Understand New Sentinel Pricing Model with Sentinel Data Lake Tier
Introduction on Sentinel and its New Pricing Model Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform that collects, analyzes, and correlates security data from across your environment to detect threats and automate response. Traditionally, Sentinel stored all ingested data in the Analytics tier (Log Analytics workspace), which is powerful but expensive for high-volume logs. To reduce cost and enable customers to retain all security data without compromise, Microsoft introduced a new dual-tier pricing model consisting of the Analytics tier and the Data Lake tier. The Analytics tier continues to support fast, real-time querying and analytics for core security scenarios, while the new Data Lake tier provides very low-cost storage for long-term retention and high-volume datasets. Customers can now choose where each data type lands—analytics for high-value detections and investigations, and data lake for large or archival types—allowing organizations to significantly lower cost while still retaining all their security data for analytics, compliance, and hunting. Please flow diagram depicts new sentinel pricing model: Now let's understand this new pricing model with below scenarios: Scenario 1A (PAY GO) Scenario 1B (Usage Commitment) Scenario 2 (Data Lake Tier Only) Scenario 1A (PAY GO) Requirement Suppose you need to ingest 10 GB of data per day, and you must retain that data for 2 years. However, you will only frequently use, query, and analyze the data for the first 6 months. Solution To optimize cost, you can ingest the data into the Analytics tier and retain it there for the first 6 months, where active querying and investigation happen. After that period, the remaining 18 months of retention can be shifted to the Data Lake tier, which provides low-cost storage for compliance and auditing needs. But you will be charged separately for data lake tier querying and analytics which depicted as Compute (D) in pricing flow diagram. Pricing Flow / Notes The first 10 GB/day ingested into the Analytics tier is free for 31 days under the Analytics logs plan. All data ingested into the Analytics tier is automatically mirrored to the Data Lake tier at no additional ingestion or retention cost. For the first 6 months, you pay only for Analytics tier ingestion and retention, excluding any free capacity. For the next 18 months, you pay only for Data Lake tier retention, which is significantly cheaper. Azure Pricing Calculator Equivalent Assuming no data is queried or analyzed during the 18-month Data Lake tier retention period: Although the Analytics tier retention is set to 6 months, the first 3 months of retention fall under the free retention limit, so retention charges apply only for the remaining 3 months of the analytics retention window. Azure pricing calculator will adjust accordingly. Scenario 1B (Usage Commitment) Now, suppose you are ingesting 100 GB per day. If you follow the same pay-as-you-go pricing model described above, your estimated cost would be approximately $15,204 per month. However, you can reduce this cost by choosing a Commitment Tier, where Analytics tier ingestion is billed at a discounted rate. Note that the discount applies only to Analytics tier ingestion—it does not apply to Analytics tier retention costs or to any Data Lake tier–related charges. Please refer to the pricing flow and the equivalent pricing calculator results shown below. Monthly cost savings: $15,204 – $11,184 = $4,020 per month Now the question is: What happens if your usage reaches 150 GB per day? Will the additional 50 GB be billed at the Pay-As-You-Go rate? No. The entire 150 GB/day will still be billed at the discounted rate associated with the 100 GB/day commitment tier bucket. Azure Pricing Calculator Equivalent (100 GB/ Day) Azure Pricing Calculator Equivalent (150 GB/ Day) Scenario 2 (Data Lake Tier Only) Requirement Suppose you need to store certain audit or compliance logs amounting to 10 GB per day. These logs are not used for querying, analytics, or investigations on a regular basis, but must be retained for 2 years as per your organization’s compliance or forensic policies. Solution Since these logs are not actively analyzed, you should avoid ingesting them into the Analytics tier, which is more expensive and optimized for active querying. Instead, send them directly to the Data Lake tier, where they can be retained cost-effectively for future audit, compliance, or forensic needs. Pricing Flow Because the data is ingested directly into the Data Lake tier, you pay both ingestion and retention costs there for the entire 2-year period. If, at any point in the future, you need to perform advanced analytics, querying, or search, you will incur additional compute charges, based on actual usage. Even with occasional compute charges, the cost remains significantly lower than storing the same data in the Analytics tier. Realized Savings Scenario Cost per Month Scenario 1: 10 GB/day in Analytics tier $1,520.40 Scenario 2: 10 GB/day directly into Data Lake tier $202.20 (without compute) $257.20 (with sample compute price) Savings with no compute activity: $1,520.40 – $202.20 = $1,318.20 per month Savings with some compute activity (sample value): $1,520.40 – $257.20 = $1,263.20 per month Azure calculator equivalent without compute Azure calculator equivalent with Sample Compute Conclusion The combination of the Analytics tier and the Data Lake tier in Microsoft Sentinel enables organizations to optimize cost based on how their security data is used. High-value logs that require frequent querying, real-time analytics, and investigation can be stored in the Analytics tier, which provides powerful search performance and built-in detection capabilities. At the same time, large-volume or infrequently accessed logs—such as audit, compliance, or long-term retention data—can be directed to the Data Lake tier, which offers dramatically lower storage and ingestion costs. Because all Analytics tier data is automatically mirrored to the Data Lake tier at no extra cost, customers can use the Analytics tier only for the period they actively query data, and rely on the Data Lake tier for the remaining retention. This tiered model allows different scenarios—active investigation, archival storage, compliance retention, or large-scale telemetry ingestion—to be handled at the most cost-effective layer, ultimately delivering substantial savings without sacrificing visibility, retention, or future analytical capabilities.
