See Every Second of Your Azure Infrastructure

Netdata provides true per-second monitoring with sub-2-second latency, while Azure Monitor operates at 10-60 second intervals with 5-20 minute delays. This 10-60× speed advantage lets you catch transient issues, microbursts, and cascading failures that Azure Monitor’s averaged data completely misses. For time-sensitive troubleshooting, Netdata delivers the precision of console tools with the convenience of dashboards.

Yes, when comparing similar monitoring scope and scale. Netdata uses predictable per-node pricing with no charges for metrics volume, logs, users, or containers. The 90% cost reduction applies when comparing Netdata to traditional monitoring systems collecting the same amount of metrics and logs at the same scale. Actual savings vary based on your specific Azure Monitor configuration and usage patterns.

No. Netdata requires zero query languages - no KQL, PromQL, or SQL. Dashboards generate automatically for every Azure resource using algorithmic visualization. The NIDL framework (Nodes, Instances, Dimensions, Labels) lets you slice and dice data with point-and-click dropdowns. You get instant visibility without weeks of training or dashboard building.

Netdata automatically discovers new Azure VMs, containers, and resources within seconds. When instances terminate, they cleanly disappear from dashboards. For ephemeral workloads, deploy Netdata Parents to aggregate metrics from short-lived VMs - ensuring you retain historical data even after instances are deleted. The architecture is designed for cloud-native dynamic environments.

Yes. Netdata provides native Kubernetes monitoring with per-second metrics for pods, containers, nodes, and services. Deploy via Helm chart (DaemonSet + Deployment) for automatic discovery of all AKS resources. Track resource limits, detect OOM kills, monitor network traffic, and correlate application performance with infrastructure health - all without manual configuration.

Yes. Netdata monitors Azure SQL Database, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Cosmos DB, Redis Cache, and 800+ other integrations. For managed services, configure authentication credentials once - Netdata auto-discovers instances and provides query-level visibility, connection pool tracking, and automated health checks. All metrics are collected at per-second granularity.

Netdata trains 18 unsupervised machine learning models per metric directly on each Azure VM - no cloud processing required. Models use k-means clustering with 6-hour training windows and require unanimous consensus before flagging anomalies, achieving 99% false positive reduction. This runs automatically on ALL metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network, applications) without manual threshold tuning. First anomaly detection results appear after 15 minutes of baseline data collection.

Yes. Netdata and Azure Monitor coexist peacefully - no conflicts. Many organizations run both during migration: Netdata for real-time troubleshooting and cost-effective monitoring, Azure Monitor for compliance or specific integrations. Netdata’s lightweight design (<5% CPU, 150-200MB RAM) ensures no performance impact on your Azure VMs.

All metrics and logs stay on YOUR Azure infrastructure - stored locally on each VM or aggregated to Netdata Parents you control. Only metadata (node names, chart titles) goes to Netdata Cloud for unified dashboards. This architecture ensures GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS compliance by design, eliminates data egress charges, and gives you complete data sovereignty.

60 seconds per VM using a single-line installation command. For large deployments, use Azure VM extensions, Terraform, or Ansible for automated rollout. Netdata auto-discovers all services, generates dashboards instantly, and begins ML training immediately - no configuration required. Most organizations achieve full visibility within hours, not weeks.

Yes. Netdata provides native Windows monitoring with comprehensive system metrics, IIS, SQL Server, Active Directory, Hyper-V, and Windows Event Logs. The Windows agent installs as a service and provides the same per-second granularity, ML anomaly detection, and automated dashboards as Linux - with zero configuration required.

Yes. Netdata works identically across Azure VMs, on-premises servers, and other clouds. Deploy Netdata Parents in each location for local aggregation, then unify everything through Netdata Cloud. The distributed architecture handles network partitions gracefully - monitoring continues even during connectivity issues.

Netdata is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and designed for compliance by default. All observability data stays on your Azure infrastructure (data sovereignty), encrypted in transit via TLS, with RBAC and audit logging. For HIPAA/PCI-DSS, the on-premises data architecture eliminates most compliance complexity. Netdata Cloud only stores metadata, never metrics or logs.

Agents run on each Azure VM (lightweight, <5% CPU, 150-200MB RAM) and provide local dashboards, ML, and alerting. Parents are optional centralization points that aggregate data from multiple Agents - useful for ephemeral VMs, long-term retention, or reducing load on production systems. For small deployments, Agents alone suffice. For 50+ VMs, Parents provide unified dashboards and high availability.

Partially. Netdata provides process-level monitoring (apps.plugin) and kernel-level insights (ebpf.plugin on supported Linux VMs - note: eBPF does not run in containers or Kubernetes) for CPU, memory, I/O, and network per application. This covers infrastructure-level APM without code changes. However, Netdata doesn’t yet support distributed tracing (planned Q2 2026). For code-level profiling and transaction tracing, use Application Insights alongside Netdata for infrastructure monitoring.

AI Co-Engineer analyzes anomalies across your entire Azure infrastructure and explains issues in plain English. Click ‘AI Troubleshoot’ on any dashboard to get natural language root cause analysis, correlated metrics, blast radius detection, and remediation suggestions - all generated automatically. It works with your own LLM (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) via Model Context Protocol or uses Netdata’s managed AI service.

Your monitoring continues uninterrupted. Each Netdata Agent provides a local dashboard (http://localhost:19999) with full functionality - metrics, logs, ML, alerts, and AI troubleshooting. Netdata Parents also serve multi-node dashboards independently. Cloud outages only affect centralized features (SSO, infrastructure-wide dashboards, centralized alerts). This architecture ensures monitoring works even during network partitions.

Yes. Netdata exports metrics to Prometheus, Graphite, InfluxDB, OpenTSDB, TimescaleDB, and more. For Azure Monitor integration, use Prometheus remote-write or custom exporters. Netdata also provides REST APIs for custom integrations. The open architecture ensures you’re never locked in - data remains accessible to any tool you choose.

Netdata charges per monitored node (VM/server), not per metric, log, user, or container. Business plan offers predictable per-node pricing with volume discounts for yearly commitments. This includes unlimited metrics, logs, users, retention (stored on-premises), AI features, RBAC, and SSO. Billing is based on P90 usage (90th percentile) - excluding daily spikes and top 3 days per month. No surprise bills, no volume-based charges, no hidden fees. See detailed pricing.

Yes. Netdata offers a 14-day free trial of the Business plan with unlimited nodes. The open-source Agent is free forever for unlimited nodes. For personal/non-commercial use, Community plan provides 5 nodes free, and Homelab plan provides unlimited nodes for a flat yearly fee. Start your free trial.