Trace Azure Functions written in .NET
Prerequisites
Ensure that you have followed the initial configuration steps described in Set up OpenTelemetry monitoring for Azure Functions on Consumption Plan before using the packages below.
.NET version 8 or earlier
Installation
-
Add the following dependencies to your project.
- required
Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
—provides integration of Dynatrace-specific components (for activity export and propagation) into OpenTelemetry .NET. - optional
OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting
—uses aTracerProvider
with a dependency injection. While the latest release is supported for worker functions, in-process functions require OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting version 1.0.0-rc9.5 or earlier. For details, see Compatibility withdotnet
(in-process) runtime below.
Example commands to add dependencies
dotnet add package Dynatrace.OpenTelemetrydotnet add package --version 1.0.0-rc9.5 OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting - required
-
Additionally, depending on the runtime you use, we recommend that you use the following Azure-functions helper packages:
-
recommended For in-process (library) functions (
dotnet
runtime)Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions
OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AspNetCore
To add the packages, run the command below.
dotnet add package Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctionsdotnet add package --version 1.0.0-rc9.5 OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AspNetCore -
recommended For isolated aka worker functions (
dotnet-isolated
runtime)Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Worker
To add the package, run the command below.
dotnet add package Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Worker -
optional Alternatively, on both runtimes you can use a Dynatrace package called
Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Core
with the following functions:
-
Compatibility with OpenTelemetry and System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
versions
Periodically, we need to upgrade the minimum version of the OpenTelemetry
NuGet package
our components depend on, and consequently, the minimum version of the System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
library.
This table lists the compatibility between Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
, OpenTelemetry
, and System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
versions.
Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
versionOpenTelemetry
versionSystem.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
versionYou don't usually need to worry about these dependencies as they're defined for you in our NuGet package. This
means that when you upgrade Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
, NuGet might implicitly upgrade your OpenTelemetry
or
System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
version if you are currently on an earlier one.
Compatibility with dotnet
(in-process) runtime
For the dotnet
(in-process) runtime, only certain versions of OpenTelemetry are compatible with certain versions of the Azure runtime:
- Azure Functions
dotnet
runtime v3 is not compatible with OpenTelemetry. - Azure Functions
dotnet
runtime v4 is compatible with OpenTelemetry 1.3.x (System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
6).
When using the dotnet
(in-process) runtime, functions are loaded into the same CLR as the runtime. For instrumentation to work properly, the same System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource
assembly needs to be used in the runtime and by the OpenTelemetry dependencies of the function. Symptoms of incompatible combinations may include your function failing to build, failing to load at runtime, or producing incomplete traces.
Example using the dotnet (in-process) runtime
Your Startup.cs
could look as follows:
using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions;using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Extensions.DependencyInjection;using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;using OpenTelemetry.Trace;[assembly: FunctionsStartup(typeof(Examples.AzureFunctionApp.Startup))]namespace Examples.AzureFunctionApp{internal class Startup : FunctionsStartup{public override void Configure(IFunctionsHostBuilder builder){builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryTracing(sdk => sdk.AddAzureFunctionsInstrumentation().AddAspNetCoreInstrumentation()// ... any custom OTel setup ....AddDynatrace()// ... if you need custom resources, set them after AddDynatrace & call AddTelemetrySdk (see below));}}}
An instrumented in-process function could look like this:
using System.Diagnostics;using System.Threading.Tasks;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions;using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.Http;using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;namespace Examples.AzureFunctionApp{public class Function{public Function(ILoggerFactory loggerFactory){// This is needed in every function in your app.DynatraceSetup.InitializeLogging(loggerFactory);}[FunctionName("MyFunction")]public async Task<IActionResult> Run([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "get", Route = null)] HttpRequest request,Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.ExecutionContext ctx){// This adds the required attributes to make the activity recognizable as an Azure function invocation.// Put this line first - there should be minimal time elapsing between the Activity being created// by the ASP.NET core instrumentation and the call to this method.AzureFunctionsInstrumentation.AddIncomingHttpAzureFunctionCallInfo(Activity.Current, ctx);// Your handler code...}}}
Additionally, you need to modify host.json
to allow logging for Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
.
