Use Azure Functions in Azure Container Apps

This article shows you how to create an Azure Functions app in Azure Container Apps, complete with preconfigured autoscaling rules.

Prerequisites

Resource	Description
Azure account	An Azure account with an active subscription. If you don't have one, you can create one for free.
Azure Storage account	A blob storage account to store state for your Azure Functions.
Azure Application Insights	An instance of Azure Application Insights to collect data about your container app.

Create a Functions app

The following steps show you how to use a sample container image to create your container app. If you want to use this procedure with a custom container image, see Create your first function app in Azure Container Apps.

1. Go to the Azure portal and search for Container Apps in the search bar.

2. Select Container Apps.

3. Select Create.

4. Select Container App

5. In the Basics section, enter the following values.

   Under Project details:

   Property	Value
   Subscription	Select your Azure subscription.
   Resource group	Select Create new resource group, name it my-aca-functions-group, and select OK.
   Container app name	Enter my-aca-functions-app.

6. Next to Optimize for Azure Functions, check the checkbox.

   

7. Under Container Apps environment, enter:

   Property	Value
   Region	Select a region closest to you.
   Container Apps environment	Select Create new environment.

8. In the environment setup window, enter:

   Property	Value
   Environment name	Enter my-aca-functions-environment
   Zone redundancy	Select Disabled.

9. Select Create to save your values.

10. Select Next: Container to switch to the Container section.

11. Next to Use quickstart image, leave this box unchecked.

12. Under the Container details section, enter the following values.

    Property	Value
    Name	This box is prefilled with your selection in the last section.
    Image source	Select Docker Hub or other registries
    Subscription	Select your subscription.
    Image type	Select Public.
    Registry login server	Enter mcr.microsoft.com
    Image and tag	Enter k8se/quickstart-functions:latest

13. Under Environment variables, enter values for the following variables:

    • AzureWebJobsStorage
    • APPINSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATIONKEY or APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING

    Enter either Managed identity or connection string values for these variables. Managed Identity is recommended.

    The AzureWebJobsStorage variable is a required Azure Storage account connection string for Azure Functions. This storage account stores function execution logs, manage triggers and bindings, and maintains state for durable functions.

    Application Insights is a monitoring and diagnostic service that provides insights into the performance and usage of your Azure Functions. This monitoring helps you track request rates, response times, failure rates, and other metrics.

14. Select Next > Ingress to switch to the Ingress section and enter the following values.

    Property	Value
    Ingress	Select the Enabled checkbox to enable ingress.
    Ingress traffic	Select Accepting traffic from anywhere.
    Ingress type	Select HTTP.
    Target port	Enter 80.

15. Select Review + Create.

16. Select Create.

17. Once the deployment is complete, select Go to resource.

18. From the Overview page, select the link next to Application URL to open the application in a new browser tab.

19. Append /api/HttpExample to the end of the URL.

    A message stating "HTTP trigger function processed a request" is returned in the browser.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription.
  • If you don't have one, you can create one for free.
• Install the Azure CLI.

Create a Functions App

To sign in to Azure from the CLI, run the following command and follow the prompts to complete the authentication process.

1. Sign in to Azure.

   az login
   

2. To ensure you're running the latest version of the CLI, run the upgrade command.

   az upgrade
   

3. Install or update the Azure Container Apps extension for the CLI.

   If you receive errors about missing parameters when you run az containerapp commands in Azure CLI or cmdlets from the Az.App module in PowerShell, be sure you have the latest version of the Azure Container Apps extension installed.

   az extension add --name containerapp --allow-preview true --upgrade
   
   
   

   Now that the current extension or module is installed, register the Microsoft.App and Microsoft.OperationalInsights namespaces.

   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App
   

   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights
   

4. Create environment variables.

   RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME="my-aca-functions-group"
   CONTAINER_APP_NAME="my-aca-functions-app"
   ENVIRONMENT_NAME="my-aca-functions-environment"
   LOCATION="westus"
   STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME="storage-account-name"
   STORAGE_ACCOUNT_SKU="storage-account-sku"
   APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_NAME="application-insights-name"
   

5. Create a resource group.

   az group create \
     --name $RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME \
     --location $LOCATION \
     --output none
   

6. Create the Container Apps environment.

   az containerapp env create \
       --name $ENVIRONMENT_NAME \
       --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME \
       --location $LOCATION \
       --output none
   

7. Create the Storage Account

   az storage account create \
     --name $STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME \
     --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
     --location $LOCATION \
     --sku $STORAGE_ACCOUNT_SKU
   