need to create monitoring queries to track the health status of data connectors
I'm working with Microsoft Sentinel and need to create monitoring queries to track the health status of data connectors. Specifically, I want to: Identify unhealthy or disconnected data connectors, Determine when a data connector last lost connection Get historical connection status information What I'm looking for: A KQL query that can be run in the Sentinel workspace to check connector status OR a PowerShell script/command that can retrieve this information Ideally, something that can be automated for regular monitoring Looking at the SentinelHealth table, but unsure about the exact schema,connector, etc Checking if there are specific tables that track connector status changes Using Azure Resource Graph or management APIs Ive Tried multiple approaches (KQL, PowerShell, Resource Graph) however I somehow cannot get the information I'm looking to obtain. Please assist with this, for example i see this microsoft docs page, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sentinel/monitor-data-connector-health#supported-data-connectors however I would like my query to state data such as - Last ingestion of tables? How much data has been ingested by specific tables and connectors? What connectors are currently connected? The health of my connectors? Please helpLocal IPs ( 10.60.0.0/24 ) in ClientIP field in OfficeActivity logs?
Started seeing this more often recently and it started to cause some uptick in alerts across multiple customers (we are an MSP). It seems to me like a backend workflow is failing to write true source IPs to OfficeActivity logs, resulting in some 10.60.0.0/24 IPs being recorded as the ClientIP. Could this be some backend IP belonging to a Microsoft services? This can't be related to the customer since we see the same thing across up to 37 tenants/customers. This includes FileDownloaded operations which is what caused alerts and brought the issue to our attention. To make sure this also wasn't some kind of correlation to device, I checked the logs further and it's happening where IsManagedDevice == false and even anonymous file access. Is anyone else seeing this and can anyone from Microsoft confirm whether this is a mistake or bug somewhere upstream? Sample KQL: // Query 1 OfficeActivity | where TimeGenerated >=ago(30d) | where ipv4_is_private( ClientIP ) | where IsManagedDevice == false | summarize min(TimeGenerated), max(TimeGenerated), Operations=make_set(Operation), NumberUsers=dcount(UserId), make_set(UserId), UserAgents=make_set(UserAgent) by ClientIP // Query 2 OfficeActivity | where TimeGenerated >=ago(60d) | where isnotempty( ClientIP ) and ipv4_is_private( ClientIP ) | summarize count() by bin(TimeGenerated, 1d)
ASIM built-in functions in Sentinel, are they updated automatically?
Are the ASIM built-in functions in Sentinel automatically updated? For example, the built-in parsers such for DNS, NetworkSession, and WebSession. Do the built-in ones receive automatic updates or will the workspace-deployed versions of these parsers be the most up-to-date? And if true, would it be recommended to use workspace-deployed version of parsers that already come built-in?
Question about ingestion costs (ingestion time transformation)
So the ingestion time transformation is anounced here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/logs/ingestion-time-transformations Does this mean we can send data directly to our workspace and have it filtered there without having to filter using a logstash or azure monitor agent? (as explained here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sentinel/best-practices-data ) Or do they serve a different purpose ? So: to lower our ingestion costs, can we use ingestion-time transformations in stead of the current solutions?
