Azure Network Watcher VNet
Elastic Cloud Serverless projects are autoscaled environments, fully managed by Elastic and available on Elastic Cloud. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Elastic Cloud Serverless projects are autoscaled environments, fully managed by Elastic and available on Elastic Cloud. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. The Elastic Stack includes Elastic's core products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, and Beats. Availability This functionality is generally available and ready for production usage. Unless stated otherwise on the page, this functionality is available when your Elastic Stack is deployed on Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, and self-managed environments. This documentation corresponds to the latest patch available for each minor version. If you're not using the latest patch, check the release notes for changes.
Serverless Observability
Generally available
Serverless Security
Generally available
Stack
9.0+
Generally available since 9.0
| Version | 1.7.0 (View all) |
| Subscription level What's this? |
Basic |
| Developed by What's this? |
Elastic |
| Ingestion method(s) | Azure Blob Storage |
| Minimum Kibana version(s) | 9.0.0 8.16.0 |
VNet flow logs in Azure Network Watcher track IP traffic in virtual networks, sending data to Azure Storage for analysis. Unlike NSG flow logs, VNet flow logs offer enhanced monitoring capabilities. They are crucial for understanding network activity, identifying connections, and monitoring open ports. Flow logs serve as the primary source for optimizing resources, ensuring compliance, and detecting intrusions in cloud environments, catering to both startups and enterprises.
This integration supports ingestion of logs from Azure Network Watcher VNet, via Azure Blob Storage input.
- Log is used to retrieve VNet Flow data. For more details, check the Microsoft documentation.
Elastic Agent must be installed. For more details, check the Elastic Agent installation instructions.
- On the Azure portal, go to your storage account.
- Under Security + networking, click Access keys. Your account access keys appear, as well as the complete connection string for each key.
- Click Show keys to show your access keys and connection strings to enable buttons to copy the values.
- Under key1, find the key value. Click Copy to copy the account key. In the same way, copy the storage account name shown above the keys.
- In your storage account, go to Data storage > Containers to copy the container name.
- Configure the integration using either Service Account Credentials or Microsoft Entra ID RBAC with OAuth2 options. For OAuth2 (Entra ID RBAC), you'll need the Client ID, Client Secret, and Tenant ID. For Service Account Credentials, you'll need either the Service Account Key or the URI to access the data.
- How to setup the
auth.oauth2credentials can be found in the Azure documentation here. - For more details about the Azure Blob Storage input settings, check the Filebeat documentation.
Note:
- Follow these steps to enable virtual network flow logs.
- The service principal must be granted the appropriate permissions to read blobs. Ensure that the necessary role assignments are in place for the service principal to access the storage resources. For more information, please refer to the Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) documentation.
- We recommend assigning either the Storage Blob Data Reader or Storage Blob Data Owner role. The Storage Blob Data Reader role provides read-only access to blob data and is aligned with the principle of least privilege, making it suitable for most use cases. The Storage Blob Data Owner role grants full administrative access — including read, write, and delete permissions — and should be used only when such elevated access is explicitly required.
In Kibana navigate to Management > Integrations.
In the search top bar, type Azure Network Watcher VNet.
Select the Azure Network Watcher VNet integration and add it.
To collect logs via Azure Blob Storage, select Collect VNet logs via Azure Blob Storage and configure the following parameters: For OAuth2 (Microsoft Entra ID RBAC):
- Toggle on Collect logs using OAuth2 authentication
- Account Name
- Client ID
- Client Secret
- Tenant ID
- Container Details.
For Service Account Credentials:
- Service Account Key or the URI
- Account Name
- Container Details
Save the integration.
The filebeat's Azure Blob Storage input can only split events based on a key at root level of JSON. Also the Elasticsearch ingest pipeline cannot split a message into multiple documents. Due to these limitations, the Azure Network Watcher VNet integration cannot split flowTuples records, exported via field azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples, into multiple documents. Each document contains multiple flowTuples grouped together. This grouping leads to a loss of direct correlation between fields across a single tuple.
This is the Log dataset.
