Monitoring Web Apps with Azure Monitor & Application Insights

Ensuring your web applications run smoothly and reliably is very crucial in today’s always-on world. In this guide, you’ll learn how to use Azure Monitor and Application Insights and gain real‑time visibility into your app’s performance, catch issues before they impact users, and automate alerts so you never miss a beat.

Follow along to:

1. Enable and explore Application Insights for deep performance monitoring.

2. Set up proactive Availability Tests

3. Configure Action Groups and Alert Rules for instant notifications

4. Simulate a failure and see how alerts help you respond quickly

At each step, screenshots are provided to help you replicate the setup in your own Azure environment.

1. Create a Web App And Enable Application Insights

First, I created a simple Azure Web App. Then, under Monitoring > Application Insights, I enabled telemetry for performance and error monitoring.

Once enabled, the Application Insights resource appeared in my resource group.

2. Explore Application Insights Metrics

In the Application Insights resource, I navigated to Metrics to view key charts:

• Server response time

• Request rate

• Failed requests

These dashboards update in real time, giving a quick health check of the app.

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3. Create an Availability Test

To proactively check uptime, I set up an Availability Test:

I. In Application Insights, go to Availability > Add test.

II. Select URL ping test and enter the web app’s URL.

III. Configure frequency (e.g., every 5 minutes) and test locations.

IV. Save the test.

The test began running immediately, showing successes and any failures over time.

4. Configure Action Group & Alert Rule

Next, I set up an Alert Rule and Action Group to notify me via email if the availability test fails:

I. From your Availability test (select the three ellipses), go to Open Rules> Alert Rule Configuration> Action Group and click Add.

II. Give the group a name and add an Email/Action type action, specifying the email address.

III. Save and apply.

I got a confirmation email that i’ve been added to the Application Action group.

5. Trigger a Failure and Verify Alert

To see the alert in action, I intentionally stopped the Web App, you can trigger the stop on both the GUI and CLI. Run:

az webapp stop --name MacroHQ --resource-group CreatorHub

Within minutes, the Availability Test detected the downtime and raised an alert.

I received an email notification confirming the alert:

Back in Application Insights, the Failed requests and Availability charts showed the error spike.

You’ve now built a full monitoring pipeline for your web application, from capturing performance monitoring in Application Insights to setting up automated availability tests and receiving alerts via email. By following these steps, you can:
- Gain continuous insights into response times and error rates
- Detect downtime before it impacts customers
- Automate notifications so your team can act immediately

If you enjoyed this walkthrough, share your thoughts or drop a comment below, let’s learn and improve together. Stay tuned for more on Azure’s monitoring and management capabilities!