Microsoft Azure Guest Diagnostic Settings Association
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For Agents
Attach a defined guest diagnostic settings resource to a specific Azure resource so its event logs and perf counters are collected. Manage these bindings across a subscription.
Use for: I need to attach the 'baseline' diagnostic profile to VM 'web01', List all VMs that have a guest diagnostic settings association, Find which diagnostic profile is currently attached to VM 'db-prod', Update the association on 'web01' to use the 'security' profile instead
Not supported: Does not define which event logs or perf counters to collect, query telemetry, or onboard VM Insights agents — use for binding existing settings to target resources only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Guest Diagnostic Settings Association, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Azure Guest Diagnostic Settings Association API binds a previously defined guest diagnostic settings resource to a specific target — typically a VM, scale set, or Arc-managed server — so that the configured event logs and perf counters are actually collected from that machine. Operators use it together with the Guest Diagnostic Settings API: the settings define the what, the association defines the where. The API runs against Azure Resource Manager with Azure AD OAuth2 across six list, get, create-or-update, update, and delete operations.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Guest Diagnostic Settings Association to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Guest Diagnostic Settings Association, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Guest Diagnostic Settings Association API.
Bind a guest diagnostic settings resource to a specific VM or Arc resource
List all diagnostic settings associations across a subscription or resource group
Retrieve the association linking a target resource to its diagnostic settings
Update an existing association to point at a different settings profile
Remove an association so the target resource stops collecting that profile's telemetry
Audit which Azure resources currently have guest diagnostics enabled
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Guest Diagnostic Settings Association API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Roll out a baseline collection profile to a VM fleet
After defining a baseline guest diagnostic settings resource, attach it to every VM in scope by creating an association per resource URI. The PUT on /{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName} binds the profile to that target. Suitable for fleet-wide telemetry standardisation campaigns.
Create a guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation named 'default' on VM '/subscriptions/.../web01' that references the 'baseline' guestDiagnosticSettings resource.
Audit which resources collect diagnostics
List every guest diagnostic settings association in a subscription or resource group to identify VMs that are not yet onboarded. The List endpoints return both the target resource URIs and the referenced settings, allowing a single pass to compare the fleet against policy. Useful for monthly compliance reporting.
List all GuestDiagnosticsSettingsAssociation resources in subscription 'sub-prod' and report any VMs in the same subscription with no association.
Switch a VM to a different collection profile
Update an existing association so a single VM uses a stricter profile, for example switching from 'baseline' to 'security' before a sensitive workload migration. The PATCH operation modifies the association in place without disrupting the underlying VM. Useful for one-off compliance escalations.
Patch the 'default' guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation on VM 'db-prod' to reference the 'security' guestDiagnosticSettings resource.
AI agent compliance enforcement via Jentic
A compliance agent walks the subscription, checks each VM via the Get-by-resourceUri pattern, and creates or updates associations for any VM missing the required profile. Jentic resolves the agent's natural-language intent to the right ARM operation and injects the bearer token at execution time.
Use Jentic to search for 'attach diagnostic settings to azure vm', load GuestDiagnosticsSettingsAssociation_CreateOrUpdate, and apply 'baseline' to every VM in resource group 'web-rg' that lacks an association.
Key Endpoints
6 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for guest diagnostic settings association, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociations
List all associations in a subscription
GET
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Get an association on a specific resource
PUT
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Create or update an association on a target resource
PATCH
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Patch an existing association
DELETE
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Delete an association
GET
/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociations
List all associations in a subscription
GET
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Get an association on a specific resource
PUT
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Create or update an association on a target resource
PATCH
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Patch an existing association
DELETE
/{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}
Delete an association
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Azure service principal credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive a scoped Azure AD bearer token at execution time and never see the raw client secret.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic with intents like 'attach diagnostic settings to a VM' and Jentic returns the matching GuestDiagnosticsSettingsAssociation operation with its full input schema, so the agent can target the right resource URI without reading Microsoft Learn.
Time to first call
Direct ARM integration: 1-2 days for AAD setup, target resource URI handling, and idempotent association naming. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load schema, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Guest Diagnostic Settings Association API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Guest Diagnostic Settings Association?
Microsoft Azure does not publish a stand-alone OpenAPI specification for the Guest Diagnostic Settings Association API. Jentic generates and maintains this spec from the microsoft.insights ARM surface so that AI agents and developers can call Guest Diagnostic Settings Association via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
What authentication does this API use?
It uses Azure AD OAuth2 against management.azure.com, declared as the azure_auth security scheme. Through Jentic, your service principal credentials sit in the encrypted vault and are exchanged for a scoped bearer token at execution.
Does this API define what gets collected?
No. The list of event logs and perf counters lives in the companion Guest Diagnostic Settings API (azure.com/guest-diagnostic-settings). This Association API only binds an existing settings resource to a target VM or Arc machine via PUT on /{resourceUri}/providers/microsoft.insights/guestDiagnosticSettingsAssociation/{associationName}.
What are the rate limits?
Standard ARM throttles apply at the subscription level — roughly 12,000 reads and 1,200 writes per hour. Bulk onboarding scripts that attach a profile to many VMs should batch and back off on 429 responses.
How do I attach a diagnostic profile to a VM through Jentic?
Run jentic.search('attach guest diagnostic settings to azure vm'), load the GuestDiagnosticsSettingsAssociation_CreateOrUpdate schema, and execute it with the VM's resource URI, an association name such as 'default', and a body referencing the guestDiagnosticSettings resource ID.
GET STARTED