Manage Monitoring of Functions in Azure

Don't let your business down! Get alerts for problems with the Azure Functions and gain access to details without the Azure portal.

Remote Actions (View history, Enable, Disable, and more)
Test (Invoke)
Monitoring Functions

For your business and other end-users, delegate the power to manage Functions and gain insights into selected Functions in Azure. Nodinite Monitoring aids the support and maintenance team's people in having additional data for root cause analysis without having individual direct access to the Microsoft Azure Portal. Reducing access limits the number of attack vectors, and having fewer people with fewer access rights minimizes the risk of disruption of mission-critical services.

Here's an example of different types of Azure Function-related Monitoring Resources in a Nodinite Monitor View.

Management Features

For Resources in the Role-based Monitor Views with the Remote Actions privilege grant; The following Remote Actions grouped by Category are available:

Nodinite Functions related categories

As an Administrator with access to the Configuration for Monitoring Agents, the additional Monitoring options are available:

Function

The 'Function' Category provides one Resource for each Azure Function found with its name as the Resource name.

Here's an example from a Nodinite Monitor View with a list of Azure Functions.

See Monitoring Functions: The Functions category provides Resources that display the evaluated monitored state according to built-in rules.

The following Remote Actions are available for the Functions Category:

• Enable
• Disable
• View history
• Details
• Edit
• Manage Keys
• Test

Enable Function

You can Enable a disabled Azure Function by clicking the Action button and then clicking on the Enable menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Enable Function Remote Action.

A prompt will then verify your intent to Enable the selected Function.

Confirm intent to Enable the selected Azure Function.

Next, the result from the operation is presented. This can be either success or failure.

Here's an example of a successful result enabling a disabled Azure Function.

Disable Function

You can Disable an enabled Azure Function by clicking the Action button and then clicking on the Disable menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Disable Function Remote Action.

A prompt will then verify your intent to Disable the selected Function.

Confirm intent to Disable the selected Azure Function.

Next, the result from the operation is presented. This can be either success or failure.

Here's an example of a successful result disabling an enabled Azure Function.

View history

To view the history for the Function Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the View history menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'View history' action menu item to open the modal for the selected Function.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

You can change the lookback period, click the Sync button to perform the search.

Click on the small button on each row to present all logged events from within a Run.

Functions Details

To view essential Details about the selected Function Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the Details menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Details' action menu item to open the details modal for the selected Function.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Edit Function

The thresholds for the Non-Events related Monitoring features can be modified; Click the Action button and then click on the Edit menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Edit' action menu item to open the Edit modal for the selected Function.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

You can manage the Monitoring values for the following fields:

• Description - A user-friendly description about the Azure Function.
• Last clear date time - Ignore execution errors before this point in time (NOTE: Time is UTC).
• Use global thresholds - When checked, the monitoring thresholds uses the global settings
• Lookback period - How far back in time to look for problems. The monitoring evaluation uses this value if the current time is higher than the last clear date-time + the lookback period
• Min execution count (Warning) - The least number of invocations within the lookback period, otherwise, raise a Warning.
• Min execution count (Error) - The least number of invocations within the lookback period, otherwise, raise an Error.

  Enter the monitoring thresholds for the count-based evaluation. -1 means that the check is disabled (default)

• Max execution count (Warning)
• Max execution count (Error)
• Duration (ms)
  • Warning
  • Error

Click the Save button to persist changes. The Agent is using caching; allow a few minutes to get synchronized with the new values.

Manage Keys

You can view and manage the keys in use to authenticate with invocations to the Azure Function. Click the Action button and then click on the Manage Keys menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Manage Keys' action menu item to open the modal for the selected Functions.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Click the New Function Key button to create a new Function Key.

A panel appears and here is where you add the mandatory name and the optional key value. Leave the field empty to allow the system to create it for you.

Click the button to create a new key. A modal appears asking the User to confirm the intent.

On each Key in the table, there is an Action button with the following Remote Actions:

• Renew
• Delete

Renew Function Key

Click the Renew menu item in the Actions button for an existing Key to generate a new value.

