Introduction

This tutorial is designed to guide you through the process of managing and monitoring Azure Functions. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

1. Understand how to log events and handle exceptions in Azure Functions.
2. Understand how to manage connections in Azure Functions.
3. Monitor Azure Functions using Azure Monitor and Application Insights.

Prerequisites:
- Basic knowledge of Azure Functions and how to create and deploy them.
- An active Azure account.

Step-by-Step Guide

Logging and Exception Handling

In Azure Functions, you can use the built-in logging infrastructure that provides information about function invocations. For logging, you can use the ILogger interface, which allows you to log at different severity levels.

public static void Run(HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
    log.LogInformation("C# HTTP trigger function processed a request.");
}

Exceptions are handled in Azure Functions in the same way as in any .NET code. Use try/catch blocks to manage exceptions.

Connection Management

Azure Functions manages connections automatically, but in some cases, you may want to customize the way connections are handled. For example, you can manage connections manually by using the HttpClientFactory, which allows you to centralize the handling and configuration of HTTP clients.

Monitoring Azure Functions

Azure Monitor and Application Insights provide powerful tools for monitoring Azure Functions. You can view metrics, logs, and traces, set up alerts, and more.

Code Examples

Logging Example

public static void Run(HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
    try
    {
        log.LogInformation("Processing request");
        // Your code here
        log.LogInformation("Request processed successfully");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        log.LogError(ex, "An error occurred while processing the request");
    }
}

In this example, we're logging information when the request starts and ends processing, and logging an error if an exception is thrown.

Connection Management Example

private readonly IHttpClientFactory _clientFactory;

public Function1(IHttpClientFactory clientFactory)
{
    _clientFactory = clientFactory;
}

public async Task<IActionResult> Run(HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
    var client = _clientFactory.CreateClient();
    var response = await client.GetAsync("https://example.com");
    // Your code here
}

In this example, we're using the HttpClientFactory to create an HttpClient instance. This allows us to manage connections more efficiently.

Summary

You've learned how to manage logging, handle exceptions, and manage connections in Azure Functions. You've also learned how to monitor Azure Functions using Azure Monitor and Application Insights.

For further learning, you can explore more about Azure Functions best practices, how to test Azure Functions, and how to secure Azure Functions.

Practice Exercises

1. Create an Azure Function that logs information when it starts and finishes processing a request, and logs an error if an exception is thrown.
2. Modify the Azure Function to manage connections using the HttpClientFactory.

Remember to monitor your function using Azure Monitor and Application Insights. Experiment with different settings and try to understand the data you're seeing.

Solutions

To view the solutions for these exercises, please refer to the 'Code Examples' section above. The solutions are similar to the examples provided, but you will need to adjust them to fit the specifics of your exercises.

Keep practicing and exploring different features of Azure Functions to become more proficient in managing and monitoring them.