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.
Update content package Metadata
Hello Sentinel community and Microsoft. Ive been working on a script where i use this command: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/securityinsights/content-package/install?view=rest-securityinsights-2024-09-01&tabs=HTTP Ive managed to successfully create everything from retrieving whats installed, uninstalling, reinstalling and lastly updating (updating needed to be "list, delete, install" however :'), there was no flag for "update available"). However, now to my issue. As this work like a charm through powershell, the metadata and hyperlinking is not being deployed - at all. So i have my 40 content packages successfully installed through the REST-api, but then i have to visit the content hub in sentinel in the GUI, filter for "installed" and mark them all, then press "install". When i do this the metadata and hyperlinking is created. (Its most noticeable that the analytic rules for the content hubs are not available under analytic rules -> Rule templates after installing through the rest api). But once you press install button in the GUI, they appear. So i looked in to the request that is made when pressing the button. It uses another API version, fine, i can add that to my script. But it also uses 2 variables that are not documented and encrypted-data. they are called c and t: Im also located in EU and it makes a request to SentinelUS. im OK with that, also as mentioned, another API version (2020-06-01) while the REST APi to install content packages above has 2024-09-01. NP. But i can not simulate this last request as the variables are encrypted and not available through the install rest api. They are also not possible to simulate. it ONLY works in the GUI when pressing install. Lastly i get another API version back when it successfully ran through install in GUI, so in total its 3 api versions. Here is my code snippet i tried (it is basically a mimic of the post request in the network tab of the browser then pressing "install" on the package in content hub, after i successfully installed it through the official rest api). function Refresh-WorkspaceMetadata { param ( [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string]$SubscriptionId, [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string]$ResourceGroup, [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string]$WorkspaceName, [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string]$AccessToken ) # Use the API version from the portal sample $apiVeri = "?api-version=" $RefreshapiVersion = "2020-06-01" # Build the batch endpoint URL with the query string on the batch URI $batchUri = "https://management.azure.com/\$batch$apiVeri$RefreshapiVersion" # Construct a relative URL for the workspace resource. # Append dummy t and c parameters to mimic the portal's request. $workspaceUrl = "/subscriptions/$SubscriptionId/resourceGroups/$ResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/$WorkspaceName$apiVeri$RefreshapiVersion&t=123456789&c=dummy" # Create a batch payload with several GET requests $requests = @() for ($i = 0; $i -lt 5; $i++) { $requests += @{ httpMethod = "GET" name = [guid]::NewGuid().ToString() requestHeaderDetails = @{ commandName = "Microsoft_Azure_SentinelUS.ContenthubWorkspaceClient/get" } url = $workspaceUrl } } $body = @{ requests = $requests } | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 5 try { $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $batchUri -Method Post -Headers @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $AccessToken" "Content-Type" = "application/json" } -Body $body Write-Host "[+] Workspace metadata refresh triggered successfully." -ForegroundColor Green } catch { Write-Host "[!] Failed to trigger workspace metadata refresh. Error: $_" -ForegroundColor Red } } Refresh-WorkspaceMetadata -SubscriptionId $subscriptionId -ResourceGroup $resourceGroup -WorkspaceName $workspaceName -AccessToken $accessToken (note: i have variables higher up in my script for subscriptionid, resourcegroup, workspacename and token etc). Ive tried with and without mimicing the T and C variable. none works. So for me, currently, installing content hub packages for sentinel is always: Install through script to get all 40 packages Visit webpage, filter for 'Installed', mark them and press 'Install' You now have all metadata and hyperlinking available to you in your Sentinel (such as hunting rules, analytic rules, workbooks, playbooks -templates). Anyone else manage to get around this or is it "GUI" gated ? Greatly appreciated.
Microsoft Application Protection Incidents
Hi, Seeing a small number of incidents within Sentinel with the Alert product name of 'Microsoft Application Protection'. Can view them in Sentinel but when clicking on the hyper link to be taken to the defender portal I can't access them? Two things, which Defender suite are these alerts coming from? Which roles/permissions are required to view them within the Defender/Unified portal?[DevOps] dps.sentinel.azure.com no longer responds
Hello, Ive been using Repository connections in sentinel to a central DevOps for almost two years now. Today i got my first automated email on error for a webhook related to my last commit from the central repo to my Sentinel intances. Its a webhook that is automticly created in connections that are made the last year (the once from 2 years ago dont have this webhook automaticly created). The hook is found in devops -> service hooks -> webhooks "run state change" for each connected sentinel However, after todays run (which was successfull, all content deployed) this hook generates alerts. It says it cant reach: (EU in my case) eu.prod.dps.sentinel.azure.com full url: https://eu.prod.dps.sentinel.azure.com/webhooks/ado/workspaces/[REDACTED]/sourceControls/[REDACTED] So, what happened to this domain? why is it no longer responding and when was it going offline? I THINK this is the hook that sets the status under Sentinel -> Repositories in the GUI. this success status in screenshoot is from 2025/02/06, no new success has been registered in the receiving Sentinel instance. For the Sentinel that is 2 year old and dont have a hook in my DevOps that last deployment status says "Unknown" - so im fairly sure thats what the webhook is doing. So a second question would be, how can i set up a new webhook ? (it want ID and password of the "Azure Sentinel Content Deployment App" - i will never know that password....) so i cant manually add ieather (if the URL ever comes back online or if a new one exists?). please let me know.
Sentinel Data Connector: Google Workspace (G Suite) (using Azure Functions)
I'm encountering a problem when attempting to run the GWorkspace_Report workbook in Azure Sentinel. The query is throwing this error related to the union operator: 'union' operator: Failed to resolve table expression named 'GWorkspace_ReportsAPI_gcp_CL' I've double-checked, and the GoogleWorkspaceReports connector is installed and updated to version 3.0.2. Has anyone seen this or know what might be causing the table GWorkspace_ReportsAPI_gcp_CL to be unresolved? Thanks!
Trend Micro Vision One Connector Not working
Hi All, Before I get nuked in the comments to raise an issue on the Sentinel Repo. Here me out 😇 Around a month ago, the logs stopped ingesting. A quick snoop around revealed the reason. But I'm not sure if I should raise an issue, or try to fix the issue, risking voiding any future support I can get, since the connector and the app that comes with it are market solutions. Function app was not running due to a dependency issue. Spotted this on the diagnostic logs, under the "exceptions" table. "module named _cffi_backend not found" a python package google tells me, thats used to interact with C code. So logically, I need to find the requirement.txt and make sure the dependency is there. Also make sure the python version on the runtime and Azure matches, The logs were initially flowing as usual . I had completed integrating Trend Micro using Azure Functions based connector around 7 months ago. Worked like a toyota helix until now. So once again, would like to know the community's thoughts on it. ThxxData Connectors Storage Account and Function App
Several data connectors downloaded via Content Hub has ARM deployment templates which is default OOB experience. If we need to customize we could however I wanted to ask community how do you go about addressing some of the infrastructure issues where these connectors deploy storage accounts with insecure configurations like infrastructure key requirement, vnet intergration, cmk, front door etc... Storage and Function Apps. It appears default configuration basically provisions all required services to get streams going but posture configuration seems to be dismissing security standards around hardening these services.
