Using Azure Monitor Application Insights with Spring Boot

There are two options for enabling Application Insights Java with Spring Boot: Java Virtual Machine (JVM) argument and programmatically.

Enabling with JVM argument

Add the JVM arg -javaagent:"path/to/applicationinsights-agent-3.6.0.jar" somewhere before -jar, for example:

java -javaagent:"path/to/applicationinsights-agent-3.6.0.jar" -jar <myapp.jar>

Spring Boot via Docker entry point

See the documentation related to containers.

Configuration

See configuration options.

Enabling programmatically

To enable Application Insights Java programmatically, you must add the following dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.microsoft.azure</groupId>
    <artifactId>applicationinsights-runtime-attach</artifactId>
    <version>3.6.0</version>
</dependency>

And invoke the attach() method of the com.microsoft.applicationinsights.attach.ApplicationInsights class that's in the beginning line of your main() method.

Example:

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootApp {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationInsights.attach();
    SpringApplication.run(SpringBootApp.class, args);
  }
}

Configuration

Programmatic enablement supports all the same configuration options as the JVM argument enablement, with the differences that are described in the next sections.

Configuration file location

By default, when enabling Application Insights Java programmatically, the configuration file applicationinsights.json is read from the classpath (src/main/resources, src/test/resources).

From 3.4.3, you can configure the name of a JSON file in the classpath with the applicationinsights.runtime-attach.configuration.classpath.file system property. For example, with -Dapplicationinsights.runtime-attach.configuration.classpath.file=applicationinsights-dev.json, Application Insights uses the applicationinsights-dev.json file for configuration. To programmatically configure another file in the classpath:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.setProperty("applicationinsights.runtime-attach.configuration.classpath.file", "applicationinsights-dev.json");
    ApplicationInsights.attach();
    SpringApplication.run(PetClinicApplication.class, args);
}

See configuration file path configuration options to change the location for a file outside the classpath.

To programmatically configure a file outside the classpath:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.setProperty("applicationinsights.configuration.file", "{path}/applicationinsights-dev.json");
    ApplicationInsights.attach();
    SpringApplication.run(PetClinicApplication.class, args);
}

Programmatically configure the connection string

First, add the applicationinsights-core dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.microsoft.azure</groupId>
    <artifactId>applicationinsights-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.6.0</version>
</dependency>

Then, call the ConnectionString.configure method after ApplicationInsights.attach():

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.setProperty("applicationinsights.configuration.file", "{path}/applicationinsights-dev.json");
    ApplicationInsights.attach();
    SpringApplication.run(PetClinicApplication.class, args);
}

Alternatively, call the ConnectionString.configure method from a Spring component.

Enable connection string configured at runtime:

{
  "connectionStringConfiguredAtRuntime": true
}

Self-diagnostic log file location

By default, when enabling Application Insights Java programmatically, the applicationinsights.log file containing the agent logs are located in the directory from where the JVM is launched (user directory).

To learn how to change this location, see your self-diagnostic configuration options.