Ingest Microsoft XDR Advanced Hunting Data into Microsoft Sentinel
I had difficulty finding a guide that can query Microsoft Defender vulnerability management Advanced Hunting tables in Microsoft Sentinel for alerting and automation. As a result, I put together this guide to demonstrate how to ingest Microsoft XDR Advanced Hunting query results into Microsoft Sentinel using Azure Logic Apps and System‑Assigned Managed Identity. The solution allows you to: Run Advanced Hunting queries on a schedule Collect high‑risk vulnerability data (or other hunting results) Send the results to a Sentinel workspace as custom logs Create alerts and automation rules based on this data This approach avoids credential storage and follows least privilege and managed identity best practices. Prerequisites Before you begin, ensure you have: Microsoft Defender XDR access Microsoft Sentinel deployed Azure Logic Apps permission Application Administrator or higher in Microsoft Entra ID PowerShell with Az modules installed Contributor access to the Sentinel workspace Architecture at a Glance Logic App (Managed Identity) ↓ Microsoft XDR Advanced Hunting API ↓ Logic App ↓ Log Analytics Data Collector API ↓ Microsoft Sentinel (Custom Log) Step 1: Create a Logic App In the Azure Portal, go to Logic Apps Create a new Consumption Logic App Choose the appropriate: Subscription Resource Group Region Step 2: Enable System‑Assigned Managed Identity Open the Logic App Navigate to Settings → Identity Enable System‑assigned managed identity Click Save Note the Object ID This identity will later be granted permission to run Advanced Hunting queries. Step 3: Locate the Logic App in Entra ID Go to Microsoft Entra ID → Enterprise Applications Change filter to All Applications Search for your Logic App name Select the app to confirm it exists Step 4: Grant Advanced Hunting Permissions (PowerShell) Advanced Hunting permissions cannot be assigned via the portal and must be done using PowerShell. Required Permission AdvancedQuery.Read.All PowerShell Script # Your tenant ID (in the Azure portal, under Azure Active Directory > Overview). $TenantID=”Your TenantID” Connect-AzAccount -TenantId $TenantID # Get the ID of the managed identity for the app. $spID = “Your Managed Identity” # Get the service principal for Microsoft Graph by providing the AppID of WindowsDefender ATP $GraphServicePrincipal = Get-AzADServicePrincipal -Filter "AppId eq 'fc780465-2017-40d4-a0c5-307022471b92'" | Select-Object Id # Extract the Advanced query ID. $AppRole = $GraphServicePrincipal.AppRole | ` Where-Object {$_.Value -contains "AdvancedQuery.Read.All"} # If AppRoleID comes up with blank value, it can be replaced with 93489bf5-0fbc-4f2d-b901-33f2fe08ff05 # Now add the permission to the app to read the advanced queries New-AzADServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignment -ServicePrincipalId $spID -ResourceId $GraphServicePrincipal.Id -AppRoleId $AppRole.Id # Or New-AzADServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignment -ServicePrincipalId $spID -ResourceId $GraphServicePrincipal.Id -AppRoleId 93489bf5-0fbc-4f2d-b901-33f2fe08ff05 After successful execution, verify the permission under Enterprise Applications → Permissions. Step 5: Build the Logic App Workflow Open Logic App Designer and create the following flow: Trigger Recurrence (e.g., every 24 hours Run Advanced Hunting Query Connector: Microsoft Defender ATP Authentication: System‑Assigned Managed Identity Action: Run Advanced Hunting Query Sample KQL Query (High‑Risk Vulnerabilities) Send Data to Log Analytics (Sentinel) On Send Data, create a new connection and provide the workspace information where the Sentinel log exists. Obtaining the Workspace Key is not straightforward, we need to retrieve using the PowerShell command. Get-AzOperationalInsightsWorkspaceSharedKey ` -ResourceGroupName "<ResourceGroupName>" ` -Name "<WorkspaceName>" Configuration Details Workspace ID Primary key Log Type (example): XDRVulnerability_CL Request body: Results array from Advanced Hunting Step 6: Run the Logic app to return results In the logic app designer select run, If the run is successful data will be sent to sentinel workspace. Step 7: Validate Data in Microsoft Sentinel In Sentinel, run the query: XDRVulnerability_CL | where TimeGenerated > ago(24h) If data appears, ingestion is successful. Step 8: Create Alerts & Automation Rules Use Sentinel to: Create analytics rules for: CVSS > 9 Exploit available New vulnerabilities in last 24 hours Trigger: Email notifications Incident creation SOAR playbooks Conclusion By combining Logic Apps, Managed Identities, Microsoft XDR, and Microsoft Sentinel, you can create a powerful, secure, and scalable pipeline for ingesting hunting intelligence and triggering proactive detections.Device Tables are not ingesting tables for an orgs workspace
Device Tables are not ingesting tables for an orgs workspace. I can confirm that all devices are enrolled and onboarded to MDE (Microsoft defender for endpoint) I had placed an EICAR file on one of the machine which bought an alert through to sentinel,however this did not invoke any of the device related tables . Workspace i am targeting Workspace from another org with tables enabled and ingesting data Microsoft Defender XDR connector shows as connected however the tables do not seem to be ingesting data; I run the following; DeviceEvents | where TimeGenerated > ago(15m) | top 20 by TimeGenerated DeviceProcessEvents | where TimeGenerated > ago(15m) | top 20 by TimeGenerated I receive no results; No results found from the specified time range Try selecting another time range Please assist As I cannot think where this is failingLookup data from the last == ingestion_time()
Howdy! In "Analytics rule wizard - Create a new Scheduled rule" under Query scheduling you have to fill out "Lookup data from the last" What time field is Sentinel looking at when determine which events to include in the lookup data? Is it ingestion_time()? Is it TimeGenerated? How does it know?
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management Data in Sentinel
Anyone know when Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management data will be available in Microsoft Defender XDR connector in Sentinel? If it won't be available soon, what is the best way to collect Vulnerability Management data to Sentinel? Thanks
Cannot access aka.ms/lademo
Hello team, I am Nikolas. I am learning KQL for Microsoft Sentinel. As far as I know, we can access the aka.ms/lademo for demo data. However I cannot access the demo. I tried using VPN, access page from many other devices with different IP address different account. But it does not work. Can you help to confirm if this link is still accessible. I can access the resource last week, but not this week. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
