Azure App Service Auto-Heal: Capturing Relevant Data During Performance Issues
Introduction Azure App Service is a powerful platform that simplifies the deployment and management of web applications. However, maintaining application performance and availability is crucial. When performance issues arise, identifying the root cause can be challenging. This is where Auto-Heal in Azure App Service becomes a game-changer. Auto-Heal is a diagnostic and recovery feature that allows you to proactively detect and mitigate issues affecting your application’s performance. It enables automatic corrective actions and helps capture vital diagnostic data to troubleshoot problems efficiently. In this blog, we’ll explore how Auto-Heal works, its configuration, and how it assists in diagnosing performance bottlenecks. What is Auto-Heal in Azure App Service? Auto-Heal is a self-healing mechanism that allows you to define custom rules to detect and respond to problematic conditions in your application. When an issue meets the defined conditions, Auto-Heal can take actions such as: Recycling the application process Collecting diagnostic dumps Logging additional telemetry for analysis Triggering a custom action By leveraging Auto-Heal, you can minimize downtime, improve reliability, and reduce manual intervention for troubleshooting. Configuring Auto-Heal in Azure App Service To set up Auto-Heal, follow these steps: Access Auto-Heal Settings Navigate to the Azure Portal. Go to your App Service. Select Diagnose and Solve Problems. Search for Auto-Heal or go to Diagnostic tools tile and select Auto-Heal. Define Auto-Heal Rules Auto-Heal allows you to define rules based on: Request Duration: If a request takes too long, trigger an action. Memory Usage: If memory consumption exceeds a certain threshold. HTTP Status Codes: If multiple requests return specific status codes (e.g., 500 errors). Request Count: If excessive requests occur within a defined time frame. Configure Auto-Heal Actions Once conditions are set, you can configure one or more of the following actions: Recycle Process: Restart the worker process to restore the application. Log Events: Capture logs for further analysis. Custom Action: You can do the following: Run Diagnostics: Gather diagnostic data (Memory Dump, CLR Profiler, CLR Profiler with Threads Stacks, Java Memory Dump, Java Thread Dump) for troubleshooting. Run any Executable: Run scripts to automate corrective measures. Capturing Relevant Data During Performance Issues One of the most powerful aspects of Auto-Heal is its ability to capture valuable diagnostic data when an issue occurs. Here’s how: Collecting Memory Dumps Memory dumps provide insights into application crashes, high CP or high memory usage. These can be analyzed using WinDbg or DebugDiag. Enabling Logs for Deeper Insights Auto-Heal logs detailed events in Kudu Console, Application Insights, and Azure Monitor Logs. This helps identify patterns and root causes. Collecting CLR Profiler traces CLR Profiler traces capture call stacks and exceptions, providing a user-friendly report for diagnosing slow responses and HTTP issues at the application code level. In this article, we will cover the steps to configure an Auto-Heal rule for the following performance issues: To capture a .NET Profiler/CLR Profiler trace for Slow responses. To capture a .NET Profiler/CLR Profiler trace for HTTP 5XX Status codes. To capture Memory dump for a High Memory usage. Auto-Heal rule to capture .NET Profiler trace for Slow response: 1. Navigate to your App Service on Azure Portal, and click on Diagnose and Solve problems: 2. Search for Auto-Heal or go to Diagnostic tools tile and select Auto-Heal: 3. Click on 'On': 4. Select Request Duration and click on Add Slow Request rule: 5. Add the following information with respect to how much slowness you are facing: After how many slow requests you want this condition to kick in? - After how many slow requests you want this Auto-Heal rule to start writing/capturing relevant data. What should be minimum duration (in seconds) for these slow requests? - How many seconds should the request take to be considered as a slow request. What is the time interval (in seconds) in which the above condition should be met? - In how many seconds, the above defined slow request should occur. What is the request path (leave blank for all requests)? - If there is a specific URL which is slow, you can add that in this section or leave it as blank. In the below screenshot, the rule is set for this example "1 request taking 30 seconds in 5 minutes/300 seconds should trigger this rule" Add the values in the text boxes available and click "Ok" 6. Select Custom Action and select CLR Profiler with Thread Stacks option: 7. The tool options provide three choices: CollectKillAnalyze: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data, analyze and generate the report and recycle the process. CollectLogs: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data only. It will not analyze and generate the report and recycle the process. Troubleshoot: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data and analyze and generate the report, but it will not recycle the process. Select the option, according to your scenario: Click on "Save". 