Azure Application Insights - APM integration with Java Applications

The focus of this article is to detail about integration of Java based application monitoring into Application Insights.

The following is the Agenda :

1) Brief Introduction about Azure Application Insights

2) Setup a sample Java Application on WildFly server running on Azure Virtual machine

3) Publish the Application and allow it to be accessible from LAN (VNET) and Internet

4) Provisioning of Azure Application Insights

5) Integration of sample java application with Application Insights

6) Application Insights monitoring dashboards

If you are specifically looking for the integration of Java application with Application sights, skip the sections and have a look into Step : 5) Integration of sample java application with Application Insights

Application Insights

Application insight is a Microsoft Azure native APM monitoring tool which helps the developers and DevOps professionals to understand about the application performance and how it is being used.

Image Reference : Microsoft Official documentation

Application Insights is billed based on the volume of telemetry data that your application sends and the number of web tests that you choose to run, The telemetry data is billed per Azure Log Analytics data ingestion rates.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/app-insights-overview

2 & 3) Setup a sample Java Application on WildFly server running on Azure Virtual machine

Here i’m going to host a sample java application on wildfly 20.4 installed on windows server 2019 azure virtual machine.

Step 1: Installing Azure windows virtual machine

Reference : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-windows-virtual-machine-in-azure/3-exercise-create-a-vm 

Step 2: Install and configure Java & wildfly server

Reference: https://darrenoneill.eu/?p=594 

For the testing purpose you could run the wildfly server from binary instead of installing it as a service.

I’ve copied the wildfly server directory into C:\ 

By default wildfly server listen on port 8080 for web service and 9990 for management console

http://localhost:8080

http://localhost:9990 

Create a user account to login to Wildfly management console.

Navigate to C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\bin\ and run add-user.bat or add-user.ps1 (for windows OS)

Hit enter and input the password while prompt in the interactive cmd window

Open a browser tab and access wildfly management console http://localhost:9990 

Step 3: Host a Sample Java application

Download the Sample Web App war file from the link below Link.

Reference: https://github.com/AKSarav/SampleWebApp/raw/master/dist/SampleWebApp.war 

Open a browser tab and access wildfly management console http://localhost:9990 

Navigate to “Deployments” and drag & drop the Sample Web App war file into the right side pane which deploys the application in wildfly.

Open a new tab in the browser and try to access the webapp http://localhost:8080/SampleWebApp 

Step 4: Allow the WebApp to be accessible from LAN and internet.

Navigate to WildFly server root directory C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\standalone\configuration and open standalone.xml

Amend the following in standalone.xml

    <interfaces>

        <interface name="management">

            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:0.0.0.0}"/>

        </interface>

        <interface name="public">

            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:0.0.0.0}"/>

        </interface>

    </interfaces>

Restart the WildFly server by closing and re-ran standalone.bat file under C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\bin

Now you will be able to access the webapp using the network  interface IP address of your virtual machine.

Step 5: To Allow your webapp to be accessible from Internet

SInce it is a lab I'm exposing the virtual machine directly to the internet which is not at all recommended on any cloud hosted environments.

Application gateway, Proxy, Firewall, load balancer or any other flavor of load balancers can be added  in front of your virtual machine based on your wish to secure the traffic

Whitelist port 8080 on windows firewall (check IP tables if you’ve choose Linux)

Open a  powershell window and input the below command

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "ALLOW TCP PORT 8080" -Direction inbound -Profile Any -Action Allow -LocalPort 8080 -Protocol TCP

Open port 8080 on Azure network security group attached to virtual machine on subnet.

Get the public IP address associated with the virtual machine and access it from your local computer to make sure it is accessible.

Now your infrastructure and application is ready to explore Application insights.

4) Provisioning of Azure Application Insights

Login to your Azure subscription and on the search bar type “Application Insights” then click on the create button.

Here I’m going to create a classic Application Insights which is going to be deprecated in the near future, you could try out the one which is work-space based (ie use Log Analytics work space).

Fill up the basic details and click on review and create.

