Autonomous SRE with Azure SRE Agent
Two hands-on tracks and 30 challenges: build an Azure operations agent, or connect a read-only SQL Server specialist that investigates Query Store, waits, blocking, and query performance without changing the database.
Before you start: check requirements and choose your Linux environment →
Before you start / Requirements
Run workshop commands in Linux Bash, not PowerShell, CMD, or Git Bash. We recommend the supplied Dev Container in GitHub Codespaces on your own fork. WSL2 with Ubuntu, a local Linux Dev Container, or native Ubuntu are alternatives. Confirm Azure access, regional quota, and separate Azure/Codespaces costs before deploying.
Read requirements and environment setup →
Then run pre-flight checks in your Linux terminal and resolve failures with your coach: Azure Operations prerequisites or SQL Server DBA prerequisites. Container setup installs tools; it does not log in to Azure or deploy the lab.
Azure Operations Track
Configure the agent in Challenges 00–06, explore telemetry in 07–09, and investigate PaaS, IaaS, and network incidents in 10–15. Challenges 16–18 cover scheduled reporting and cost review. In Challenge 19, build and test your own use case and explain what it needs before production use. Coaches: press Shift+C to unlock solution guides.
Prerequisites &
Lab Setup
Deploy the workloads with Terraform, create your Azure SRE Agent, and generate baseline traffic. Add the agent's capabilities in Challenges 01–06.
Connect Your
Codebase
Connect GitHub and link your repository. Verify that the agent can read source code and use GitHub actions within the configured scope.
Explore the
Knowledge Base
Add lab knowledge documents, then compare the agent's answers before and after upload. Check resource details and citations.
Discover Operational
Skills
Add the supplied skills so the agent can run KQL queries, inspect Container App health, and follow operational runbooks. Test its tool and approval boundaries.
Discover Connected
Systems
Connect Microsoft Learn through MCP so the agent can retrieve current Azure documentation. Verify its citations.
Discover Specialist
Agents
Add domain-specific subagents with their own instructions, tools, and runbooks. Compare their investigation plans with the main agent's.
Understand
Response Plans
Connect Azure Monitor and configure response plans. Compare an unmatched alert with one that starts an investigation, then inspect Review and Autonomous modes.
Hybrid Ecosystem
Telemetry
The Parking Manager spans Container Apps, VMs, and a third-party OpenTelemetry API. Use the agent to query all three platforms and produce a unified cross-system view.
Application Dependency
Mapping
Map Grubify dependencies from Application Insights, including call counts and response times. Add Berlin Parking API metrics as a separate telemetry source.
Daily Application
Health Report
Ask the agent to generate a structured health report for all four Parking Manager APIs — CPU, memory, error rate, response time — with a health score and recommended remediation for any service falling below threshold.
Incident to
GitHub Issue
Trigger a Parking Manager incident and have the agent create or update a GitHub issue with evidence, a timeline, and next steps. This workflow reports the incident; it does not restart a VM.
Guest OS Failure
Investigation
Stop NGINX inside the web-tier VMs and watch the agent discover the failure from Syslog telemetry, assess the full blast radius across both VMs, and restore the service autonomously on every affected instance.
Network Security
Investigation
Inject an NSG rule that blocks database traffic. Check whether the agent traces denied flows to the rule, removes it, and verifies recovery.
Routing Failure
Investigation
Introduce an asymmetric routing black hole where return packets never arrive.
Drive a diagnostic conversation with the network-traffic-analyst
over effective routes and next-hop analysis to find and fix the return path.
Application Root
Cause Analysis
Trace a Grubify 5xx spike through container logs, Application Insights, and source code to the OOM fault path. Review the GitHub issue linking evidence to code.
Autonomous
Remediation
Stop the Paris Parking API service. Check whether the agent restarts the VM, validates service and API health, and retries or escalates if recovery fails.
Daily Network
Health Report
Create a scheduled task that reviews 24 hours of network telemetry every morning and produces a decision-ready summary: denied flows, top talkers, missing VNet coverage, and unusual ports.
Observability
Freshness Verification
Check VNet Flow Log freshness in Storage and Traffic Analytics. Compare expected VNet coverage with recent records to find missing or stale telemetry.
Subscription Cost
Optimization Review
Review inventory, spend, utilization, and Azure Advisor findings. Rank savings opportunities against workload criticality and SLAs without changing resources.
Build Your Own
Production-Ready SRE Agent
Bring a real reliability problem, build a focused agent configuration, and demonstrate an end-to-end test. Explain the controls and validation needed before production use.
SQL Server DBA track
Deploy a hardened SQL Server MCP server, then teach Azure SRE Agent to separate database facts from assumptions. Every investigation is bounded, observable, and deliberately non-destructive.
Deploy the Read-Only
DBA Path
Deploy the supplied .NET MCP container, map its managed identity into the least-privilege observer role, secure the Streamable HTTP endpoint, and prove that Azure SRE Agent can inspect SQL without receiving a write path.
Orient to the
Database
Turn catalog metadata into a business map while keeping declared relationships separate from inferred domain meaning.
Establish a Query
Store Baseline
Seed repeatable activity and define a trustworthy historical observation window before diagnosing regressions.
Separate Duration
from Pressure
Observe a long-running wait and prevent elapsed time from becoming a false performance diagnosis.
Trace a
Blocking Chain
Identify the head blocker, blocked request, wait resource, and transaction age without terminating either session.
Build an Evidence-Based
Index Case
Correlate Query Store, the existing index set, and an estimated plan before recommending a change.
Diagnose Query
Shape Problems
Find non-SARGable predicates and implicit conversions, then explain their access-path impact without rewriting production code.
Investigate Parameter
Sensitivity
Compare skewed parameter populations, plan history, and runtime distributions before claiming parameter sensitivity.
Triage a Combined
Database Incident
Correlate concurrent signals, rank findings by demonstrated impact, preserve alternative explanations, and deliver a decision-ready read-only handoff.
Build Your Own SQL
Server DBA Agent
Design and validate a focused read-only investigation workflow for a database reliability question of your choosing.
Solution Guides
Mini-lectures, expected agent behavior, common failure modes, and debrief discussion guides. See the Azure Operations index or the SQL Server DBA index.