8. Review the new settings of the rule: Clicking on "Save" will cause a restart as this is a configuration level change and for this to get in effect a restart is required. So, it is advised to make such changes in non-business hours. 9. Click on "Save". Once you click on Save, the app will get restarted and the rule will become active and monitor for Slow requests. Auto-Heal rule to capture .NET Profiler trace for HTTP 5XX Status code: For this scenario, Steps 1, 2, 3 will remain the same as above (from the Slow requests scenario). There will be following changes: 1. Select Status code and click on Add Status Code rule 2. Add the following value with respect to what Status code or range of status code you want this rule to be triggered by: Do you want to set this rule for a specific status code or a range of status codes? - Is it single status code you want to set this rule for or a range of status code. After how many requests you want this condition to kick in? - After how many requests throwing the concerned status code you want this Auto-Heal rule to start writing/capturing relevant data. What should be the status code for these requests? - Mention the status code here. What should be the sub-status code for these requests? - Mention the sub-status code here, if any, else you can leave this blank. What should be the win32-status code for these requests? - Mention the win32-status code here, if any, else you can leave this blank. What is the time interval (in seconds) in which the above condition should be met? - In how many seconds, the above defined status code should occur. What is the request path (leave blank for all requests)? - If there is a specific URL which is throwing that status code, you can add that in this section or leave it as blank. Add the values according to your scenario and click on "Ok" In the below screenshot, the rule is set for this example "1 request throwing HTTP 500 status code in 60 seconds should trigger this rule" After adding the above information, you can follow the Steps 6, 7 ,8, 9 from the first scenario (Slow Requests) and the Auto-Heal rule for the status code will become active and monitor for this performance issue. Auto-Heal rule to capture Memory dump for High Memory usage: For this scenario, Steps 1, 2, 3 will remain the same as above (from the Slow requests scenario). There will be following changes: 1. Select Memory Limit and click on Configure Private Bytes rule: 2. According to your application's memory usage, add the Private bytes in KB at which this rule should be triggered: In the below screenshot, the rule is set for this example "The application process using 2000000 KB (~2 GB) should trigger this rule" Click on "Ok" 3. In Configure Actions, select Custom Action and click on Memory Dump: 4. The tool options provide three choices: CollectKillAnalyze: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data, analyze and generate the report and recycle the process. CollectLogs: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data only. It will not analyze and generate the report and recycle the process. Troubleshoot: If this option is selected, the tool will collect the data and analyze and generate the report, but it will not recycle the process. Select the option, according to your scenario: 5. For the memory dumps/reports to get saved, you will have to select either an existing Storage Account or will have to create a new one: Click on Select: Create a new one or choose existing: 6. Once the storage account is set, click on "Save". Review the rule settings and click on "Save". Clicking on "Save" will cause a restart as this is a configuration level change and for this to get in effect a restart is required. So, it is advised to make such changes in non-business hours. Best Practices for Using Auto-Heal Start with Conservative Rules: Avoid overly aggressive auto-restarts to prevent unnecessary disruptions. Monitor Performance Trends: Use Azure Monitor to correlate Auto-Heal events with performance metrics. Regularly Review Logs: Periodically analyze collected logs and dumps to fine-tune your Auto-Heal strategy. Combine with Application Insights: Leverage Application Insights for end-to-end monitoring and deeper diagnostics. Conclusion Auto-Heal in Azure App Service is a powerful tool that not only helps maintain application stability but also provides critical diagnostic data when performance issues arise. By proactively setting up Auto-Heal rules and leveraging its diagnostic capabilities, you can minimize downtime and streamline troubleshooting efforts. Have you used Auto-Heal in your application? Share your experiences and insights in the comments! Stay tuned for more Azure tips and best practices!Capture .NET Profiler Trace on the Azure App Service platform