Example
{
"@timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:52.562Z",
"agent": {
"ephemeral_id": "de847db6-f5bf-4453-8aed-e34625b9fbfa",
"id": "43c0b2ea-ece0-4773-bd18-10caab20c820",
"name": "docker-fleet-agent",
"type": "filebeat",
"version": "8.12.0"
},
"azure": {
"resource": {
"group": "NETWORKWATCHERRG",
"id": "/SUBSCRIPTIONS/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/RESOURCEGROUPS/NETWORKWATCHERRG/PROVIDERS/MICROSOFT.NETWORK/NETWORKWATCHERS/NETWORKWATCHER_EASTUS2EUAP/FLOWLOGS/VNETFLOWLOG",
"name": "NETWORKWATCHER_EASTUS2EUAP/FLOWLOGS/VNETFLOWLOG",
"provider": "MICROSOFT.NETWORK/NETWORKWATCHERS"
},
"storage": {
"blob": {
"content_type": "application/json",
"name": "testblob"
},
"container": {
"name": "azure-container1"
}
},
"subscription_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
},
"azure_network_watcher_vnet": {
"log": {
"category": "FlowLogFlowEvent",
"flow_log": {
"guid": "abcdef01-2345-6789-0abc-def012345678",
"resource_id": "/SUBSCRIPTIONS/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/RESOURCEGROUPS/NETWORKWATCHERRG/PROVIDERS/MICROSOFT.NETWORK/NETWORKWATCHERS/NETWORKWATCHER_EASTUS2EUAP/FLOWLOGS/VNETFLOWLOG",
"version": "4"
},
"mac_address": "00-22-48-71-C2-05",
"operation_name": "FlowLogFlowEvent",
"records": {
"flows": [
{
"acl_id": "00000000-1234-abcd-ef00-c1c2c3c4c5c6",
"groups": [
{
"rule": "DefaultRule_AllowInternetOutBound",
"tuples": [
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "52.239.184.180",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Begin"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 23956
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:03.599Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 1580,
"sent": 767
},
"destination": {
"ip": "52.239.184.180",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "End"
},
"packets": {
"received": 2,
"sent": 3
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 23956
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:03.606Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Begin"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22730
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:03.637Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 4569,
"sent": 705
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "End"
},
"packets": {
"received": 4,
"sent": 3
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22730
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:03.640Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Begin"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22732
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:04.251Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 4569,
"sent": 705
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "End"
},
"packets": {
"received": 4,
"sent": 3
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22732
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:04.251Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Begin"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22734
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:04.622Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 108,
"sent": 134
},
"destination": {
"ip": "40.74.146.17",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "End"
},
"packets": {
"received": 1,
"sent": 2
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22734
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:04.622Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "104.16.218.84",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Begin"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 36776
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:17.343Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 32466,
"sent": 2217
},
"destination": {
"ip": "104.16.218.84",
"port": 443
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Outbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "End"
},
"packets": {
"received": 33,
"sent": 22
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 36776
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:22.793Z"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"acl_id": "01020304-abcd-ef00-1234-102030405060",
"groups": [
{
"rule": "BlockHighRiskTCPPortsFromInternet",
"tuples": [
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 22
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "101.33.218.153",
"port": 55188
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:58.065Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 119
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "192.241.200.164",
"port": 35276
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:05.503Z"
}
]
},
{
"rule": "Internet",
"tuples": [
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 44357
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.106.221.10",
"port": 50557
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:49.563Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 35945
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.55.117.81",
"port": 62797
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:49.679Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 65515
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.55.113.5",
"port": 51961
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:49.709Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 40129
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "13.65.224.51",
"port": 40497
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:50.049Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 30472
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.55.117.81",
"port": 62797
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:50.145Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 28184
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.55.113.5",
"port": 51961
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T08:59:50.175Z"
},
{
"bytes": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"destination": {
"ip": "10.0.0.6",
"port": 31244
},
"flow": {
"direction": "Inbound",
"encryption": "NX",
"state": "Deny"
},
"packets": {
"received": 0,
"sent": 0
},
"protocol": "6",
"source": {
"ip": "20.106.221.10",
"port": 50557
},
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:00:15.545Z"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
"target_resource_id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/myVNet",
"time": "2022-09-14T09:00:52.562Z"
}
},
"cloud": {
"provider": "azure"
},
"data_stream": {
"dataset": "azure_network_watcher_vnet.log",
"namespace": "ep",
"type": "logs"
},
"destination": {
"bytes": [
1580,
0,
32466,
108,
4569
],
"ip": [
"52.239.184.180",
"104.16.218.84",
"40.74.146.17",
"10.0.0.6"
],
"packets": [
33,
0,
1,
2,
4
],
"port": [
22,
44357,
65515,
40129,
31244,
443,
30472,
119,
28184,
35945
]
},
"ecs": {
"version": "8.11.0"
},
"elastic_agent": {
"id": "43c0b2ea-ece0-4773-bd18-10caab20c820",
"snapshot": false,
"version": "8.12.0"
},
"event": {
"agent_id_status": "verified",
"category": [
"network"
],
"dataset": "azure_network_watcher_vnet.log",
"ingested": "2024-05-03T08:01:53Z",
"kind": "event",
"type": [
"info"