Note that this does not enable logging unless explicitly configured. See InitializeLogging.
{"version": "2.0","logging": {// ..."logLevel": {"Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry": "Debug"}}}
Example using the dotnet-isolated runtime
The following examples use the built-in HTTP model of Azure functions and do not apply to functions using the ASP.NET core integration of isolated Azure functions. See the chapter about ASP.NET core integration
below.
Your Program.cs
could look as follows:
No additional code is needed to instrument functions; everything is handled by the middleware.
ASP.NET core integration (isolated runtime)
If you create a new project for Azure function .NET8 or later—for example, using Visual Studio template—then, it'll add ASP.NET core integration in Azure Function by default.
To enable function tracing, you need to use only the ConfigureFunctionsWebApplication
method instead of ConfigureFunctionsWorkerDefaults
in your initialization code given in ASP.NET core integration
. The initialization code may look as follows:
using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Worker;using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;DynatraceSetup.InitializeLogging();var host = new HostBuilder().ConfigureFunctionsWebApplication(fw => fw.UseTracingMiddleware()).ConfigureServices(services => services.AddOpenTelemetry().WithTracing(tracing => tracing.AddAzureFunctionsInstrumentation()// ... any custom OTel setup ....AddDynatrace()// ... if you need custom resources, set them after AddDynatrace (see below))).Build();host.Run();
Technical details
InitializeLogging
-
Calling
InitializeLogging
is required even if you don't plan to enable logging, and the actual log messages won't be logged even after calling this method, unless configured. -
If you use the
dotnet-isolated
runtime (out-of-process, worker functions), you need to callInitializeLogging
in yourMain
method before callingAddDynatrace
. You can passnull
asloggerFactory
, so that, if enabled, logging can useConsole.Out
/Console.Error
. This is automatically forwarded to AppInsights for thedotnet-isolated
runtime. -
If you have specific requirements, you can also pass any custom
LoggingFactory
. -
For the
dotnet
runtime (in-process, class-library), sending logs to AppInsights requires using anILogger
orILoggerFactory
injected into the function with a dependency injection. Thus, you shouldn't usenull
as an argument for theloggerFactory
parameter, but callInitializeLogging
the first time any function in your Function App is invoked. To get theILoggerFactory
, simply add a parameter of that type. -
If you use the
ILoggerFactory
provided by Azure Functions, you also need to modifyhost.json
to enable logging there. We recommend that you always use thedebug
log-level inhost.json
, as the actual log messages handed to the ILogger are separately configured in the Dynatrace configuration.{"version": "2.0","logging": {// ..."logLevel": {"Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry": "Debug"}}}
AddDynatrace
-
AddDynatrace
is an extension method to OpenTelemetry'sTracerProvider
. It requiresusing Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry
. Currently, there aren't any additional parameters for this function, as configuration is read from environment variables and adtconfig.json
file. For details, see Set up OpenTelemetry monitoring for Azure Functions on Consumption Plan. -
AddDynatrace
mainly adds anActivityProcessor
to theTracerProvider
that will send all activities to Dynatrace. This extension:- Sets the resources required by Dynatrace. Due to an issue with the OpenTelemetry .NET SDK, this will override any existing resources. If you need custom resources, you need to call
SetResourceBuilder
on theTracerProvider
afterAddDynatrace
. Be aware that this will override the resources configured byAddDynatrace
and you need to readd them as part of the sameSetResourceBuilder
call. You can do this by calling the OpenTelemetry SDK'sAddTelemetrySdk
extension method on theResourceBuilder
. - Exchanges the global
Propagators.DefaultTextMapPropagator
with a custom one that is based on the default W3C-format, but does additional processing oftracestate
and additional Dynatrace-specific HTTP headers. The baggage propagator is also enabled, as is default for OpenTelemetry .NET. There's currently no way to disable it. Using another propagator isn't supported and will lead to missing links in the distributed traces.
