Enable Profiler for web apps on an Azure virtual machine

Article
08/10/2022
4 minutes to read

Note

To interact with Azure, the Azure Az PowerShell module is recommended. See Install Azure PowerShell to get started. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

In this article, you learn how to run Application Insights Profiler on your Azure virtual machine (VM) or Azure virtual machine scale set via three different methods. Using any of these methods, you will:

Configure the Azure Diagnostics extension to run Profiler.
Install the Application Insights SDK onto a VM.
Deploy your application.
View Profiler traces via the Application Insights instance on Azure portal.

Pre-requisites

A functioning ASP.NET Core application
An Application Insights resource.
Review the Azure Resource Manager templates for the Azure Diagnostics extension:
- VM
- Virtual machine scale set

Add Application Insights SDK to your application

Open your ASP.NET core project in Visual Studio.
Select Project > Add Application Insights Telemetry.
Select Azure Application Insights, then click Next.
Select the subscription where your Application Insights resource lives, then click Next.
Select where to save connection string, then click Next.
Select Finish.

Note

For full instructions, including enabling Application Insights on your ASP.NET Core application without Visual Studio, see the Application Insights for ASP.NET Core applications.

Confirm the latest stable release of the Application Insights SDK

Go to Project > Manage NuGet Packages.
Select Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.AspNetCore.
In the side pane, select the latest version of the SDK from the dropdown.
Select Update.

Enable Profiler

You can enable Profiler by any of the following three ways:

Within your ASP.NET Core application using an Azure Resource Manager template and Visual Studio (recommended).
Using a PowerShell command via the Azure CLI.
Using Azure Resource Explorer.

Install the Azure Diagnostics extension

Choose which Azure Resource Manager template to use:
- VM
- Virtual machine scale set.
In the template, locate the resource of type extension.
In Visual Studio, navigate to the arm.json file in your ASP.NET Core application that was added when you installed the Application Insights SDK.
Add the resource type extension from the template to the arm.json file to set up a VM or virtual machine scale set with Azure Diagnostics.
Within the WadCfg tag, add your Application Insights instrumentation key to the MyApplicationInsightsProfilerSink.

"WadCfg": {
  "SinksConfig": {
    "Sink": [
      {
        "name": "MyApplicationInsightsProfilerSink",
        "ApplicationInsightsProfiler": "YOUR_APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATION_KEY"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Deploy your application.

The following PowerShell commands are an approach for existing VMs that touch only the Azure Diagnostics extension.

Note

If you deploy the VM again, the sink will be lost. You'll need to update the config you use when deploying the VM to preserve this setting.

Install Application Insights via Azure Diagnostics config

Export the currently deployed Azure Diagnostics config to a file:
```
$ConfigFilePath = [IO.Path]::GetTempFileName()
```

Add the Application Insights Profiler sink to the config returned by the following command:

(Get-AzVMDiagnosticsExtension -ResourceGroupName "YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP" -VMName "YOUR_VM").PublicSettings | Out-File -Verbose $ConfigFilePath

Application Insights Profiler WadCfg:

"WadCfg": {
  "SinksConfig": {
    "Sink": [
      {
        "name": "MyApplicationInsightsProfilerSink",
        "ApplicationInsightsProfiler": "YOUR_APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATION_KEY"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Run the following command to pass the updated config to the Set-AzVMDiagnosticsExtension command.
```
Set-AzVMDiagnosticsExtension -ResourceGroupName "YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP" -VMName "YOUR_VM" -DiagnosticsConfigurationPath $ConfigFilePath
```
Note

Set-AzVMDiagnosticsExtension might require the -StorageAccountName argument. If your original diagnostics configuration had the storageAccountName property in the protectedSettings section (which isn't downloadable), be sure to pass the same original value you had in this cmdlet call.

IIS Http Tracing feature

If the intended application is running through IIS, enable the IIS Http Tracing Windows feature:

Establish remote access to the environment.

Use the Add Windows features window, or run the following command in PowerShell (as administrator):

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName IIS-HttpTracing -Online -All

If establishing remote access is a problem, you can use the Azure CLI to run the following command:

az vm run-command invoke -g MyResourceGroupName -n MyVirtualMachineName --command-id RunPowerShellScript --scripts "Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName IIS-HttpTracing -Online -All"

Deploy your application.

Set Profiler sink using Azure Resource Explorer

Since the Azure portal doesn't provide a way to set the Application Insights Profiler sink, you can use Azure Resource Explorer to set the sink.

Note

If you deploy the VM again, the sink will be lost. You'll need to update the config you use when deploying the VM to preserve this setting.

Verify the Microsoft Azure Diagnostics extension is installed by viewing the extensions installed for your virtual machine.
Find the VM Diagnostics extension for your VM:
1. Go to https://resources.azure.com.
2. Expand subscriptions and find the subscription holding the resource group with your VM.
3. Drill down to your VM extensions by selecting your resource group, followed by Microsoft.Compute > virtualMachines > [your virtual machine] > extensions.
Add the Application Insights Profiler sink to the SinksConfig node under WadCfg. If you don't already have a SinksConfig section, you may need to add one. To add the sink:
- Specify the proper Application Insights iKey in your settings.
- Switch the explorers mode to Read/Write in the upper right corner.
- Press the blue Edit button.
```
"WadCfg": {
  "SinksConfig": {
    "Sink": [
      {
        "name": "MyApplicationInsightsProfilerSink",
        "ApplicationInsightsProfiler": "YOUR_APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATION_KEY"
      }
    ]
  }
}        
```
When you're done editing the config, press PUT.
If the put is successful, a green check will appear in the middle of the screen.