Microsoft DNS Analytics now available in public preview

DNS Analytics from Microsoft Operations Management Suite is now available in Public Preview. Abhave Sharma, a program manager at Microsoft, recently shared some of the capabilities of the tool in a blog post.

Features and capabilities of DNS Analytics

DNS Analytics has several potential applications for IT pros. For instance, you can use Microsoft threat intelligence feeds to detect client IPs that are trying to contact malicious domains, identify frequently queried domains, track dynamic DNS registrations, and pinpoint stale resource records.

The tool also gives you an understanding of the load on DNS servers and zones, along with a centralized view of DNS logs and more. So you can access all of that data in one central location instead of using multiple solutions to access and track it.

You can understand how the DNS load is distributed across your DNS servers and zones by observing the trends of DNS query rates for each server and zone. — Abhave Sharma, Microsoft program manager

How DNS Analytics works

To provide all of those features, the solution actually collects three types of data: DNS inventory, DNS events, and DNS performance counters. It collects that data from the DNS servers on which OMS agents are installed.

From there, OMS uploads the data and processes it. Then it presents the data to you on a dashboard so that it’s easy to access and analyze.

How you can get started with DNS Analytics

If you have a Microsoft Operations Management Suite subscription or a free subscription to Microsoft Azure, you can sign up to access DNS Analytics. You can also sign up for free accounts on either of those services to gain access. Then, check out the detailed instructions from Microsoft in order to set up the Public Preview of DNS Analytics.

Photo credit: Flickr / Perzonseo Webbyra