You must confirm the intent.

This operation may take a few seconds. The Modal reloads once the operation has finished.

Delete Function Key

You can delete an existing Key. Click the Delete menu item in the Actions button for an existing Key to generate a new value.

You must confirm the intent.

This operation may take a few seconds. The Modal reloads once the operation has finished.

Test Function

To test the Function Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the Test menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Test' action menu item to open the modal for the selected Functions.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Not all Functions can be tested. If the Function has an HTTP trigger, then you can use it. Otherwise, the following message appears on screen.

On the Modal there are three tabs and you must select the proper HTTP VERB (i.e. POST, GET) and Key.

1. Body
2. Params
3. Headers

Click the Run button once you have applied all values required to Test the Azure Function.

Function - Failed Executions

The 'Function - Failed Executions' Category provides one Resource for each Function found as the Resource name.

Example from a Monitor View with a list of 'Function - Failed Executions' Resources.

See Monitoring Functions for additional details about 'Function - Failed Executions' Monitoring.

The Functions - Failed Executions category provides Resources that displays the evaluated monitored state according to built-in rules (errors exist in the lookback period).

The following Remote Actions are available for the Functions - Failed Executions Category:

• List failed executions
• Clear failed executions

List failed executions

To view failed executions for the selected Function Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the List failed executions menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'List failed executions' action menu item to open the details modal for the selected Azure Function.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

This modal is mainly the same as the View history modal. In addition, you can perform the following operation.

• Clear all Failed Executions - Which is the same feature as available on the Resource in the Monitor View.

If the Clear Date Time is set and is within the lookback time period; at first, the table is filtered. You can click on the Sync button to load content according to the selected lookback period.

Clear failed executions

You can opt to ignore previous execution failures. This will set the Resource to OK until the subsequent failure occurs. Click the Action button and then click on the Clear failed executions menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Clear failed executions' action menu item to clear previously failed executions.

You must confirm intent to proceede with the operation.

If the operation is successful, a message resembling the following should be on the screen.

Function App Web Site

All Azure Functions are hosted on a Web Site (Function App). The Nodinite Azure Monitoring agent creates one Resource for each Web Site. The Category is Web Site - Function App

The following Remote Actions are available for the Web Site - Function App Category:

• Details
• Manage API Key
• Start
• Stop

Function App Web Site Details

To view essential Details about the selected Web Site - Function App Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the Details menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Details' action menu item to open the details modal for the selected Web Site with Azure Functions.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Tip

The Statistics section helps gain insights about the frequency and duration of Runs. You can use this data to configure the Non-Events type of feature. You can review the following properties (sorted and grouped by Azure Function):

• Most succeeded
• Most error-prone
• Fastest
• Slowest
• Average execution-time
• Last Run
• Newest Run
• Potentially dead - N/A There is no data to present within the lookback period.

Manage API Key

You can view and manage the API Key in use to authenticate with the Application Insights invocations to the Azure Function. Click the Action button and then click on the Manage Keys menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Manage Keys' action menu item to open the modal for the selected Functions.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

This Azure Agent - Managing Application Insights - Manage API Key

Start

You can Start a stopped Azure Function Web Site, click the Action button and then click on the Start menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Start Function Web Site Remote Action.

A prompt will then verify your intent to Start the selected Web Site.

Confirm intent to Start the selected Azure Function Web Site.

Next, the result from the operation is presented. This can be either success or failure.

Here's an example of a successful result starting an Azure Function Web Site.

Stop

You can Stop a started Azure Function Web Site, click the Action button and then click on the Stop menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Stop Function Web Site Remote Action.

A prompt will then verify your intent to Stop the selected Web Site.

Confirm intent to Stop the selected Azure Function Web Site.

Next, the result from the operation is presented. This can be either success or failure.

Here's an example of a successful result stopping an Azure Function Web Site.

Next Step

Monitoring Functions
Configuring the Nodinite Azure Monitoring agent

Related

Azure Logging and Monitoring Overview
Prerequisites for Azure Agent