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azureazure-application-insightsazure-data-explorerazure-log-analyticskql

How to query my Application Insights Logs (Analytics) from Kusto.Explorer?


Update July 13, 2021

The links used below are now partially obsolete. Here is the new section on language differences.

Original post

On Azure Portal, in my App Insights / Logs view, I can query the app data like this:

app('my-app-name').traces

The app function is described in the article app() expression in Azure Monitor query.

Kusto.Explorer doesn't understand the app() function, which appears to be explained by the fact it is one of the Additional operators in Azure Monitor.

How can I query my App Insights / Logs with Kusto.Explorer? I cannot use cluster as it is one of the functions not supported in Azure Monitor.

Relevant doc: Azure Monitor log query language differences

Note on troubleshooting joins

(added December 16, 2021)

Pro-tip from Kusto team: If you are querying application insights from Kusto.Explorer, and your joins to normal clusters fail with bad gateway or other unexpected error, consider adding hint.remote=left to your join. Like:

tableFromApplicationInsights
| join kind=innerunique hint.remote=left tableFromNormalKustoCluster

Solution

  • Step 1 Connection String

    Build your connection string from this template:

    https://ade.applicationinsights.io/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourcegroups/<resource-group-name>/providers/microsoft.insights/components/<ai-app-name>

    Fill in the subscription-id, resource-group-name, and ai-app-name from the portal. Here is an example image

    enter image description here

    Step 2 Add the connection to Kusto.Explorer

    Open Kusto.Explorer, choose Add Connection, and paste your connection string into the Cluster connection field.

    enter image description here

    After you kit OK, Windows will prompt you to log in with your Azure Active Directory account. Once you have authenticated, Kusto.Explorer will display the Application Insights tables in the Connections panel.