Summary The article provides guidance on using the .NET Profiler Trace feature in Microsoft Azure App Service to diagnose performance issues in ASP.NET applications. It explains how to configure and collect the trace by accessing the Azure Portal, navigating to the Azure App Service, and selecting the "Collect .NET Profiler Trace" feature. Users can choose between "Collect and Analyze Data" or "Collect Data only" and must select the instance to perform the trace on. The trace stops after 60 seconds but can be extended up to 15 minutes. After analysis, users can view the report online or download the trace file for local analysis, which includes information like slow requests and CPU stacks. The article also details how to analyze the trace using Perf View, a tool available on GitHub, to identify performance issues. Additionally, it provides a table outlining scenarios for using .NET Profiler Trace or memory dumps based on various factors like issue type and symptom code. This tool is particularly useful for diagnosing slow or hung ASP.NET applications and is available only in Standard or higher SKUs with the Always On setting enabled. In this article How to configure and collect the .NET Profiler Trace How to download the .NET Profiler Trace How to analyze a .NET Profiler Trace When to use .NET Profilers tracing vs. a memory dump The tool is exceptionally suited for scenarios where an ASP.NET application is performing slower than expected or gets hung. As shown in Figure 1, this feature is available only in Standard or higher Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and Always On is enabled. If you try to configure .NET Profiler Trace, without both configurations the following messages is rendered. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems blade in the Azure Portal error messages Error – This tool is supported only on Standard, Premium, and Isolated Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) only with AlwaysOn setting enabled to TRUE. Error – We determined that the web app is not "Always-On" enabled and diagnostic does not work reliably with Auto Heal. Turn on the Always-On setting by going to the Application Settings for the web app and then run these tools. How to configure and collect the .NET Profiler Trace To configure a .NET Profiler Trace access the Azure Portal and navigate to the Azure App Service which is experiencing a performance issue. Select Diagnose and solve problems and then the Diagnostic Tools tile. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems blade in the Azure Portal Select the "Collect .NET Profiler Trace" feature on the Diagnostic Tools blade and the following blade is rendered. Notice that you can only select Collect and Analyze Data or Collect Data only. Choose the one you prefer but do consider having the feature perform the analysis. You can download the trace for offline analysis if necessary. Also notice that you need to **select the instance** on which you want to perform the trace. In the scenario, there is only one, so the selection is simple. However, if your app runs on multiple instances, either select them all or if you identify a specific instance which is behaving slowly, select only that one. You realize the best results if you can isolate a single instance enough so that the request you sent is the only one received on that instance. However, in a scenario where the request or instance is not known, the trace adds value and insights. Adding a thread report provides list of all the threads in the process is also collected at the end of the profiler trace. The thread report is useful especially if you are troubleshooting hung processes, deadlocks, or requests taking more than 60 seconds. This pauses your process for a few seconds until the thread dump is generated. CAUTION: a thread report is NOT recommended if you are experiencing High CPU in your application, you may experience issues during trace analysis if CPU consumption is high. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace blade in the Azure Portal There are a few points called out in the previous image which are important to read and consider. Specifically the .NET Profiler Trace will stop after 60 seconds from the time that it is started. Therefore, if you can reproduce the issue, have the reproduction steps ready before you start the profiling. If you are not able to reproduce the issue, then you may need to run the trace a few times until the slowness or hang occurs. The collection time can be increased up to 15 minutes (900 seconds) by adding an application setting named IIS_PROFILING_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS with a value of up to 900. After selecting the instance to perform the trace on, press the Collect Profiler Trace button, wait for the profiler to start as seen here, then reproduce the issue or wait for it to occur. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace status starting window After the issue is reproduced the .NET Profiler Trace continues to the next step of stopping as seen here. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace status stopping window Once stopped, the process continues to the analysis phase if you selected the Collect and Analyze Data option, as seen in the following image, otherwise you are provided a link to download the file for analysis on your local machine. The analysis can take some time, so be patient. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace status analyzing window After the analysis is complete, you can either view the Analysis online or download the trace file for local development. How to download the .NET Profiler Trace Once the analysis is complete you can view the report by selecting the link in the Reports column, as seen here. