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Add Azure Application Insights by using Visual Studio Connected Services

  • Article
  • 2 minutes to read

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac noVisual Studio Code

With Visual Studio, you can connect any of the following to Azure Application Insights by using the Connected Services feature:

  • .NET Framework console app
  • ASP.NET MVC (.NET Framework)
  • ASP.NET Core
  • .NET Core (including console app, WPF, Windows Forms, class library)
  • .NET Core Worker Role
  • Azure Functions
  • Universal Windows Platform App
  • Xamarin
  • Cordova

The connected service functionality adds all the needed references and connection code to your project, and modifies your configuration files appropriately.

Note

This topic applies to Visual Studio on Windows. For Visual Studio for Mac, see Connected services in Visual Studio for Mac.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio with the Azure workload installed.
  • A project of one of the supported types

Connect to Azure Application Insights using Connected Services

  1. Open your project in Visual Studio.

  2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Connected Services node, and, from the context menu, select Add Connected Service.

  3. In the Connected Services tab, select the + icon for Service Dependencies.

    Add Service Dependency

  4. In the Add Dependency page, select Azure Application Insights.

    Add Azure Application Insights

    If you aren't signed in already, sign into your Azure account. If you don't have an Azure account, you can sign up for a free trial.

  5. In the Configure Azure Application Insights screen, select an existing Azure Application Insights component, and select Next.

    If you need to create a new component, go to the next step. Otherwise, skip to step 7.

    Connect to existing Application Insights component

  6. To create an Application Insights component:

    1. Select Create a new Application Insights component at the bottom of the screen.

    2. Fill out the Application Insights: Create new screen, and select Create.

      New Azure App Insights component

    3. When the Configure Azure Application Insights screen is displayed, the new component appears in the list. Select the new component in the list, and select Next.

  7. Enter an instrumentation key name, or choose the default, and choose whether you want the connection string stored in a local secrets file, or in Azure Key Vault.

    Specify connection string

  8. The Summary of changes screen shows all the modifications that will be made to your project if you complete the process. If the changes look OK, choose Finish.

    Summary of changes

  9. The connection appears under the Service Dependencies section of the Connected Services tab.

    Service dependencies

See also