Application Insights Availability Monitoring

Learn how to use Application Insights to monitor the availability of your web applications and web tests.

Note: Availability monitoring is a crucial aspect of ensuring your application remains accessible and responsive to users.

What is Availability Monitoring?

Availability monitoring in Application Insights allows you to proactively test your web application's availability and responsiveness from multiple locations around the world. You can set up web tests that periodically send requests to your URLs or simulate user actions to verify that your application is up and running as expected.

Types of Availability Tests

Application Insights supports several types of availability tests:

URL ping tests: Simple tests that send an HTTP GET request to a specified URL and check for a successful response (e.g., a 200 OK status code).
Standard web tests: More complex tests that can simulate multi-step user scenarios, such as logging in, navigating through pages, and performing actions. These are built using Selenium.
Transient anomaly detection: Automatically detects unusual patterns in your telemetry, including availability issues, and alerts you.

Setting Up a URL Ping Test

Navigate to your Application Insights resource in the Azure portal.
In the left-hand menu, under "Investigate," select "Availability."
Click on "Create test."
Choose "URL ping test."
Configure the test details:
- Name: A descriptive name for your test.
- URL: The URL of the web page or API endpoint to test.
- Request verb: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
- Headers: Any custom HTTP headers required.
- Retry: Configure retry attempts on failure.
- Alerting: Set up alerts based on test failures.
Select the geographical locations from which to run the test.
Click "Create."

Tip: For critical endpoints, consider setting up tests from multiple locations and configuring alerts to be notified immediately of any downtime.

Analyzing Availability Results

Once your tests are running, you can view the results in the "Availability" blade:

Test Overview: A dashboard showing the status and performance of all your availability tests.
Test Details: Drill down into individual tests to see their success rate, latency, and failure details.
Map View: Visualize test results geographically.
Failures Tab: Examine specific test failures, including request details, response content, and troubleshooting information.

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Global Monitoring

Test your application's accessibility from various international locations.

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Performance Tracking

Monitor response times and identify performance bottlenecks.

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Proactive Alerting

Receive immediate notifications when your application becomes unavailable.

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Trend Analysis

Understand availability trends over time to ensure consistent performance.

Best Practices

Test critical user journeys and API endpoints.
Configure tests from a diverse set of geographical locations.
Set up meaningful alerts with appropriate thresholds.
Regularly review availability results to identify patterns and potential issues.
Ensure your availability tests are not impacting your application's performance.

For more detailed information, refer to the official Application Insights documentation on the Microsoft Docs.