- Sets the resources required by Dynatrace. Due to an issue with the OpenTelemetry .NET SDK, this will override any existing resources. If you need custom resources, you need to call
The following minimal snippet might be used to initialize a TracerProvider
with AddDynatrace
:
using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry;using Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions;using OpenTelemetry.Trace;// ...// (call DynatraceSetup.InitializeLogging before or after AddDynatrace depending on runtime)// ...TracerProvider tracerProvider = Sdk.CreateTracerProviderBuilder().AddDynatrace().Build();
AzureFunctionsCoreInstrumentation.Trace
/TraceAsync
This is the low-level instrumentation function provided in the Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Core
package. You usually shouldn't use these, but instead use the runtime-specific helpers, as in the examples above.
This function creates and starts a System.Diagnostics.Activity
. It runs the handler function argument, then stops Activity
and records any exception on it. An example usage could look like this:
public class HttpExample {private readonly TracerProvider _tracerProvider;public HttpExample(TracerProvider tracerProvider) {_tracerProvider = tracerProvider;}[Function("HttpExample")]public IActionResult Run([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "get")] HttpRequestData req, FunctionContext ctx){var parent = ExtractParentContext(req, ctx); // See further below after this code snippetreturn AzureFunctionsCoreInstrumentation.Trace(_tracerProvider, ctx.FunctionDefinition.Name, () => RunInternal(req), parent);}public IActionResult RunInternal(HttpRequestData req){// ... your actual handler code ...return new OkObjectResult("Your result");}}
The parent ActivityContext
must be extracted from the HTTP headers using the Propagators.DefaultTextMapPropagator
, which AddDynatrace
initializes. If you don't pass any parent, a root span will be created (Activity.Current
won't be used).
This is how a parent could be manually extracted with in-process functions for use with AzureFunctionsCoreInstrumentation.Trace
/TraceAsync
when not using the ASP.NET core instrumentation:
private static ActivityContext ExtractParentContext(HttpRequest request){var context = Propagators.DefaultTextMapPropagator.Extract(default, request, HeaderValuesGetter);return context.ActivityContext;}private static IEnumerable<string> HeaderValuesGetter(HttpRequest request, string name) =>request.Headers.TryGetValue(name, out var values) ? values : (IEnumerable<string>)null;
For worker functions, the code can become more complex because in addition to HTTP headers, you may want to
(but don't have to) use the W3C TraceContext provided in the FunctionContext
:
private static ActivityContext ExtractParentContext(HttpRequestData request, FunctionContext context) {ActivityContext parent = default;PropagationContext ctx = Propagators.DefaultTextMapPropagator.Extract(default,request.Headers,(c, k) => c.TryGetValues(k, out var value) ? value : null);parent = ctx.ActivityContext;if (parent == default){PropagationContext ctx2 = Propagators.DefaultTextMapPropagator.Extract(default,context.TraceContext,(c, k) =>{string? result =k.Equals("traceparent", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) ? c.TraceParent :k.Equals("tracestate", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) ? c.TraceState :null;return result == null ? null : new[] { result };});parent = ctx2.ActivityContext;}return parent;}
Instrumenting HttpClient
calls (outgoing HTTP requests)
A very common need is to trace outgoing HTTP requests. This can be achieved by using the OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.Http
NuGet package.
The instrumentation then has to be added to your TracerProvider
setup by calling AddHttpClientInstrumentation
, for example, in Program.cs
:
Using a request filter as in the example above is highly recommended, as otherwise, depending on your Function Apps configuration, you might observe a large number of periodic requests to https://rt.services.visualstudio.com/QuickPulseService.svc/ping
or similar URLs.
Alternatively, you can disable telemetry dynamically.
We recommend to use the helper function AzureFunctionsCoreInstrumentation.FilterExternalTelemetry
which is available in package Dynatrace.OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AzureFunctions.Core
since version 1.267. In earlier versions, you can use the following filter instead:
op.FilterHttpRequestMessage = req => Activity.Current?.Parent != null;
Because of an Azure Functions runtime issue, the HTTP instrumentation won't work on Azure Functions in-process version 3.x.
The underlying issue can also affect other instrumentations. Therefore, we do not recommend using in-process version 3 functions.