Setting the file. One moment.
Chapter 02 · AppInsights Instrumentation
Subchapter 2.3
references/container-apps.mdMarkdown7 KBView on GitHub
Observability guide for apps running in Azure Container Apps.
By default, Container Apps environments use a Log Analytics workspace. Configure it at environment creation (--logs-workspace-id expects the workspace Customer ID (GUID), not the ARM resource ID):
WORKSPACE_ID=$(az monitor log-analytics workspace show \
--resource-group <rg> --workspace-name <workspace-name> \
--query customerId -o tsv)
WORKSPACE_KEY=$(az monitor log-analytics workspace get-shared-keys \
--resource-group <rg> --workspace-name <workspace-name> \
--query primarySharedKey -o tsv)
az containerapp env create \
--name <env-name> \
--resource-group <rg> \
--logs-workspace-id $WORKSPACE_ID \
--logs-workspace-key $WORKSPACE_KEY \
--logs-destination log-analytics💡 Tip: All apps in the same environment share the workspace. Use
--logs-destination noneonly for BYOB (bring-your-own-backend) scenarios.
| Log Table | Content | Retention |
|---|---|---|
ContainerAppConsoleLogs_CL | stdout/stderr from containers | Workspace default |
ContainerAppSystemLogs_CL | Platform events (scaling, restarts, image pulls) | Workspace default |
⚠️ Note: The
_CLsuffix and_scolumn suffixes apply to the Log Analytics destination. Environments using the newer Azure Monitor destination useContainerAppConsoleLogs/ContainerAppSystemLogs(no_CL, no_ssuffixes). Check your environment’s log destination to use the correct table name.
System logs capture events outside your code—replica scheduling, health probe results, and revision activation. Console logs capture everything your app writes to stdout/stderr.
Container Apps exposes these metrics without any SDK:
| Metric | Description | Dimensions |
|---|---|---|
Replicas | Current replica count | revision |
Requests | HTTP request count | statusCode, statusCodeCategory, revision, replica |
UsageNanoCores | CPU usage per replica | revision, replica |
WorkingSetBytes | Memory usage per replica | revision, replica |
RestartCount | Container restart count | revision, replica |
RxBytes / TxBytes | Network I/O | revision, replica |
⚠️ Warning: Built-in metrics cover infrastructure only. For request-level tracing, response times, and dependency tracking, add Application Insights SDK.
Set APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING as an environment variable on the container app, then add the SDK per language:
| Language | Package | Init Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Node.js | @azure/monitor-opentelemetry | Call useAzureMonitor() before app startup |
| Python | azure-monitor-opentelemetry | Call configure_azure_monitor() at entry |
| .NET | Azure.Monitor.OpenTelemetry.AspNetCore | builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry().UseAzureMonitor() |
| Java | Agent JAR (manual) | Set JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-javaagent:/agent/applicationinsights-agent.jar |
# Store as a secret (recommended — keeps value out of az show output and portal config)
az containerapp secret set -n <app-name> -g <rg> \
--secrets "appinsights-conn=<conn-string>"
az containerapp update \
--name <app-name> \
--resource-group <rg> \
--set-env-vars "APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING=secretref:appinsights-conn"Container Apps with multiple services need correlation. The OpenTelemetry SDK propagates traceparent headers automatically through HTTP calls. Ensure:
requests in Python, fetch/axios in Node.js)💡 Tip: Use
operation_Idin KQL queries to trace a single request across all services.
For apps using Dapr sidecars, Dapr generates tracing spans for service invocation, pub/sub, and state operations when tracing is configured. Note that samplingRate: "1" means 100% sampling — consider lowering for production workloads.
Configure Dapr tracing in the Container Apps environment. The YAML below represents the config spec — in ACA, apply it via az containerapp env dapr-component set or ARM/Bicep (not as a raw YAML file):
# Dapr tracing config spec (apply via CLI or Bicep, not raw kubectl)
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Configuration
metadata:
name: appconfig
spec:
tracing:
samplingRate: "1"
otel:
endpointAddress: "<otlp-collector-endpoint>"
isSecure: true
protocol: grpc⚠️ Note:
endpointAddressshould point to an OpenTelemetry Collector (not Application Insights directly). Configure the collector with the Azure Monitor exporter to forward traces to App Insights.
Dapr generates spans for:
Discover Container Apps and their monitoring configuration:
// Container Apps without App Insights configured (checks all containers)
resources
| where type == "microsoft.app/containerapps"
| mv-expand container = properties.template.containers
| mv-expand envVar = container.env
| where isnotempty(envVar)
| summarize hasAppInsights = countif(envVar.name == "APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING") by name, resourceGroup
| where hasAppInsights == 0Note: This query only covers apps with existing environment variables. Apps with no env vars are excluded by the
mv-expandand should be identified separately (e.g., filter for containers whereenvis null or empty).
ContainerAppConsoleLogs_CL
| where Log_s contains "error" or Log_s contains "exception"
| project TimeGenerated, ContainerAppName_s, RevisionName_s, Log_s
| order by TimeGenerated desc
| take 50ContainerAppSystemLogs_CL
| where EventSource_s == "ContainerAppController" and Reason_s == "Restarting"
| summarize restarts = count() by ContainerAppName_s, RevisionName_s, bin(TimeGenerated, 1h)
| order by TimeGenerated descContainerAppSystemLogs_CL
| where Reason_s in ("ScalingUp", "ScalingDown")
| project TimeGenerated, ContainerAppName_s, Reason_s, Log_s
| order by TimeGenerated descContainerAppConsoleLogs_CL
| where isnotempty(Log_s)
| summarize logCount = count() by RevisionName_s, bin(TimeGenerated, 5m)
| render timechartrequests
| where cloud_RoleName has "<app-name>"
| summarize avgDuration = avg(duration), p95 = percentile(duration, 95) by cloud_RoleInstance, bin(timestamp, 5m)
| render timechart💡 Tip: Console logs don’t contain latency data. For request-level latency and dependency analysis, query the
requestsanddependenciestables from Application Insights.