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace status complete window Clicking on the report you see the following. There is some useful information in this report, like a list of slow requests, Failed Requests, Thread Call stacks, and CPU stacks. Also shown is a breakdown of where the time was spent during the response generation into categories like Application Code, Platform, and Network. In this case, all the time is spent in the Application code. Azure App Service Diagnose and solve problems, Collect .NET Profiler Trace review the Report To find out specifically where in the Application Code this request performs the analysis of the trace locally. How to analyze a .NET Profiler Trace After downloading the network trace by selecting the link in the Data column, you can use a tool named Perf View which is downloadable on GitHub here. Begin by opening Perf View and double-clicking on the ".DIAGSESSION" file, after some moments expand it to render the Event Trace Log (ETL) file, as shown here. Analyze Azure App Service .NET Profiler Trace with Perf View Double-click on the Thread Time (with startStop Activities) Stacks which open up a new window similar to shown next. If your App Service is configured as out-of-process select the dotnet process which is associated to your app code. If your App Service is in-process select the w3wp process. Analyze Azure App Service .NET Profiler Trace with Perf View, dotnet out-of-process Double-click on dotnet and another window is rendered, as shown here. From the previous image, .NET Profiler Trace reviews the Report, it is clear where slowness is coming from, find that in the Name column or search for it by entering the page name into the Find text box. Analyze Azure App Service .NET Profiler Trace with Perf View, dotnet out-of-process, method, and class discovery Once found right-click on the row and select Drill Into from the pop-up menu, shown here. Select the Call Tree tab and the reason for the issue renders showing which request was performing slow. Analyze Azure App Service .NET Profiler Trace with Perf View, dotnet out-of-process, root cause This example is relatively. As you analyze more performance issues using Perf View to analyze a .NET Profiler Trace your ability to find the root cause of more complicated performance issues can be realized. When to use .NET Profilers tracing vs. a memory dump That same issue is seen in a memory dump, however there are some scenarios where a .NET Profile trace would be best. Here is a table, Table 1, which describes scenarios for when to capture a .NET profile trace or to capture a memory dump. Issue Type Symptom Code Symptom Stack Startup Issue Intermittent Scenario Performance 200 Requests take 500 ms to 2.5 seconds, or takes <= 60 seconds ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No No Profiler Performance 200 Requests take > 60 seconds & < 230 seconds ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No No Dump Performance 502.3/500.121/503 Requests take >=120 to <= 230 seconds ASP.NET No No Dump, Profiler Performance 502.3/500.121/503 Requests timing out >=230 ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core Yes/No Yes/No Dump Performance 502.3/500.121/503 App hangs or deadlocks (ex: due to async anti-pattern) ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core Yes/No Yes/No Dump Performance 502.3/500.121/503 App hangs on startup (ex: caused by nonasync deadlock issue) ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No Yes/No Dump Performance 502.3/500.121 Request timing out >=230 (time out) ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No No Dump Availability 502.3/500.121/503 High CPU causing app downtime ASP.NET No No Profiler, Dump Availability 502.3/500.121/503 High Memory causing app downtime ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No No Dump Availability 500.0[121]/503 SQLException or Some Exception causes app downtime ASP.NET No No Dump, Profiler Availability 500.0[121]/503 App crashing due to fatal exception at native layer ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core Yes/No Yes/No Dump Availability 500.0[121]/503 App crashing due to exit code (ex: 0xC0000374) ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core Yes/No Yes/No Dump Availability 500.0 App begin nonfatal exceptions (during a context of a request) ASP.NET No No Profiler, Dump Availability 500.0 App begin nonfatal exceptions (during a context of a request) ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core No Yes/No Dump Table 1, when to capture a .NET Profiler Trace or a Memory Dump on Azure App Service, Diagnose and solve problems Use this list as a guide to help decide how to approach the solving of performance and availability applications problems which are occurring in your application source code. Here are some descriptions regarding the column heading. - Issues Type – Performance means that a request to the app is responding or processing the response but not at a speed in which it is expected to. Availability means that the request is failing or