5) Integration of sample java application with Application Insights

Configure Application Insights JavaAgent on WebServer

The Agent configuration can be done in 2 ways: inserting a piece of code into your application code but it is now old school.

So we will be using JavaAgent (Agent based monitoring which captures heath, state and performance of the application from inside of it).

Login to the virtual machine, create a directory for AppInsight under any volume, download and copy the agent into it.

Download JavaAgent provided by Microsoft from the below link

https://github.com/microsoft/ApplicationInsights-Java/releases/download/3.1.1/applicationinsights-agent-3.1.1.jar 

Create  a new file with name and extension applicationinsights.json 

• Strictly follow the naming convention (applicationinsights) and file extension (json)

• The file must be placed in the directory/folder on which the applicationinsights-agent-3.1.1.jar file is copied.

Login to Azure portal → Application Insights → Your application insights → Overview → copy the connection string.

Login back to the virtual machine -> Navigate to the file applicationinsights.json and open it in a notepad or notepad ++ → copy eth connection string as shown below and save the file

Navigate to “”C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\bin” and open “”standalone.conf.bat” file.

Input the following parameters into the file.

set "JAVA_OPTS=-javaagent:C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\AppInsight\applicationinsights-agent-3.1.1.jar -Xms768m -Xmx6144m -XX:MetaspaceSize=1152M -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=3072m"

what if you choose Springboot, Tomcat, jetty or websphere for hosting your application ?

Refer the below article for the java-standalone-arguments

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/java-standalone-arguments

Restart the WildFly server by closing and re-ran standalone.bat file under C:\wildfly-24.0.0.Final\bin

When the wildfly server boots up you will be able to find the below in the cmd.

It means your configuration is loaded as expected and soon it will start sending application telemetries to the Application Insights.

Navigate back to the AppInsight directory and you could see a log file “applicationinsights.log”

 

Repeat above steps on all other virtual machines hosted with same application parse the logs and telemetry to Application Insights

6) Application Insights monitoring dashboards

The focus of this write up is to help developers or DevOps/Cloud engineers to integrate java based applications into Azure application Insights APM.

Few screenshots from Application Insights to understand about the basic capabilities of the Azure services offering.

Overview of your Application performance

Application map (display various components and integration in the App)

Live Metrics from your App

Availability of the Application from different geographic regions.

You could create a classic or standard rule to measure the availability of the application.

Failures within the Application

Drill down reports for each case.

Performance of the Application

Number of Active session to the Application

A report on usage cost

Thanks for reading and Hope it helps.

Reference :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/app-insights-overview

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-windows-virtual-machine-in-azure/3-exercise-create-a-vm

https://darrenoneill.eu/?p=594

https://github.com/AKSarav/SampleWebApp/raw/master/dist/SampleWebApp.war

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/java-standalone-arguments

Azure Microsoft Learn Practice Lab Reference

 Azure Microsoft Learn Practice Lab Reference

Microsoft learn is one of the learning platform which helped me to upgrade my skills in Azure cloud infrastructure.

If you're looking for a study guide to get start with Azure cloud journey, i would strongly recommend to start with Microsoft Learn - Azure.

Microsoft learn provide free sandbox for practicing the labs along with informative documentation.

In-order to get start you need not to have a credit/debit card, instead a Microsoft account is more than enough.

Here I've consolidated the list of selected Lab exercises which helps you all to learn Azure cloud.

Try it out from today and practice the Lab for free.

Activation of Labs are self explanatory, just follow the documentation.

Good Luck 👍

Azure Compute

1) Virtual machines

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/intro-to-azure-virtual-machines/3-create-a-vm

windows -  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-windows-virtual-machine-in-azure/3-exercise-create-a-vm

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-windows-virtual-machine-in-azure/5-exercise-connect-to-a-windows-vm-using-rdp

Linux - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-linux-virtual-machine-in-azure/4-exercise-create-a-vm

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-linux-virtual-machine-in-azure/3-exercise-generate-ssh-key

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-linux-virtual-machine-in-azure/6-exercise-connect-to-a-linux-vm-using-ssh

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-linux-virtual-machine-in-azure/8-exercise-manage-vm

