why and how to monitor application performance in azure

Why and How to Monitor Application Performance in Azure

March 28th, 2016

© 2015 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved. 2

Abstract:This presentation provides a brief overview of APM solutions for the Azure cloud computing platform. We discuss three challenges unique to cloud computing which APM can address, and we summarize which APM techniques can be applied in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS application architectures. To illustrate APM techniques for IaaS and PaaS we look at a variety APM offers in the Azure marketplace, including Riverbed AppInternals, Microsoft Application Insights, and New Relic. To illustrate APM techniques for SaaS, we look at how SharePoint Online can be instrumented using JavaScript injection. This presentation was prepared and delivered by Ian Downard to the Portland Azure User Group on March 28th, 2016, in Portland Oregon.

Keywords:

Azure, APM, application performance, AppInternals


Optimizing the performance of distributed applications for 15 years.

Technical evangelist for Riverbed AppInternals.

And currently trying to learn everything

there is to know about Azure.

Twitter: @iandownard

https://twitter.com/iandownard


Why APM in the cloud?

What APM features are built into Azure?

Survey 3rd party APM: Riverbed AppInternals, New Relic, & AppInsights

APM constraints in IaaS / PaaS / SaaS

APM demos for Azure VMs, Azure Cloud Services, Azure Web Sites, SharePoint Online

What does APM cost?


Applications

Data

Firewall

Network

OS

Virtualization

Hardware

Applications

Data

Firewall Rules

Network

OS

Virtualization

Hardware

Applications

Data

Firewall Rules

Network

OS

Virtualization

Hardware

Applications

Data

Firewall Rules

Network

OS

Virtualization

Hardware

On PremiseAzure IaaS

(Virtual Machines)

Azure PaaS

(Cloud Services)

Azure SaaS

(“Web Sites”, O365)

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http://riverbed.com/blogs/AppInternals-APM-for-Azure.html

Why is APM important for Cloud Computing?


“Right Size”Your Scale

3 reasons.

MitigateUnpredictable Performance

Verify Cloud Vendor SLAs

Matching capacity to demand can save $

Sharing hardware is risky

Trust but verify


What unpredictable performance?

MitigateUnpredictable Performance


Response times for queries sent to EC2, AppEngine and Azure varied by a factor of 20 depending on the service and time of day the cloud was accessed.

Stress Tests Rain on Amazon’s Cloud. IT News (August 2009)

http://www.itnews.com.au/news/stress-tests-rain-on-amazons-cloud-153451


• Feb 18 and March 9 – Google Compute Engine down for 1 hour

• March 11 – Apple iCloud down for 12 hours due to DNS error

• March 16 – 2 hour outage in Azure IaaS and PaaS due to “network issue”

The 10 Biggest Cloud Outages Of 2015. CRN Magazine (August 2015)

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/300077635/the-10-biggest-cloud-outages-of-2015-so-far.htm

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/300077635/the-10-biggest-cloud-outages-of-2015-so-far.htm


Our experience is that multiple virtual machines can share CPUs and main memory surprisingly well in cloud computing, but that network and disk I/O sharing is more problematic.

A View of Cloud Computing. Communications of the ACM (April 2010).

Michael Armbrust, et al.


What’s the bestAPM solutionout there?


One-size-fits-allAPM does not exist.

How do you weigh your options?


What do you need from APM?

Application maps

End-to-End transaction tracing

Business transaction metrics

Alerting UI

Easy to use UI

Web UI

Dashboard

Web page object waterfall data

Central configuration management

Scalable management server

On-Premise / SaaS

Cloud compatible

Ready to use out of the box

Transaction search

Sampling vs. Continuous tracing

Sampling frequency

Big-Data driven analytics

Full transaction history

Application framework coverage

Queue and asyncarchitecture support

End user experience monitoring

Try and buy

ALM Integration

Supports DevOps Practices

Cross-tier

transaction stitching

Low instrumentation overhead

Export CSV raw data

Export PDF reports

Feed Power BI, Splunk, etc

Stream raw data to Azure blob storage

Powerful analytics engine

Insightful statistical graphics

Support for statistical computing

Instrumentation SDK / API

Extensibility (roll your own agent)

JavaScript injection

Agent based instrumentation

Log Analytics

Cost

Open Source

Full stack monitoring

Kernel level tracing

Integration with packet captures

Instruments native code

Memory leak detection

Broad adoption

Active user community

CPU/Disk/Network resource monitoring


Lets survey some APM options in Azure.

Azure Native Azure Marketplace

• Azure Diagnostics

• AppInsights

• Logging

• Riverbed AppInternals

• Dynatrace Ruxit

• New Relic


Azure Diagnostics

Enable during provisioning

View data in the Azure Portal UI

Save data in blob storage


Azure Diagnostics

Configure metrics under VM details

Raw data saved in table storage


Azure Linux Agent (waagent) https://github.com/Azure/WALinuxAgent

– Pulls extensions and configurations at provision-time.

–Extensions, such as this one:Microsoft.OSTCExtensions.LinuxDiagnostic

– Configures swap space, snapshooting, encryption, diagnostics, custom post-provision scripts

– Pings a “wire” service for a new gold state every 25 seconds. Versions determined at run-time.

