How to use the Azure Application Insights tile

The Azure Application Insights tile allows you to query Application Insights for data (both stand-alone and in the context of objects within SCOM) and display that information on your Dashboard Server dashboard.

Using this tile you can unify data held within SCOM and Azure on the same screen to bring all collected monitoring information together into a single pane of glass.

The ability to render information as a graph is a feature of the Azure portal rather than the App Insights Query language itself. At this time any queries run using the render statement will still return tabular or scalar data rather than graphs, depending on the tile.

How to configure an Azure Applications Insights tile

You need to have an Azure Applications Insights provider before you can configure an Azure Application Insights tile. If you haven't created a provider yet, see How to add an Azure Application Insights provider.

1. Add a new tile to a dashboard and choose the Azure tile.

   

2. Choose the visualization for your tile.

   Scalar

   A single value such as a number of customers or incidents.

   Example:

   

   

   Grid

   A table of data, for example incidents or tickets.

   Tip: You can turn the individual rows into links in the settings. For example, if you're displaying tickets in your grid, you can link the rows to the ticket in your external ticket system.

   Did you know? Since Dashboard Server 5.4 users can search the grid, and temporarily change the column size and sorting of the grid (by clicking on the column headers) without having to access the settings. They can also expand a row by clicking on the three dots at the end of each row if cells are too small to show their entire content.

   

3. Scope:

   The scope is optional, and allows you to select Azure resources to inject into the query.

   Scope options on dashboards

   Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.

   List	List allows you to select one or more objects or groups. You can add multiple objects and groups. To remove an object or group click the x to the right of its name. Tip: Start typing and after two characters you'll see suggestions that match the name appear. Tips for using wildcards when searching for objects or groups By default searching will look for the top 10 items containing the words listed in the search. If you wish to create a more specific search you will need to use wildcards (*). If you place a wildcard after the term you are looking for, it will find all the objects which start with that word searched and any terms that may follow. If you place a wildcard at the start of the search term, it will look for objects that contain the searched word and also have terms before that word. If you enclose your searched term in wildcards it will look for objects which contain the searched word, this object will not begin or end with the term searched.
   Group	Group allows you to select members of a specific group. Only one group can be selected.
   Advanced	Advanced allows you to select a group, class or both. You must at least define either a group or class. You can define both. You can also use criteria to narrow down your selection. Group: Same as the group option above. Class: Class equates to the target class within SCOM. As you type the dropdown will be populated with suggestions of matching classes from SCOM, from which you can select the required class. Criteria: Criteria allows you to create an expression to further refine the scope.
   Examples for commonly used criteria Objects you would like to see Criteria Objects with particular text in their name DisplayName like '%Server1%' Objects starting with a particular string DisplayName like 'test%' All objects in maintenance mode InMaintenanceMode = 'TRUE' Only healthy objects HealthState = 1 Objects with a health state in SCOM of 0, an unknown health state (uninitialized), a gray health state icon with a question mark. HealthState = 0 Objects that are not healthy HealthState != 1 Objects in critical state HealthState = 3 Objects in critical or warning state HealthState = 2 or HealthState = 3 To show all gray uninitialised objects HealthState = 0 OR HealthState IS NULL All objects not in maintenance mode InMaintenanceMode != 'TRUE' Objects where the parent agent is offline IsAvailable='false' Objects that are offline, in maintenance or state unknown IsAvailable='false' OR InMaintenanceMode=1 OR HealthState=0 Computers with a particular OS OSVersion = '6.3.9600' List objects by name and filter by HealthState (Name like '%Server3%' OR Name like '%Server4%' OR Name like '%Server2%') AND HealthState=3 List objects by SCOM Id and filter by HealthState Id IN ('7021174b-9e5d-5fbf-878a-42b9f0bf6f4a', '9bd4a1cc-f07a-0e36-b37d-d9ee974e0f3c') AND HealthState=3 Exclude object from the Group specified DisplayName not like '%server3%' Exclude objects from the Group specified (DisplayName NOT LIKE '%server3%') AND (DisplayName NOT LIKE '%server4%') For more information see: How to use criteria when scoping objects How to use criteria when scoping alerts

   Scope options on perspectives

   Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.

   The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:

   • the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")

   • the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")

   After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.

   Suggestions

   Suggestions are generated based on the object you are currently viewing. You'll see a list of relevant scope options based on the object's relations to other objects. Suggestions don't cover every possible scope, but they are a quick and easy way to select a suitable scope for your tile.

