Application Insights Observability for Production .NET APIs
A concise guide to instrumenting .NET APIs with Azure Application Insights, correlation IDs, dependency tracking, and incident-focused telemetry.
Start with request and dependency telemetry
Request traces show user-facing behavior while dependency telemetry exposes database, cache, and service-call latency. Together they make slow paths easier to isolate.
Carry correlation IDs across service boundaries
Distributed systems need a shared identifier for each workflow. Correlation IDs make it possible to connect frontend calls, API requests, queue messages, and downstream service logs.
Build alerts around user impact
Useful alerts focus on error rate, latency, saturation, and failed business workflows. Raw log volume is rarely enough to detect incidents early.