Agent Name confusing and not consistent

[ramganesh19]

[Enter feedback here]

What is reference in this page as Log Analytic Agents is referred a MicrosoftMonitoringAgent when deployed as Windows Extension and In the Heartbeat record in Log Analytic Workspace, the Category field as a value of Direct Agent.

Totally inconsistent across the various system and very confusing to endusers.

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Document Details

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• ID: 1e57fdf8-ece5-2bf1-200e-f089691de53f
• Version Independent ID: cd84fac1-b179-6158-e61d-d85d797efdf3
• Content: Overview of the Azure monitoring agents - Azure Monitor
• Content Source: articles/azure-monitor/agents/agents-overview.md
• Service: azure-monitor
• Sub-service: agents
• GitHub Login: @bwren
• Microsoft Alias: bwren

[AnuragSingh-MSFT]

@ramganesh19, thank you for sharing this feedback.

I understand the confusion you are going through regarding these terminologies. The following information should help clarify them.

• The very earlier version of "Agent" that could connect to Log Analytics workspace was the same as used by SCOM (System Center Operations Manager). The SCOM agent, renamed to "Microsoft Monitoring Agent" had the capability to send data to SCOM management group as well as Log Analytics Workspace. Therefore, the same agent came to be also known as Log Analytics agent (when used for Log Analytics workspace reporting only, where SCOM is not present). Please refer to the note section of this link which states "You may also see the Log Analytics agent referred to as the Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA)."
• Regarding the "Direct Agent" in Log Analytics's Heartbeat table, it is the category which means that the agent is installed on the Machine from where the data is being collected. It is not related to "MMA/LA agent" specifically.

Please note that The Log Analytics agents are on a deprecation path and will no longer be supported after August 31, 2024. If you use the Log Analytics agents to ingest data to Azure Monitor, make sure to migrate to the new Azure Monitor agent prior to that date.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[AnuragSingh-MSFT]

@ramganesh19, We will now proceed to close this thread as we have not heard back from you. If there are further questions regarding this matter, please tag me in your reply and reopen the issue. We will gladly continue the discussion.

[mikew3432]

Direct Agent is the (legacy) Log Analytics agent aka. Microsoft Monitoring Agent (it is deprecated but still working as of today for your Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows Server 2012 / Windows Server 2012 R2 workloads).

As per this page - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/agents/agent-windows?tabs=setup-wizard - the KQL query for MMA / LA heartbeat should look for Category == "Direct Agent":

Heartbeat 
| where Category == "Direct Agent" 
| where TimeGenerated > ago(30m)  

Contrast with Azure Monitor Agent - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/agents/azure-monitor-agent-windows-client#verify-successful-setup - "the Category column should say 'Azure Monitor Agent'"