   Note: Suggestions won't be shown if an object has no children, parents or siblings.

   Tip: If the exact scope you want isn't listed in the suggestions, you can select a suggested scope that is similar to the one you want, and then click on custom. The custom section will now automatically be filled with the suggestion you picked and you can edit the scope here to adjust it exactly to your needs. This is a more intuitive way to pick a scope than starting in the custom section and navigating the SCOM object model for classes and groups.

   Double-check the scope when using suggestions: Using suggestions is an easy way to pick a scope, but you need to make sure that the generated suggestion is appropriate for all objects that use the perspective.
   For example, when you pick a suggestion for an EA, you will get suggestions that are specific to the map, dependencies, and availability tests for this one EA. On perspectives you want to use for all EAs, you have to change the scope suggestion in the custom section so that the tile work for all EAs.

   Walkthrough: Editing a scope suggestion to make it work for all EAs

   Enterprise Applications are designed so that you can map out the servers that make up the application. You can then configure tiles to show information related to just the servers on the EA's map. When you create a perspective that will be used for all EAs, you need to make sure that you scope the tiles so that they work for any EA. When you start with a suggestion, the tile's scope only works for the one EA you're currently looking at, and this is why you need to edit the scope:

   1. For an EA you want to scope to the servers that are specified on the EA map by selecting something from the suggestions (Dashboard Server 4.2 and above) that shows something similar to the following:

      This /<YourApplicationName> Map / ... / Windows Computer

      The above will scope the tile to all the objects of class Windows Computer on this EAs map.

      The screenshot below shows some scope suggestions for an application called FinanceXS. The bold text shows the currently selected scope is This object. The cursor shows the option This / FinanceXS / ... / Windows Computer. Once chosen this scope will show all the Windows computers shown on the applications map.

      

      Next, we need to adjust the specified scope to allow it to work for all EAs, rather than just this one.

   2. In the scope section click custom.

   3. Click on the text <YourApplicationName> Map (children) which is your first scope step. This will expand the scope step so you can edit it.

      

   4. Remove the auto-populated class <YourApplicationName> Map by clicking the cross x next to it.

      

   5. Start typing Enterprise Application - Map and select this from the list to add this class. This is so that this tile scope will work for all EAs, rather than just this one EA.

      

   6. The scope is now configured to show all the Windows computers on the EA's map, whichever EA you happen to be viewing with the perspective.

   How to read the suggestions

   You can pick between "this object" and objects that are related to this object as parents, children or siblings. The suggestions for children are written as paths that follow the SCOM object tree structure, parents and siblings can be identified by the word parent or sibling in the suggestion.

   A parent of an object is any object that hosts or contains that object.
   A child of an object is any object that this object hosts or contains.
   A sibling of an object is any object of the same class that is hosted by the same parent.

   This object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to the object currently viewed. "this object" option which does NOT mean the actual one object like for the target setting but the relative object I'm looking at
   This / child / child / class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. You select objects of a particular class that are contained in path. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path.
   This / *	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. If a path ends with a wildcard (*) it means that you select all objects of any class within the path. Technically it means that we fill the class field with the class "logical entity" since every object in SCOM has this class, it is a "base" class Example: This / IIS Web Server / * selects all objects of any class in the level below This / IIS Web Server.
   This / child / ... / class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. If a path contains an ellipsis (...) it means that you select objects of a particular class that are contained in all of the objects that are contained in the path preceding the ellipsis. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path. Example: This / Sales App Map / ... / Windows Computer selects all objects of the class Windows Computer in the This / Sales App Map path.
   Parent class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to parents of the object currently viewed.
   Sibling class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to siblings of the object currently viewed.
   Show more triangle next to a suggestion	You can click the show more triangle to expand the list of suggestions and see more specific paths.

   Example for navigating suggestions in an EA

   If you are looking at an EA, the path to find all windows computers in that EA may read Map / ... / Windows Computer. It returns all objects of the Windows Computer class contained within all of the paths under Map.

   To narrow the scope down, you can click on the triangle to expand the suggestion and select one of the more specific paths. If you select Map / Web / Windows Computer you will find all objects of the Windows Computer class in the path Map / Web.

   If you choose the option Map / * you'll find all objects contained in the map. If you extend this suggestion by clicking on the triangle, you'll see suggestions to select all objects in a more specific path, for example Map / Web / *.

   

   Custom

   Here you can pick objects that are related to the object you are currently looking at. If you want to create a specific scope that is not listed under suggestions, you can create the scope here.

