Troubleshooting & Debugging in Azure

Common Issues in Azure Deployments

Azure-hosted applications may encounter a variety of challenges depending on the configuration, workload, or environment. Some of the most frequently seen issues include:

• Deployment Failures: Misconfigured pipelines, missing files, or incorrect environment variables.
• Application Crashes: Errors such as null references, unhandled exceptions, or memory exhaustion.
• Performance Degradation: Long response times due to inefficient database queries, caching issues, or CPU bottlenecks.
• Networking Problems: Misconfigured DNS records, VNet rules, or NSG/Firewall restrictions.
• Authentication & Authorization Errors: Invalid or expired tokens, RBAC misconfigurations, or identity provider integration issues.

Key Tools for Troubleshooting & Debugging

Azure comes with a powerful toolbox designed for visibility and diagnostics:

• Azure Monitor: Tracks metrics like CPU, memory, and disk usage to highlight bottlenecks.
• Application Insights: Provides real-time telemetry, tracing, and error logging for your applications.
• Log Analytics: Centralizes logs across services for easy querying and troubleshooting using KQL.
• Kudu Console: A handy diagnostic tool for Azure App Services—lets you browse files, inspect logs, and run commands directly.
• Network Watcher: Analyzes connection issues and helps validate network routes, NSG rules, and flow logs.
• Azure Security Center: Identifies security risks and suggests remediations for infrastructure and apps.

Step-by-Step Debugging Workflow

Here’s a structured approach to resolving issues efficiently:

1. Check Deployment Logs: Start by reviewing Azure DevOps build/release logs for errors.
2. Use Application Insights: Pinpoint exceptions, failed requests, and performance metrics in real-time.
3. Monitor System Metrics: Use Azure Monitor to inspect resource usage (CPU, memory, disk).
4. Validate Network Settings: Run diagnostics with Network Watcher to catch misrouted or blocked traffic.
5. Debug Locally: Try replicating the issue in a local dev or staging environment to isolate the cause.
6. Enable Detailed Diagnostics: Turn on App Service diagnostics to get comprehensive event logs.
7. Set Up Alerts: Automate alerting for error rates, response times, or threshold breaches.

Example YAML for Enabling Application Insights in CI/CD

stages:
- stage: Deploy
  jobs:
  - job: DeployWithMonitoring
    steps:
    - task: AzureAppServiceSettings@1
      inputs:
        azureSubscription: 'MyAzureSubscription'
        appName: 'MyWebApp'
        appSettings: '[{"name":"APPINSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATIONKEY", "value":"$(ApplicationInsightsKey)"}]'
        

Best Practices for Troubleshooting in Azure

• Enable Rich Diagnostics: Turn on application, HTTP, and server logs for deeper insights.
• Use Live Metrics Stream: Monitor real-time performance and incoming requests without delay.
• Implement Resilience Patterns: Use retry policies, circuit breakers, and timeout strategies.
• Set Up Auto-Healing: Restart app services based on specific error conditions or response thresholds.
• Regularly Audit Alerts: Avoid alert fatigue by tuning thresholds and disabling noise-generating alerts.

By using Azure’s built-in monitoring and diagnostics tools, you can proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact users. Whether you're dealing with failed deployments, service interruptions, or performance degradation, a structured troubleshooting approach will help keep your systems healthy and your teams productive.