consuming more resources than expected. - Symptom Code – the HTTP Status and/or sub status which is returned by the request. - Symptom – a description of the behavior experienced while engaging with the application. - Stack – this table targets .NET, specifically ASP.NET, and ASP.NET Core applications. - Startup Issue – if "No" then the Scenario can or should be used, "No" represents that the issue is not at startup. If "Yes/No" it means the Scenario is useful for troubleshooting startup issues. - Intermittent – if "No" then the Scenario can or should be used, "No" means the issue is not intermittent or that it can be reproduced. If "Yes/No" it means the Scenario is useful if the issue happens randomly or cannot be reproduced. Meaning that the tool can be set to trigger on a specific event or left running for a specific amount of time until the exception happens. - Scenario – "Profiler" means that the collection of a .NET Profiler Trace would be recommended. "Dump" means that a memory dump would be your best option. If both are provided, then both can be useful when the given symptoms and system codes are present. You might find the videos in Table 2 useful which instruct you how to collect and analyze a memory dump or .NET Profiler Trace. Product Stack Hosting Symptom Capture Analyze Scenario App Service Windows in High CPU link link Dump App Service Windows in High Memory link link Dump App Service Windows in Terminate link link Dump App Service Windows in Hang link link Dump App Service Windows out High CPU link link Dump App Service Windows out High Memory link link Dump App Service Windows out Terminate link link Dump App Service Windows out Hang link link Dump App Service Windows in High CPU link link Dump Function App Windows in High Memory link link Dump Function App Windows in Terminate link link Dump Function App Windows in Hang link link Dump Function App Windows out High CPU link link Dump Function App Windows out High Memory link link Dump Function App Windows out Terminate link link Dump Function App Windows out Hang link link Dump Azure WebJob Windows in High CPU link link Dump App Service Windows in High CPU link link .NET Profiler App Service Windows in Hang link link .NET Profiler App Service Windows in Exception link link .NET Profiler App Service Windows out High CPU link link .NET Profiler App Service Windows out Hang link link .NET Profiler App Service Windows out Exception link link .NET Profiler Table 2, short video instructions on capturing and analyzing dumps and profiler traces Here are a few other helpful videos for troubleshooting Azure App Service Availability and Performance issues: View Application EventLogs Azure App Service Add Application Insights To Azure App Service Prior to capturing and analyzing memory dumps, consider viewing this short video: Setting up WinDbg to analyze Managed code memory dumps and this blog post titled: Capture memory dumps on the Azure App Service platform. Question & Answers - Q: What are the prerequisites for using the .NET Profiler Trace feature in Azure App Service? A: To use the .NET Profiler Trace feature in Azure App Service, the application must be running on a Standard or higher Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) with the Always On setting enabled. If these conditions are not met, the tool will not function, and error messages will be displayed indicating the need for these configurations. - Q: How can you extend the default collection time for a .NET Profiler Trace beyond 60 seconds? A: The default collection time for a .NET Profiler Trace is 60 seconds, but it can be extended up to 15 minutes (900 seconds) by adding an application setting named IIS_PROFILING_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS with a value of up to 900. This allows for a longer duration to capture the necessary data for analysis. - Q: When should you use a .NET Profiler Trace instead of a memory dump for diagnosing performance issues in an ASP.NET application? A: A .NET Profiler Trace is recommended for diagnosing performance issues where requests take between 500 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds or less than 60 seconds. It is also useful for identifying high CPU usage causing app downtime. In contrast, a memory dump is more suitable for scenarios where requests take longer than 60 seconds, the application hangs or deadlocks, or there are issues related to high memory usage or app crashes due to fatal exceptions. Keywords Microsoft Azure, Azure App Service, .NET Profiler Trace, ASP.NET performance, Azure debugging tools, .NET performance issues, Azure diagnostic tools, Collect .NET Profiler Trace, Analyze .NET Profiler Trace, Azure portal, Performance troubleshooting, ASP.NET application, Slow ASP.NET app, Azure Standard SKU, Always On setting, Memory dump vs profiler trace, Perf View analysis, Azure performance diagnostics, .NET application profiling, Diagnose ASP.NET slowness, Azure app performance, High CPU usage ASP.NET, Azure app diagnostics, .NET Profiler configuration, Azure app service performance