   Tip: You can pick a similar scope under suggestions first and then click on custom to edit it.

   How to pick a simple relation (one step through the SCOM model)

   1. At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.

   2. Class:

      Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.

      Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.

      Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.

      Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there.

   3. Criteria:

      You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.

      Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.

   .

   Example for picking a simple relation

   For example, for a perspective created for the group IIS8 Computer Group adding a Status tile scoped to show children with a class of object will show the group members, i.e. the members of the IIS8 Computer Group.

   

   How to pick advanced relations (multiple steps through the SCOM model)

   If you need to traverse a more advanced SCOM object model like an EA, you can use the + button to add more steps. This creates a scope that can go through any kind of path of the SCOM object model.

   Complete the following steps and then click the + button after you're done to add the next level of SCOM objects:

   1. At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.

   2. Class:

      Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.

      Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.

      Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.

      Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there.

   3. Criteria:

      You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.

      Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.

   .

   Other specific objects

   Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.

   Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.

4. Provider:

   Select your Azure Application Insights provider. If you haven't created a provider yet, see How to add an Azure Application Insights provider.

5. Query:

   The tile uses the query language KQL ("Kusto"). KQL is very rich and offers features such as sorting, projection and calculated values, which you can use to control the display of data in your dashboard.

   Check out our GitHub Samples repository for sample KQL queries from the community that can be used in Azure tiles.

   For more information about writing KQL queries see this external Microsoft article.

   Query tips and examples for Grids

   Example for a performance information request query for a Grid

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   requests
   | summarize percentiles(duration, 50, 90, 95) by bin(timestamp, 1h)

   Tips for Grid queries

   Modify your App Insights query to only return the columns you want to display via project or project away. You can hide columns later in the settings, but filtering them directly in the query will improve performance when loading and displaying the tile.

   Querying multiple (cross-resource) applications

   The Azure API allows you to send a query to multiple workspaces (for Log Analytics) or applications (for App Insights) simultaneously using implicit and explicit cross-resource unions. The Log Analytics and the App Insights tile support both mechanisms, with implicit being easier but explicit offering more control over how data is returned.

   Regardless of which mechanism you use, you may only query across 10 apps (for App Insights) or 10 workspaces (for Log Analytics) with a single cross-resource query (and therefore a single tile), and the provider's configured app is always used.

    

   Using implicit Unions

   When you use implicit unions, you provide a query to the tile and specify up to 9 other additional workspace/app identifiers. The query is automatically sent to the provider's configured workspace and any others you specify, and the output joined together in a single result for further processing. To configure an implicit cross-resource query:

   1. For Azure Log Analytics tiles: In the query panel click add under additional workspaces.

      For Azure App Insights tiles: In the query panel click add under additional applications.

   2. Enter an identifier for your workspace/app (using any of the formats given below) and press enter or deselect the text box.

   3. Either repeat the process by clicking add again and adding additional workspaces/apps, or click next and continue to configure the tile.

    

   Using explicit Unions

   In contrast to implicit unions, explicit ones are specified directly within your query using the Union statement, and allow you to pull in a specific subset of the data in the other workspaces/apps. For further information check out this Azure blog post on Querying across resources.

   For Azure Log Analytics tiles: 
   The example below shows results from the provider's workspace, along with only security updates from another named contosoretail:

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   union Update, (workspace("contosoretail").Update | where Classification == "Security Updates" )
   | where TimeGenerated >= ago(1h)
   | where UpdateState == "Needed"
   | summarize dcount(Computer) by Classification

   For Azure App Insights tiles:
   The example below shows results from the provider's app, along with only GET request exceptions from another named contosoretail:

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     union exceptions, (app("contosoretail").exceptions | where operation_Name contains "GET" )
       | summarize count() by problemId

    

   Identifiers for workspaces

   The following methods are supported to identify your workspace/app:

   Resource name	The human readable name of the resource. Note: If used this must be unique to all Azure subscriptions the provider has access to or the query will fail as ambiguous.
   Qualified name	The "full name" of the workspace, in the following format: For Azure Log Analytics: <subscriptionName>/<resourceGroup>/<workspaceName> For Azure App Insights:  <subscriptionName>/<resourceGroup>/<applicationName> Note: The qualified name may still be ambiguous as subscription names are not unique, but it is extremely unlikely.
   GUID	The GUID (e.g. b438b4f6-912a-46d5-9cb1-b44069212ab4), which is completely unique and unambiguous. For Azure Log Analytics: The GUID is the Workspace ID For Azure App Insights: The GUID is the Application ID
   Azure Resource ID	A string in the following format: For Azure Log Analytics: /subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourcegroups/<resourceGroup>/providers/microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/<componentName> For Azure App Insights:  /subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourcegroups/<resourceGroup>/providers/microsoft.operationalinsights/applications/<applicationName> Note: While the string is unambiguous, it is also extremely long and difficult to work with.