– Runs under, /var/lib/waagent/

Azure Diagnostics for Linux

https://github.com/Azure/WALinuxAgent


Instrumentation for Azure web and worker roles

View data in Azure Portal

Easy to use for downtime alerting.

Instrument via SDK, recorded web scripts, agents, et al.

We use it for monitoring http://appinternals.trafficmanag

er.net

AppInsights

http://appinternals.trafficmanager.net


Data resolution is not intended to be comprehensive.

AppInsights

“We don’t store all results”


Outages do occur.

AppInsights

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/applicationinsights-status/

Thank You


AppInsights Demo

Click here to start demo

bit.ly/1PtYjRh


ArchitectingAPM for Azure IaaS


Instrumenting SharePoint Farms in Azure IaaS

DEMO

https://cruiser3.cloudapp.net/search:time=24112393+60&_rb_use_cache=true&apply_globals=true&context_name=context (optional)&query=dXJscGF0aCA9ICouYXNweA==&search_datatype=RIVERPATH&topn_field=SLOWEST&topn_num_results=10000


Automation and Orchestration

– Can you ensure APM agents are installed and configured automatically as IaaS VMs are dynamically provisioned and destroyed?

Scaling APM management– Most APM solutions have limits on how much data they can handle.

Challenges for APM in IaaS


ArchitectingAPM for Azure PaaS


3rd Party APM vendors in Azure marketplace


Instrumenting with Startup Tasks and NuGet

APM for Azure PaaS

DEMOThis works for both Java and .NET cloud services!


Scaling APM management

– Most APM solutions have limits on how much data they can handle.

Challenges for APM in PaaS


ArchitectingAPM for SaaS


You can not install agents. So what’s left?

– JavaScript injection (via end-user customizations to the SaaS app)

– Client-side network monitoring (e.g. Riverbed AppResponse)

– Server-side network monitoring via cloud proxy (e.g. Riverbed Steelhead)

Scaling APM management

– Most APM solutions have limits on how much data they can handle.

Challenges for APM in SaaS

In this presentation we

are focusing on APM.

We should discuss

Network Performance

Monitoring (NPM) later.


Embed JavaScript in Master Pages

Network monitoring

Case Study: Instrument SharePoint Online (SPO)

Customized Master Pages will not receive updates from Microsoft.

This is the best way to embed JavaScript in SPO sites.

Detailed on next slide.

Network appliances in your corporate data center can provide a vantage point into O365 performance.

For example, with Riverbed Steelhead!

Embed JavaScript in UserCustomAction


Embedding JS in Master Pages

SharePoint Online Instrumentation (Option #1)

1. Open Master Page Gallery

2. Check out seattle.master

3. Add JavaScript snippet in the

head tag

4. Upload and check in seattle.master

DEMO


Embedding JS with SPUserCustomAction

SharePoint Online Instrumentation (Option #2)

1. Create a new “SharePoint Add-In” that is a provider hosted app

2. Get the list of UserCustomActions

3. Add a new custom action to that list, which invokes JavaScript on page load

See .NET API reference for SPUserCustomAction.ScriptBlock()

4. Update the set of UserCustomActions on the SharePoint site

DEMO

https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP-Guidance/blob/master/articles/Customize-your-SharePoint-site-UI-by-using-JavaScript.md

https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP/tree/master/Samples/Core.EmbedJavaScript

https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Office-365-Dev/JavaScript-injection-in-SharePoint-Online-Office-365-Developer-Patterns-and-Practices

References:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/microsoft.sharepoint.spusercustomaction.scriptblock.aspx

https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP-Guidance/blob/master/articles/Customize-your-SharePoint-site-UI-by-using-JavaScript.md

https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP/tree/master/Samples/Core.EmbedJavaScript

https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Office-365-Dev/JavaScript-injection-in-SharePoint-Online-Office-365-Developer-Patterns-and-Practices


Option #2 requires sideloading, or you’ll get this error:

Here’s how to enable sideloading of apps in SharePoint:

Install the SharePoint Online

Management Shell

Save this as Enable.ps1

Run Enable.ps1

Save this as Disable.ps1

Run Disable.ps1

http://pastebin.com/cLkJNnf3

http://pastebin.com/yqKNb1Mx

http://pastebin.com/cLkJNnf3

http://pastebin.com/yqKNb1Mx


Detect ErrorsBaseline Performance

Track Users Security Audits

What does SaaS monitoring give you?

What is “normal” performance?

Verify cloud SLAs

Who are the power users?

What user accounts are inactive?

Detect unauthorized users

Geo locate intrusions

Do some pages return errors?

What path lead to errors?


Here’s what Riverbed AppInternals

can do with SaaS data..


http://appinternals.com

http://www.appinternals.com


References

Riverbed AppInternals - http://appinternals.com

New Relic – http://newrelic.com

Microsoft AppInsights – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-insights-get-started/

http://appinternals.com

http://newrelic.com

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-insights-get-started/

Thank You


Questions?