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More News and Resources from around Microsoft Introducing Copilot Next Edit Suggestions (preview) in VS Code New: Semantic Ranker Solution Accelerator for PostgreSQL New: GraphRAG Solution Accelerator for PostgreSQL Preview: Azure AI Agent Service Startup Spotlight Get Started with Copilot Free in VS Code Raising the bar for RAG excellence: New performance benchmarks Automate Dev Environments with Microsoft Dev Box and Teams Customizations Dev Proxy: Simulate APIs Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Microsoft Copilot Studio: Enabling agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Do more with Copilot and agents
For February, we’re delving deep into Copilots and AI agents. We have live events and learning resources that will help developers get started and do more so you can take your productivity to a new level. Learn about tools for creating agents, find out how to use GitHub Copilot to develop apps more quickly, build intelligent apps with .NET, start creating customized experiences for Microsoft Teams, and more. GitHub Copilot Bootcamp Join the GitHub Copilot Bootcamp to deep dive into the tools and skills you need to supercharge your development productivity and with GitHub Copilot. This is a 4-part live series happening February 4–13, 2025. AI agents — what they are, and how they’ll change the way we work What are AI agents? Discover what agents are, how they work autonomously around-the-clock, and how you can build agents specific to your business needs. Microsoft 365 Copilot Developer Camp Start building agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Watch Microsoft 365 Copilot Developer Camp videos on demand, work through guided hands-on labs, and explore more resources to help you learn how to build your own agents. Getting started with AI Agents Azure AI Agent Service lets you build software that will work to achieve a specified goal without you knowing exactly what steps it will take. Join this session to learn how you can automate tasks that were previously too complex to be easily automated. Preview the GitHub Copilot extension for Teams Toolkit Discover a more powerful way to build Microsoft Teams apps and customize Microsoft 365 Copilot. Introducing the GitHub Copilot for Teams Toolkit (preview)—your new companion in VS Code, Visual Studio, and GitHub.com. Find practical resources on the Copilot learning hub on Microsoft Learn We’ve got curated content on Microsoft Copilot for technical professionals. Learn how to use AI technology, create custom experiences, and increase productivity. Generative AI Level Up Explore the cutting edge of app development with the Microsoft Reactor “Generative AI Level Up Tuesdays” series. Delve into the basics of Gen AI, learn about building AI agents, find out how responsible AI tooling helps mitigate risks, and more. Simplify development with the new Microsoft 365 Agents SDK Want to simplify your agent development? The Microsoft 365 Agents SDK brings together core components making it easier to build agents and publish them to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, the web, and other channels. Learn, collaborate, and build your skills with Microsoft Fabric experts and peers The Microsoft Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) returns to Las Vegas March 31 to April 2, 2025, packed with breakout sessions and technical deep dives covering data, analytics, and AI. Sign up now with code MCUST to save $150. Introducing the new .NET AI Applications page Have you seen the new .NET AI Applications page? Explore videos, documentation, SDKs, AI libraries and other essential resources to help you build intelligent solutions using C#, OpenAI, and Azure. AI learning hub Visit the AI learning hub, a place to learn new AI skills. Get started with curated plans and resources designed around business and technical roles. Build AI agents, learn best practices, explore basic concepts, and dig into more advanced topics. Build AI Agents & Apps FAST with Azure AI Foundry Looking for a fast way to start building AI agents and applications? This video shows how to use Azure AI Foundry for super fast results. Learn about AI Foundry, AI app templates, the decision tree, and how to get started. What is Azure AI Agent Service? Learn about Azure AI Agent Service, a fully managed service designed for securely building, deploying, and scaling AI agents without needing to manage compute and storage resources. Discover what you can do with just a few lines of code. AI agents in Azure Cosmos DB Explore conceptual overviews and detailed implementation samples for AI agents. This Microsoft Learn article offers a deep-dive overview, looking at types of agents, frameworks, and code samples. Microsoft JDConf 2025 Register for JDConf 2025 and get ready to code the future with AI. Microsoft's annual event for Java developers will take place April 9-10, offering three separate live streams to cover different regions. Explore tools and skills for building modern apps in the cloud and integrating AI. Other news and resources from around Microsoft Architecture Recipes for AI-Powered Applications https://aka.ms/DevCal_Feb25_05 What’s new in AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code January 2025 Updates https://aka.ms/DevCal_Feb25_18 On demand webinar: Secure Software Development from Code to Cloud with DevSecOps and AI https://aka.ms/DevCal_Feb25_17New Features in Azure Container Apps VS Code extension
