Azure Monitor data source

The Azure Monitor data source is impressively comprehensive. One plugin gives you access to Azure metrics, Log Analytics workspaces, Application Insights, and even Azure Resource Graph for resource discovery.

You authenticate with a service principal, a managed identity if you’re running Grafana in Azure, or an Azure AD app registration.

The query language for logs is KQL, Kusto Query Language. If you’ve never used it, there’s a learning curve. But KQL is genuinely powerful once you get the hang of it. Great for log analysis, aggregations, and joins.

Multi-subscription support means you can build dashboards that span your entire Azure estate.

The same trade-offs apply: API calls on every refresh, native query language instead of PromQL, alert evaluations hitting the API.

But if your team lives in Azure and already knows KQL, this might be exactly what you need.