Linux VM with Azure CLI - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/2-create-a-vm

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/3-testing-the-vm

Exercise - Sizing VMs properly - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/5-sizing-vms

Exercise - Query system and runtime information about the VM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/6-querying-vms

Exercise - Start and stop your VM with the Azure CLI - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/7-managing-vms

Exercise - Install software on your VM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/manage-virtual-machines-with-azure-cli/8-installing-software

Exercise - Create an Azure Resource using scripts in Azure PowerShell - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/automate-azure-tasks-with-powershell/6-exercise-create-resource-interactively

Exercise - Create and save scripts in Azure PowerShell - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/automate-azure-tasks-with-powershell/8-exercise-create-resource-using-script

Exercise - Create an image of an Azure VM from the Azure CLI and provision a new VM

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/deploy-vms-from-vhd-templates/4-exercise-create-image-provision-vm?pivots=windows-cloud

Exercise - Add a data disk to a VM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/add-and-size-disks-in-azure-virtual-machines/3-exercise-add-data-disks-to-azure-virtual-machines

Exercise - Resize a VM disk - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/add-and-size-disks-in-azure-virtual-machines/6-exercise-resize-disks

2) APP Service

Exercise - Create a web app in the Azure portal - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/host-a-web-app-with-azure-app-service/3-exercise-create-a-web-app-in-the-azure-portal?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Write code to implement a web application - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/host-a-web-app-with-azure-app-service/5-exercise-implement-a-web-application?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Deploy your code to App Service - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/host-a-web-app-with-azure-app-service/7-exercise-deploy-your-code-to-app-service?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Publish an ASP.NET app from Visual Studio - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/publish-azure-web-app-with-visual-studio/5-exercise-publish-an-asp.net-app-from-visual-studio

3) Azure Function

Exercise - Create a function app in the Azure portal - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-serverless-logic-with-azure-functions/3-create-an-azure-functions-app-in-the-azure-portal?pivots=javascript

Exercise - Add logic to the function app - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-serverless-logic-with-azure-functions/5-add-logic-to-the-function-app?pivots=javascript

Exercise - Create a timer trigger - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/execute-azure-function-with-triggers/4-create-timer-trigger?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Create an HTTP trigger - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/execute-azure-function-with-triggers/6-create-http-trigger?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Create a Blob trigger - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/execute-azure-function-with-triggers/8-create-blob-trigger

Exercise - Create a workflow using Durable Functions - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-long-running-serverless-workflow-with-durable-functions/4-exercise-create-a-workflow-using-durable-functions

Exercise - Add a durable timer to manage a long-running task - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-long-running-serverless-workflow-with-durable-functions/6-exercise-add-a-durable-timer-to-manage-a-long-running-task

Azure Storage

Exercise - Create a storage account using the Azure portal - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/create-azure-storage-account/5-exercise-create-a-storage-account

You can use above Lab exercise for practicing Blob, File, Queue and Table storage

1) Blob Storage

Exercise Blob Storage - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/store-app-data-with-azure-blob-storage/4-create-storage-resources

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/store-app-data-with-azure-blob-storage/5-configure-and-initialize-the-client-library

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/store-app-data-with-azure-blob-storage/6-getting-blob-references

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/store-app-data-with-azure-blob-storage/7-blob-uploads-and-downloads

2) Queue Storage

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/communicate-between-apps-with-azure-queue-storage/3-exercise-create-the-azure-storage-infrastructure

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/communicate-between-apps-with-azure-queue-storage/5-exercise-identify-a-queue

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/communicate-between-apps-with-azure-queue-storage/7-exercise-implement-enqueue

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/communicate-between-apps-with-azure-queue-storage/8-exercise-implement-dequeue

3) Azure Storage CORS

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/set-up-cors-website-storage/4-exercise-enable-cors-for-your-azure-storage-services-using-rest-api

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/set-up-cors-website-storage/6-exercise-enable-cors-for-your-azure-storage-services-using-the-azure-cli

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/set-up-cors-website-storage/8-exercise-enable-cors-for-your-azure-storage-services-using-powershell