👆 Install VS Code extension Summary of Major Changes New Managed Identity Support for connecting container apps to container registries. This is now the preferred method for securing these resources, provided you have sufficient privileges. New Container View: Introduced with several commands for easier editing of container images and environment variables. One-Click Deployment: Deploy to Container App... added to the top-level container app node. This supports deployments from a workspace project or container registry. To manage multiple applications in a workspace project or enable faster deployments with saved settings, use Deploy Project from Workspace. It can be accessed via the workspace view. Improved Activity Log Output: All major commands now include improved activity log outputs, making it easier to track and manage your activities. Quickstart Image for Container App Creation: The "Create container app..." command now initializes with a quickstart image, simplifying the setup process. New Commands and Enhancements Managed Identity support for new connections to container registries New command Deploy to Container App... found on the container app item. This one-click deploy command allows deploying from a workspace project or container registry while in single revision mode. New Container view under the container app item allows direct access to the container's image and environment variables. New command Edit Container Image... allows editing of container images without prompting to update environment variables. Environment Variable CRUD Commands: Multiple new commands for creating, reading, updating, and deleting environment variables. Convert Environment Variable to Secret: Quickly turn an environment variable into a container app secret with this new command. Changes and Improvements Command Create Container App... now always starts with a quickstart image. Renamed the Update Container Image... command to Edit Container.... This command is now found on the container item. When running Deploy Project from Workspace..., if remote environment variables conflict with saved settings, prompt for update. Add new envPath option useRemoteConfiguration. Deploying an image with the Docker extension now allows targeting specific revisions and containers. When deploying a new image to a container app, only show ingress prompt when more than the image tag is changed. Improved ACR selection dropdowns, providing better pick recommendations and sorting by resource group. Improved activity log outputs for major commands. Changed draft deploy prompt to be a quick pick instead of a pop-up window. We hope these new features and improvements will simplify deployments and make your Azure Container Apps experience even better. Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, we appreciate your feedback! Try out these new features today and let us know what you think! Your feedback is invaluable in helping us continue to improve and innovate. Azure Container Apps VS Code Extension Full changelog:See live data on Azure Container Apps with the Aspire dashboard
Azure Container Apps will be rolling out support this month for the new Aspire dashboard announced in .NET 8. This improvement makes it easier than ever for developers hosting on ACA to monitor their applications, identify abnormalities in their metrics, and debug errors. This blog post will tell you about the Aspire dashboard and why it can save product teams a great deal of money, stress, and development time. Then, we will walk through how to enable and access the dashboard for your project in ACA.Learn New Skills in the New Year
New year’s resolution: Start writing better code faster in 2025. Kick off the new year by learning new developer skills and elevate your career to the next level. In this post, we explore learning resources and live events that will help you build critical skills and get started with cutting-edge technologies. Learn how to build custom agents, code intelligent apps with familiar tools, discover new possibilities in .NET 9, use Copilot for testing and debugging, and more. Plus, get details about using GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code—for free! New AI for Developers page Check out the new AI for Developers page. It's packed with free GitHub courses on building apps, machine learning, and mastering GitHub Copilot for paired programming. Learn your way and skill up for what's next in AI. Use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code for free Did you hear the news? You can now use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code for free. Get details about the new Copilot Free plan and add Copilot to your developer toolbox. What is Copilot Studio? Have questions about Copilot Studio? This article from Microsoft Learn covers all the basics you need to know about Copilot Studio—the low-code tool for easily building agents and extending Microsoft 365 Copilot. From C# to ChatGPT: Build Generative AI Solutions with Azure Combine your C# skills with the cutting-edge power of ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI Service. This free learning path introduces you to building GenAI solutions, using REST APIs, SDKs, and Azure tools to create more intelligent applications. Register for the Powerful Devs Conference + Hackathon Register for the Powerful Devs Conference + Hackathon (February 12-28, 2025) and get more out of Power Platform. This one-day online conference is followed by a 2-week hackathon focused on building intelligent applications with less effort. Code the future with Java and AI: RSVP for Microsoft JDConf 2025 today Get ready for the JDConf 2025—Microsoft's annual event for Java developers. Taking place April 9-10, this year’s event will have three separate live streams to cover different regions. Join to explore tools and skills for building modern apps in the cloud and integrating AI. Build custom agents for Microsoft Teams Learn how to build custom agents for Microsoft Teams. This free learning path will teach you about different copilot stacks, working with Azure OpenAI, building a custom engine agent. Start building intelligent Microsoft Teams apps using the LLMs and AI components. Microsoft Learn: Debug your app with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Debug more efficiently using GitHub Copilot. This Microsoft Learn article shows you how. Discover how Copilot will answer detailed questions about your code and provide bug fixes. Make Azure AI Real: Watch Season 2 Elevate your AI game with Make Azure AI Real on demand. Season 2 digs into the latest Azure AI advancements, with practical demos, code samples, and real-world use cases. GitHub Copilot Bootcamp Streamline your workflow with GitHub Copilot—craft more effective prompts and automate repetitive tasks like testing. This GitHub Copilot Bootcamp is a 4-part live streaming series that will help you master GitHub Copilot. 10 Days of GenAI – Gift Guide Edition Start building your own Gen AI application. These short videos outline 10 steps for creating your app—choose a model, add functions, fine tune responses, and more. Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with declarative agents using Visual Studio Code Check out this new learning path from Microsoft Learn to discover how you can extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with declarative agents using VS Code. Learn about declarative agents and how they work. Developer's guide to building your own agents Want to build your own agents? Watch this Ignite session on demand for a look at the new agent development tools. Find out how to create agents built on Microsoft 365 Copilot or your custom AI engine. Master distributed application development with .NET Aspire Get started with .NET Aspire—an opinionated, cloud-ready stack for building distributed applications with .NET. This series covers everything from setup to deployment. Start your journey toward mastering distributed app development. Learn: What's new in .NET 9 Discover what's new in .NET 9. Learn about new features for AI, improvements for building cloud-native apps, performance enhancements, updates to C#, and more. Read the overview and get started with .NET 9. Become a .NET AI engineer using the OpenAI library for .NET Use your .NET skills to become an AI engineer. With the OpenAI library, .NET developers can quickly master critical AI skills and apply them to real world apps. Read the blog to learn more about the OpenAI library for .NET. Test like a pro with Playwright and GitHub Copilot Supercharge your testing using Playwright and GitHub Copilot. Watch this in-depth demo and discover how you can easily create end-to-end tests using Playwright's powerful built-in code generator. Other news and resources from around Microsoft · Microsoft Learn: Why and how to adopt AI in your organization · Microsoft Learn: Learn to use Copilot in Microsoft Fabric · AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code: Update highlights · Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code update · RAG Deep Dive: Live streams · Learn Together: SQL database in Fabric · Become an AI security expert using OpenAI with Azure Managed Identity · Deploy, monitor, and manage development resources with Microsoft Dev Box · Microsoft Playwright testing · Introduction to artificial intelligence and Azure AI services · Azure AI-900 Fundamentals Training event series · Leveraging cloud-native infra for your intelligent apps · Platform engineering with GitHub · Extend declarative agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot with API plugins using Visual Studio Code · Introducing the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK · Azure Live Q&A events · Get started with multimodal parsing for RAG using GPT-4o, Azure AI Search, and LlamaParseAzure App Service Logging: How to Monitor Your Web Apps in Real-Time
As a developer, having visibility into the behavior of your applications is crucial to maintaining the reliability and performance of your software. Luckily, Azure App Service provides two powerful logging features to help you monitor your web apps in real-time: App Service Logs and Log Stream. In this blog post, we'll explore how to configure these features for both Windows and Linux Web Apps in Azure App Service.
