Azure ExpressRoute Gateway monitoring
An Azure ExpressRoute Gateway connects your on-premises networks to Azure Virtual Networks (VNets) through ExpressRoute Circuits hosted in an Azure Virtual WAN hub. Site24x7 monitors ExpressRoute Gateways to help you track the connection throughput, CPU health, active network flows, BGP route exchange, and routing stability, giving you early warnings about capacity issues and connectivity degradation.
Setup and configuration
Adding an Azure ExpressRoute Gateway monitor while configuring a new Azure monitor
- Log in to your Site24x7 account.
- Go to Cloud > Azure > Add Azure Monitor.
- On the Add Azure Monitor page, select Azure ExpressRoute Gateway from the Service/Resource Types drop-down menu.
Adding an Azure ExpressRoute Gateway monitor to an existing Azure monitor
- Go to Cloud > Azure, select your Azure monitor, then go to any of the dashboards on the left pane.
- Click the hamburger icon and select Edit to open the Edit Azure Monitor page.
- Select the relevant Subscriptions and Resource Groups, select Azure ExpressRoute Gateway from the Service/Resource Types drop-down menu, and click Save.
After successful configuration, go to Cloud > Azure, click the required Azure monitor, and select Azure ExpressRoute Gateway to view the discovered gateways.
It will take 15–30 minutes to discover new Azure resources. For immediate discovery, go to the Infrastructure Dashboard of the Azure monitor, hover over the hamburger icon, and select Discover Now.
Polling frequency
Site24x7 collects ExpressRoute Gateway performance metrics every five minutes and displays the minute-by-minute status. Connection-level bandwidth metrics (Connection Bits In Per Second and Connection Bits Out Per Second) are available at one-minute granularity.
Performance metrics
| Metric | Description | Statistic | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connection Bits In Per Second | The rate of inbound data flowing through a specific ExpressRoute Gateway connection from the on-premises network into Azure. | Average | Bits/second |
| Connection Bits Out Per Second | The rate of outbound data flowing through a specific ExpressRoute Gateway connection from Azure to the on-premises network. | Average | Bits/second |
| Bits Per Second | The total throughput of the ExpressRoute Gateway, aggregated across all connections—use this to assess the overall gateway bandwidth utilization. | Average | Bits/second |
| Packets Per Second | The total packet throughput of the ExpressRoute Gateway across all connections—high values relative to the bandwidth may indicate small-packet workloads or protocol overhead. | Average | Count/second |
| CPU Utilization | The CPU usage of the ExpressRoute Gateway instances—sustained high CPU usage values may indicate the gateway is approaching its throughput or connection limit and may need to be scaled up. | Average | Percentage |
| Count of Routes Learned from Peer | The number of BGP routes this gateway has learned from its on-premises or ExpressRoute Circuit peers—a sudden drop may indicate a BGP session reset or routing issue. | Maximum | Count |
| Count of Routes Advertised to Peer | The number of BGP routes this gateway is advertising to its peers—changes may indicate network topology updates or misconfiguration. | Maximum | Count |
| Number of VMs in VNet | The total number of VMs in the VNet associated with this ExpressRoute Gateway—useful for correlating traffic patterns with the VM scale. | Maximum | Count |
| Frequency of Routes Changed | The total number of routing table changes on this gateway during the collection period—a high value indicates route instability, which can cause transient connectivity issues. | Total | Count |
| Active Flows | The number of active network flows (connections) currently passing through the gateway—approaching the gateway's flow limit may cause new connections to be dropped. | Average | Count |
| Maximum Flows Creation Rate | The maximum rate at which new network flows are being created on the gateway—a spike in this metric may indicate a connection storm or distributed denial-of-service activity. | Maximum | Count/second |
Configuration attributes
The following attributes are collected when the configuration changes and are displayed on the Metadata tab:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Subscription | The Azure subscription in which this ExpressRoute Gateway is deployed. |
| Resource Group | The Azure resource group containing this gateway. |
| Location | The Azure region where this gateway is deployed. |
| Name | The display name of the ExpressRoute Gateway resource. |
| Provisioning State | The current provisioning state of the gateway (for example, Succeeded, Updating, or Failed)—you can configure alerts to be triggered by changes to this value. |
| Virtual Hub | The Azure Virtual WAN hub this ExpressRoute Gateway is associated with. |
| Minimum Capacity | The minimum scale unit capacity configured for this gateway—you can configure alerts to be triggered when this value changes. |
| Maximum Capacity | The maximum scale unit capacity configured for this gateway—you can configure alerts to be triggered when this value changes. |
| Allow Non-Virtual WAN Traffic | Indicates whether this gateway is configured to accept traffic from resources outside the Virtual WAN—you can configure alerts to be triggered by changes to this setting. |
| ExpressRoute Connections Count | The number of ExpressRoute Circuit connections currently attached to this gateway. |
Threshold configuration
Global configuration
- In the Site24x7 web client, go to Admin > Configuration Profiles > Threshold and Availability (+).
- Click Add Threshold Profile and select Azure ExpressRoute Gateway as the Monitor Type.
- Set threshold values for any of the performance metrics listed above. All metrics support anomaly detection.
Monitor-level configuration
- Go to Cloud > Azure, select the Azure monitor, and click Azure ExpressRoute Gateway.
- Select a resource, click the hamburger icon, and select Edit.
- Configure threshold values using the Threshold and Availability option and click Save.
In addition to performance metric thresholds, the following configuration change alerts are available:
- Provisioning State change: Alerts you when the gateway provisioning state changes
- Minimum Capacity change: Alerts you when the minimum scale unit capacity is modified
- Maximum Capacity change: Alerts you when the maximum scale unit capacity is modified
- Allow Non-Virtual WAN Traffic change: Alerts you when this forwarding setting is changed
Azure Resource Health alerts are also available:
- Resource Unavailable: Alerts you when Azure reports the resource as unavailable
- Resource Status Unknown: Alerts you when the resource health state is unknown
IT Automation
Site24x7's IT Automation enables you to define automated remediation actions that are triggered by alert events for this monitor—for example, notifying a team channel or invoking a webhook when backup protection stops. Learn how to configure IT Automation for a monitor.
Summary
The Summary tab displays performance data organized by time for the metrics listed above, with the following metrics prominently featured: CPU Utilization and Active Flows.
To view the summary, go to Cloud > Azure, select the Azure monitor, click Azure ExpressRoute Gateway, select a resource, and click the Summary tab.
A Forecast tab is also available for all metrics, providing predictive trend analysis based on historical data.
Licensing
Each Azure ExpressRoute Gateway monitor consumes one basic monitor license.
Related articles
- Monitor Azure
- Threshold and Availability Profiles
- IT Automation
- Notification Profiles
- Third-Party Integrations
WHATS NEW ENTRY
Gain visibility into Azure ExpressRoute Gateway throughput, CPU usage, and BGP routes in real time
Monitor Azure ExpressRoute Gateways deployed in Virtual WAN hubs and get visibility into the connection bandwidth, CPU utilization, active flows, and BGP route stability from a single dashboard. Set threshold alerts on any metric, detect routing instability before it impacts your hybrid connections, and receive automated notifications when the provisioning state or gateway capacity changes.