4) Azure Storage - Static Website and CDN

Exercise - Deploy a static website to blob storage - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-cdn-static-resources-blob-storage/1b-exercise-deploy-a-website

Exercise - Use a Content Delivery Network to publish a static website - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-cdn-static-resources-blob-storage/3-exercise-use-cdn-serve-static-site

Exercise - Update a Website and republish to a Content Delivery Network - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-cdn-static-resources-blob-storage/4-exercise-update-static-site-republish-cdn

Exercise - Customize and manage CDN behavior - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-cdn-static-resources-blob-storage/6-exercise-customize-manage-cdn-behavior

5) WebApp and Azure Storage

Exercise - Create a new app to work with Azure storage - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/3-exercise-create-your-app?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Create an Azure storage account - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/4-exercise-create-storage-account

Exercise - Add the storage client library to your app https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/6-exercise-add-the-azure-storage-lib?pivots=csharp- 

Exercise - Add Azure Storage configuration to your app - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/8-exercise-add-azure-storage-configuration-to-your-app?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Connect your application to your Azure Storage account - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/9-initialize-the-storage-account-model?pivots=csharp

Exercise - Connect your application to your Azure Storage account -  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-an-app-to-azure-storage/10-exercise-connect-with-your-azure-storage-configuration?pivots=csharp

6) Azure Disk Storage

Exercise - Enable and configure Azure VM disk cache with the Azure portal - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/caching-and-performance-azure-storage-and-disks/4-exercise-enable-and-configure-azure-vm-disk-cache-by-using-the-azure-portal

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/caching-and-performance-azure-storage-and-disks/6-exercise-manage-cache-settings-with-powershell

Azure Network

Exercise - Design and implement IP addressing for Azure virtual networks - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/design-ip-addressing-for-azure/5-exercise-implement-vnets

Exercise - Implement a hub-spoke network topology on Azure - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/hub-and-spoke-network-architecture/4-exercise-implement-hub-spoke

Exercise VPN Gateway - Exercise - Prepare Azure and on-premises virtual networks by using Azure CLI commands

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/connect-on-premises-network-with-vpn-gateway/4-exercise-create-a-site-to-site-vpn-gateway-using-azure-cli-commands

VNET Peering - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/integrate-vnets-with-vnet-peering/3-exercise-prepare-vnets-for-peering-using-azure-cli-commands

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/integrate-vnets-with-vnet-peering/4-exercise-configure-vnet-peering-connections-using-azure-cli-commands

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/integrate-vnets-with-vnet-peering/5-exercise-verify-vnet-peering

Traffic Manger - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/distribute-load-with-traffic-manager/3-exercise-priority-routing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/distribute-load-with-traffic-manager/5-exercise-performance-routing

NVA and Routing - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/control-network-traffic-flow-with-routes/3-exercise-create-custom-routes

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/control-network-traffic-flow-with-routes/5-exercise-create-nva-vm

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/control-network-traffic-flow-with-routes/6-exercise-route-traffic-through-nva

Azure Active Directory

Exercise - Add and delete users in Azure Active Directory - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-users-and-groups-in-azure-active-directory/3-exercise-add-delete-users-azure-ad

Exercise - Assign users to Azure Active Directory groups - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-users-and-groups-in-azure-active-directory/5-exercise-assign-users-azure-ad-groups

Exercise - Give guest users access in Azure Active Directory B2B - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/create-users-and-groups-in-azure-active-directory/7-exercise-guest-user-access-azure-ad-b2b

Exercise - Set up self-service password reset - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/allow-users-reset-their-password/4-exercise-set-up-self-service-password-reset

Exercise - Customize directory branding -  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/allow-users-reset-their-password/5-exercise-customize-directory-branding

Management and Governance 

Exercise - Use metric alerts to alert on performance issues in your Azure environment - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/incident-response-with-alerting-on-azure/4-exercise-metric-alerts

Exercise - Use activity log alerts to alert on events within your Azure infrastructure - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/incident-response-with-alerting-on-azure/7-exercise-activity-log-alerts