8. Acquire Storage Account Connection String

   $STORAGE_ACCOUNT_CONNECTION_STRING = az storage account show-connection-string \
     --name $STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME \
     --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
     --query connectionString \
     --output tsv
   

9. Create Azure Applications Insights

   az monitor app-insights component create \
   --app $APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_NAME \
   --location $LOCATION \
     --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
     --application-type web
   

10. Acquire application Insights Connection string

    $APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING = az monitor app-insights component show \
      --app $APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_NAME \
      --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
      --query connectionString \
      --output tsv
    

11. Create an Azure Functions container app.

    az containerapp create \
      --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME \
      --name $CONTAINER_APP_NAME \
      --environment $ENVIRONMENT_NAME \
      --image mcr.microsoft.com/azure-functions/dotnet8-quickstart-demo:1.0 \
      --ingress external \
      --target-port 80 \
      --kind functionapp \
      --query properties.outputs.fqdn
    

    This command returns the URL of your Functions app. Copy this URL and paste it into a web browser.

12. Create an Azure Functions container app with --revisions-mode multiple for multirevision scenario

    az containerapp create \
      --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
      --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
      --environment $CONTAINERAPPS_ENVIRONMENT \
      --image mcr.microsoft.com/azure-functions/dotnet8-quickstart-demo:1.0 \
      --target-port 80 \
      --ingress external \
      --kind functionapp \
      --workload-profile-name $WORKLOAD_PROFILE_NAME \
      --env-vars AzureWebJobsStorage="$STORAGE_ACCOUNT_CONNECTION_STRING" APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING="$APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING"
    

13. For multirevision scenario, upgrade the containerapp and split traffic

    az containerapp update \
      --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
      --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
      --image mcr.microsoft.com/azure-functions/dotnet8-quickstart-demo:latest
    
    az containerapp ingress traffic set -resource-group \
      --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
      --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
      --revision-weight {revision1_name}=50 \
      --revision-weight {revision2_name}=50
    

14. Append /api/HttpExample to the end of the URL.

    A message stating "HTTP trigger function processed a request" is returned in the browser.

Manage functions

You can manage your deployed functions within Azure Container Apps using the Azure CLI. The following commands help you list, inspect, and interact with the functions running in your containerized environment.

Note

When dealing with multirevision scenarios, add the --revision <REVISION_NAME> parameter to your command to target a specific revision.

List functions

View all functions deployed in your container app:

# List all functions
az containerapp function list \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME

Show function details

Get detailed information about a specific function:

az containerapp function show \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
  --function-name <FUNCTIONS_APP_NAME>

Monitor function invocations

Monitoring your function app is essential for understanding its performance and diagnosing issues. The following commands show you how to retrieve function URLs, trigger invocations, and view detailed telemetry and invocation summaries by using the Azure CLI. Ensure to invoke the function few times by curl -X POST "fqdn/api/HttpExample" before calling the traces

1. To view invocation traces, get detailed traces of function invocations.

   az containerapp function invocations traces \
     --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
     --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
     --function-name <FUNCTIONS_APP_NAME> \
     --timespan 5h \
     --limit 3
   

2. View an invocation summary to review successful and failed invocations.

   az containerapp function invocations summary \
     --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
     --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
     --function-name <FUNCTIONS_APP_NAME> \
     --timespan 5h
   

Manage function keys

Azure Functions uses keys for authentication and authorization. You can manage the following different types of keys:

• Host keys: Access any function in the app
• Master keys: Provide administrative access
• System keys: Used by Azure services
• Function keys: Access specific functions

The following commands show you how to manage keys for the host. To run the same command for a specific Functions app, add the --function-name <FUNCTIONS_APP_NAME> parameter to your command.

List keys

Use the following commands to list host-level and function-specific keys for your Azure Functions running in Container Apps.

Note

Keep a minimum of one replica running for the following keys management commands to work.

az containerapp function keys list \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
  --key-type hostKey

Show a specific key

Show the value of a specific host-level key for your function app with the following command:

az containerapp function keys show \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
  --key-name <KEY_NAME> \
  --key-type hostKey

Set a key

Set a specific host-level key for your function app with the following command:

az containerapp function keys set \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --name $CONTAINERAPP_NAME \
  --key-name <KEY_NAME> \
  --key-value <KEY_VALUE> \
  --key-type hostKey

Related content

• Azure Functions on Azure Container Apps overview