Use Application Insights with on-premises Node.js application

Question

I am currently trying to set up Application Insights for an on-premises node.js backend. According to the documentation it should be possible.

Application Insights can gather telemetry data from any internet-connected application, whether or not it's running on-premises or in the cloud. Use the following steps to start viewing this data.

I found a couple questions regarding IIS on-premises. But nothing for node.js.

This is my backend code.

let appInsights = require('applicationinsights');
appInsights.setup("<here I put the instrumentation key>")
  .setAutoDependencyCorrelation(true)
  .setAutoCollectRequests(true)
  .setAutoCollectPerformance(true, true)
  .setAutoCollectExceptions(true)
  .setAutoCollectDependencies(true)
  .setAutoCollectConsole(true)
  .setUseDiskRetryCaching(true)
  .setSendLiveMetrics(true)
  .setDistributedTracingMode(appInsights.DistributedTracingModes.AI)
  .start();

const port = 8080;
const express = require('express');
const http = require('http');
const app = express();
const server = http.Server(app);
server.listen(port, () => console.log('listenting on port', port));
app.use(express.json());

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Hello, Azure.' })
});


app.get('/error', (req, res) => {
  try {
    const wrong = 1
    wrong = 2
  } catch (err) {
    return res.status(500).json({ error: err.message })
  }
  res.json({ message: '' })
});

I run this on a remote development server and hit the page via ssh tunneling. I see my page, no error, all good.

I hit the endpoints a bunch of times so there must be some traffic and even error logs. But my application insights does not show any application on the map.

This is my package.json

{
  "name": "test",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node .",
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "eslint": "^7.0.0",
    "eslint-config-google": "^0.14.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "applicationinsights": "^1.7.5",
    "express": "^4.17.1"
  }
}

Although, I don't think it's some issue with the application itself. I feel like I am missing something on the Azure portal.

Another reason could be my firewall, although it's configured to let all own requests pass. So I am not sure if that's applicable to my case.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/ip-addresses

Here are more docs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/nodejs

can you try to track custom event using the code below and check if this appears ? let client = appInsights.defaultClient; client.trackEvent({name: "my custom event", properties: {customProperty: "custom property value"}}); — Houssem
I actually have two custom events in the search tab!! please share more of your wizardry — The Fool

Houssem Houssem · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-13T14:18:39

If you want to track all request try adding trackRequest under app.get

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
           appInsights.defaultClient.trackRequest({
          url: req.url
      });
  res.json({ message: 'Hello, Azure.' })
});

you can find more methods like trackEvent , trackException.. here https://github.com/Microsoft/ApplicationInsights-node.js/

Use Application Insights with on-premises Node.js application

1 Answers