Monitor Azure Web App Availability and Create Alerts with URL Ping Test

B

There are three types of Application Insights availability tests:

URL ping test: a simple test that you can create in the Azure portal.

-> Multi-step web test

-> Custom Track Availability Tests

Note: After you've deployed your web app/website, you can set up recurring tests to monitor availability and responsiveness. Azure Application Insights sends web requests to your application at regular intervals from points around the world. It can alert you if your application isn't responding, or if it responds too slowly.

You can set up availability tests for any HTTP or HTTPS endpoint that is accessible from the public internet. You don't have to make any changes to the website you're testing. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a site you own. You can test the availability of a REST API that your service depends on.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/monitor-web-app-availability#create-a-url-ping-test

The correct answer for this scenario is B. Create an Azure Application Insights availability test and alert.

Explanation:

To monitor the availability of a web application and get alerts when it becomes unavailable from specific Azure regions, the best solution is to use Azure Application Insights availability tests and alerts.

Azure Application Insights is a powerful application performance monitoring (APM) service that provides real-time visibility into the performance and usage of applications. Availability tests in Application Insights allow you to monitor the availability and responsiveness of a web application from different locations around the world. You can set up availability tests to run at regular intervals, such as every 5 minutes, and receive alerts when the web app is not available or its performance degrades.

The steps to set up an availability test and alert in Application Insights are as follows:

1. Create an Application Insights resource: First, create an Application Insights resource in Azure. You can create an Application Insights resource from the Azure portal, using the "Create a resource" option.

2. Create an availability test: Once you have created an Application Insights resource, navigate to the "Availability" blade in the resource and click on "Add Test". In the "Add Test" blade, enter the URL of your web application and select the locations from which you want to test the availability.

3. Configure the test: After you have created the availability test, you can configure the test settings, such as the frequency of the test and the expected response code.

4. Create an alert rule: To receive alerts when the web app is not available from specific Azure regions, you need to create an alert rule in Application Insights. Navigate to the "Alerts" blade in the Application Insights resource and click on "New alert rule". In the "New alert rule" blade, select the availability test you created and configure the alert criteria, such as the threshold for the availability test failures and the action to take when the alert fires.

5. Test the alert rule: Finally, test the alert rule to ensure that it is working as expected. You can simulate a web application outage from a specific Azure region and verify that you receive an alert notification.

In summary, Azure Application Insights availability tests and alerts provide a simple and effective solution to monitor the availability of a web application and receive alerts when it becomes unavailable from specific Azure regions. This solution requires minimal development time and can be set up easily using the Azure portal.