log Analytics workspace Overview | Workspace name, daily ingestion tile, query packs | Ingestion tile shows non-zero GB/day |
mon-workspace-tables | Workspace > Tables (Legacy or new Logs UI) | AzureMetrics, Heartbeat, AppRequests rows | System + platform tables listed with retention columns |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-appinsights-overview | Application Insights Overview (Application Map collapsed) | KPI tiles: requests, failures, dependency failures | Live values, not zeros |
mon-appinsights-live-metrics | Live Metrics | Streaming request/dependency counts | "Live" indicator and per-second values |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-alerts-rules-list | Monitor > Alerts > Alert rules | Rule name, condition, severity columns | At least one enabled rule |
mon-alerts-fired-instance | Alerts blade with a fired alert (Sev 2+) | Fired instance detail, condition met timestamp | Alert state "Fired", not "New" |
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-dcr-overview | Data Collection Rule > Overview | Data sources tab, destinations association | Rule associated to ≥1 VM |
mon-dcr-association | DCR > Resources | Associated machine names | Association status "Succeeded" |
operations/diagnostic-settings.md
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-diag-settings-list | Resource > Monitoring > Diagnostic settings | Setting name, destination categories | Setting streaming to the workspace |
mon-diag-setting-add | Add diagnostic setting dialog | Category checkboxes, destination toggles | At least one category selected, Log Analytics destination |
operations/workbooks-and-dashboards.md
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-workbook-gallery | Monitor > Workbooks gallery | Public template gallery entries | Gallery tiles render thumbnails |
mon-workbook-editing | A workbook in edit mode | Edit toolbar, + Add, pin controls | At least one text + one chart item |
operations/alert-rule-management.md
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-alert-rule-create-signal | Create alert rule > Condition tab | Signal picker with metric/log signals | Search box and signal list visible |
mon-alert-rule-create-action | Create alert rule > Actions tab | Action group picker | Selected action group shown |
operations/workspace-management.md
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-workspace-usage | Workspace > Usage and estimated costs | Per-table ingestion chart, daily cap toggle | Non-zero per-day ingestion bars |
mon-workspace-access-control | Workspace > Access control (IAM) | Role assignments list | Reader/Contributor rows with masked identities |
operations/cost-control.md (stretch — wave 1 close)
| Shot id | Blade | Look for | Expected |
mon-cost-usage-breakdown | Usage and estimated costs > Data ingestion breakdown | Per-solution ingestion split | Log Management / Agent rows present |
Out of wave-1 scope (later waves)
platform/networking-and-security.md (private-link blades — pair with the service-guides wave)operations/export-and-integration.md and operations/data-collection-rules-ops.md (configuration-heavy, lower visual value)- Service Guides and Troubleshooting surfaces (wave 2+ per the #389 priority)
See Also