Question

Your team runs a customer-facing API on an Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set. Traffic is highly seasonal and follows a predictable daily pattern that shifts gradually over weeks, so a fixed CPU alert threshold either fires constantly during normal peaks or misses genuine spikes during quiet periods. You must configure an Azure Monitor metric alert that automatically adapts to the changing baseline of CPU utilization while still catching abnormal deviations, and it must require minimal ongoing manual tuning. Which alert configuration should you use?

Accepted Answer

Create a metric alert with a dynamic threshold condition that learns the metric's historical pattern and flags statistical deviations.

Answer

Create a static threshold metric alert set at 80% CPU and adjust the value manually each month as traffic patterns change.

Answer

Create a log search alert with a KQL query that averages CPU over the last 5 minutes and compares it to a hardcoded value.

Answer

Enable Application Insights Smart Detection to monitor the scale set's CPU utilization automatically.