6. Timeframe:

   Here you determine the timeframe for the search query.

   The default timeframe is 24 hours, which means the tile will not return any entries older than 24 hours.

   Take care when using a long timeframe, as this may pull many thousands of entries and significantly impact browser performance.

   If your query doesn't specify a timeframe

   Set the time range to the fixed time range you want to use.

   If your query specifies a timeframe

   If you specify a timeframe in the query (e.g. where timestamp >= ago(2h)), events must satisfy both the timeframe you set here and in the where clause in your query.

   If you want to control the timeframe using only the query, set the tile timeframe to time range > all.

   Note:

   This tile always ignores the dynamic page timeframe set by users.

   What is the page timeframe?

   The page timeframe is the timeframe setting a dashboard or perspective is currently using. When a user changes the page timeframe, all tiles that use the page timeframe will adapt to the new timeframe. Tiles that don't use the dynamic page timeframe aren't affected and won't change.

   

7. Configure the settings for your visualization:

   Settings for Scalars

   Scalar

   Font size	Allows you to set the font size of the value in the tile.
   Unit	Allows you to add a unit to the value displayed in the Scalar tile. For example, if your value shows a time in milliseconds, you can enter "ms" or if your value shows pageviews, you can enter "pageviews".
   Value formatter	Allows you to format the value by using the mustache picker. For example, you can round the value up or down or convert it.

   Color

   Conditional formatting:

   You can display the scalar in different colors based on conditions you defined here. For example, you can display the scalar in green when the value is below 100 and in red when it is above 100.

   1. Click on add to configure a condition.

   2. Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.

      

   3. Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the value property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:

      • Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.

        For example: {{value < 10}} (The color you picked will be used if the value is less than 10)

      • Value is present in the result

        For example: value.IndexOf('error') != -1 (The color you picked will be used if the string value "error" is present in the results)

      • Value matches one of the regular expressions you defined

        For example: value.match(/healthy|good|up/) (The color you picked will be used if the string values are healthy, good, or up)

   Display:

   Here you decide how the color is used:

   Tile background	Highlight the tile in the color you defined.
   Text foreground	Display the text in the color you defined.

   Link options

   Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.

   Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.

   For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is https://www.my-system/ticket-123, where 123 is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URL https://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}.

   • For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property value in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time.

   • For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.

   Examples for URLs with dynamic properties for popular APIs

   Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.

   ServiceNow incidents:
   https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}

   PagerDuty incidents:
   {{incident.html_url}}

   Azure DevOps projects:
   https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}

   Azure DevOps builds:
   https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}

   Zendesk tickets:
   https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}

   Azure Application Insights
   https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
   

   Settings for Grids

   Grid columns

   Grid columns opens the grid designer, where you can show or hide columns, change the order of columns, edit column names or add custom columns.

   How to use the Grid Designer

   Grid options

   Row link	Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link. Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties. For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is https://www.my-system/ticket-123, where 123 is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URL https://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}. For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property value in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you. Examples for URLs with dynamic properties for popular APIs Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold. ServiceNow incidents: https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}} PagerDuty incidents: {{incident.html_url}} Azure DevOps projects: https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}} Azure DevOps builds: https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}} Zendesk tickets: https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}} Azure Application Insights https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
   Show column headers	You can choose between showing or hiding the header for all columns.
   Expand rows automatically	Activate this checkbox if you want the row height to expand automatically based on the row content, for example if your grid uses increased text size, images, emojis etc.
   Limit number of results displayed	You can set a limit of the initial number of results displayed in the grid. If you have set a limit and there are more results to display, users will see a "show all" button below the grid.
   Font size	Use the slider to adjust the font size.

   Tip for column sizing: You can change the column width directly in the grid by clicking on the divider lines between columns and dragging them to the width you want. You need to show column headers (by activating the show column headers check box) to be able to change the column width.
   Resizing columns while in edit mode affects how the grid looks by default when users open the dashboard. Users can temporarily change the column sizes by dragging them, but those changes only last until they leave the page.

8. Click done to save the tile.

   The tile now shows data according to your settings.