]
},
"input": {
"type": "azure-blob-storage"
},
"log": {
"file": {
"path": "http://elastic-package-service-azure-network-watcher-vnet-log-1:10000/devstoreaccount1/azure-container1/testblob"
},
"offset": 1
},
"network": {
"direction": [
"inbound",
"outbound"
],
"iana_number": [
"6"
]
},
"related": {
"ip": [
"52.239.184.180",
"104.16.218.84",
"40.74.146.17",
"10.0.0.6",
"13.65.224.51",
"20.106.221.10",
"20.55.113.5",
"192.241.200.164",
"20.55.117.81",
"101.33.218.153"
]
},
"rule": {
"name": [
"DefaultRule_AllowInternetOutBound",
"BlockHighRiskTCPPortsFromInternet",
"Internet"
]
},
"source": {
"bytes": [
0,
2217,
134,
767,
705
],
"ip": [
"13.65.224.51",
"20.106.221.10",
"20.55.113.5",
"192.241.200.164",
"10.0.0.6",
"20.55.117.81",
"101.33.218.153"
],
"mac": "00-22-48-71-C2-05",
"packets": [
22,
0,
2,
3
],
"port": [
22734,
23956,
40497,
35276,
62797,
22730,
22732,
55188,
51961,
36776,
50557
]
},
"tags": [
"forwarded",
"azure_network_watcher_vnet-log"
]
}
Exported fields
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| @timestamp | Event timestamp. | date |
| azure.resource.group | Resource group. | keyword |
| azure.resource.id | Resource ID. | keyword |
| azure.resource.name | Name. | keyword |
| azure.resource.provider | Resource type/namespace. | keyword |
| azure.storage.blob.content_type | The content type of the Azure Blob Storage blob object. | keyword |
| azure.storage.blob.name | The name of the Azure Blob Storage blob object. | keyword |
| azure.storage.container.name | The name of the Azure Blob Storage container. | keyword |
| azure.subscription_id | Azure subscription ID. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.category | Category of the event. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.flow_log.guid | Resource GUID of the FlowLog resource. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.flow_log.resource_id | Resource ID of the FlowLog resource. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.flow_log.version | Version of the flow log schema. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.mac_address | MAC address of the network interface where the event was captured. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.operation_name | Always FlowLogFlowEvent. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.acl_id | Identifier of the resource that's evaluating traffic, either a network security group or Virtual Network Manager. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.mac | MAC address of the network interface on which the flows are listed. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.rule | Name of the rule that allowed or denied the traffic. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.bytes.received | Total number of TCP packet bytes sent from destination to source. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.bytes.sent | Total number of TCP packet bytes sent from source to destination. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.destination.ip | Destination IP address. | ip |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.destination.port | Destination port. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.flow.direction | Direction of the traffic flow. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.flow.encryption | Encryption state of the flow. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.flow.state | State of the flow. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.packets.received | Total number of packets sent from destination to source. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.packets.sent | Total number of packets sent from source to destination. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.protocol | Protocol of the flow. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.source.ip | Source IP address. | ip |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.source.port | Source port. | long |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.groups.tuples.timestamp | Time stamp of when the flow occurred in UNIX epoch format. | date |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.flows.rule | Rule for which the flows are listed. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.records.version | Version number of the flow log's event schema. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.target_resource_id | Resource ID of the target resource that's associated with the FlowLog resource. | keyword |
| azure_network_watcher_vnet.log.time | Time in UTC when the event was logged. | date |
| data_stream.dataset | Data stream dataset. | constant_keyword |
| data_stream.namespace | Data stream namespace. | constant_keyword |
| data_stream.type | Data stream type. | constant_keyword |
| event.dataset | Event dataset. | constant_keyword |
| event.module | Event module. | constant_keyword |
| input.type | Type of Filebeat input. | keyword |
| log.offset | Log offset. | long |
This integration includes one or more Kibana dashboards that visualizes the data collected by the integration. The screenshots below illustrate how the ingested data is displayed.
Changelog
| Version | Details | Minimum Kibana version |
|---|---|---|
| 1.7.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Add tags to ingest pipeline processors and add preserve_original_event to pipeline-level on_failure handlers. |
9.0.0 8.16.0 |
| 1.6.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Add RBAC based authentication for azure blob storage input. Enhancement (View pull request) Update the Kibana Version to 8.16.0 to support RABC based authentication for azure blob storage input. |
9.0.0 8.16.0 |
| 1.5.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Remove redundant installation instructions. |
9.0.0 8.13.0 |
| 1.4.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Document the limitation around tuples. |
9.0.0 8.13.0 |
| 1.3.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Update Kibana constraint to support 9.0.0. |
9.0.0 8.13.0 |
| 1.2.1 | Enhancement (View pull request) Add missing category. |
8.13.0 |
| 1.2.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Add "preserve_original_event" tag to documents with event.kind manually set to "pipeline_error". |
8.13.0 |
| 1.1.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Add "preserve_original_event" tag to documents with event.kind set to "pipeline_error". |
8.13.0 |
| 1.0.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Release package as GA. |
8.13.0 |
| 0.3.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Allow @custom pipeline access to event.original without setting preserve_original_event. |
8.13.0 |
| 0.2.2 | Bug fix (View pull request) Fix field guards for MAC address processors. |
8.13.0 |
| 0.2.1 | Bug fix (View pull request) Remove reference to a Kibana version from the README. |
8.13.0 |
| 0.2.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Removed import_mappings. Update the kibana constraint to ^8.13.0. Modified the field definitions to remove ECS fields made redundant by the ecs@mappings component template. |
8.13.0 |
| 0.1.0 | Enhancement (View pull request) Initial release. |
8.12.0 |