azure-diagnosticsby Azure

Debug and troubleshoot production issues on Azure. Covers Container Apps and Function Apps diagnostics, log analysis with KQL, health checks, and common issue resolution.

npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/GitHub-Copilot-for-Azure --skill azure-diagnostics

Azure Diagnostics

AUTHORITATIVE GUIDANCE — MANDATORY COMPLIANCE

This document is the official source for debugging and troubleshooting Azure production issues. Follow these instructions to diagnose and resolve common Azure service problems systematically.

Triggers

Activate this skill when user wants to:

  • Debug or troubleshoot production issues
  • Diagnose errors in Azure services
  • Analyze application logs or metrics
  • Fix image pull, cold start, or health probe issues
  • Investigate why Azure resources are failing
  • Find root cause of application errors
  • Troubleshoot Azure Function Apps (invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors)
  • Find the App Insights or Log Analytics workspace linked to a Function App

Rules

  1. Start with systematic diagnosis flow
  2. Use AppLens (MCP) for AI-powered diagnostics when available
  3. Check resource health before deep-diving into logs
  4. Select appropriate troubleshooting guide based on service type
  5. Document findings and attempted remediation steps

Quick Diagnosis Flow

  1. Identify symptoms - What's failing?
  2. Check resource health - Is Azure healthy?
  3. Review logs - What do logs show?
  4. Analyze metrics - Performance patterns?
  5. Investigate recent changes - What changed?

Troubleshooting Guides by Service

ServiceCommon IssuesReference
Container AppsImage pull failures, cold starts, health probes, port mismatchescontainer-apps/
Function AppsApp details, invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors, cold starts, missing app settingsfunctions/

Quick Reference

Common Diagnostic Commands

# Check resource health
az resource show --ids RESOURCE_ID

# View activity log
az monitor activity-log list -g RG --max-events 20

# Container Apps logs
az containerapp logs show --name APP -g RG --follow

# Function App logs (query App Insights traces)
az monitor app-insights query --apps APP-INSIGHTS -g RG \
  --analytics-query "traces | where timestamp > ago(1h) | order by timestamp desc | take 50"

AppLens (MCP Tools)

For AI-powered diagnostics, use:

mcp_azure_mcp_applens
  intent: "diagnose issues with <resource-name>"
  command: "diagnose"
  parameters:
    resourceId: "<resource-id>"

Provides:
- Automated issue detection
- Root cause analysis
- Remediation recommendations

Azure Monitor (MCP Tools)

For querying logs and metrics:

mcp_azure_mcp_monitor
  intent: "query logs for <resource-name>"
  command: "logs_query"
  parameters:
    workspaceId: "<workspace-id>"
    query: "<KQL-query>"

See kql-queries.md for common diagnostic queries.


Check Azure Resource Health

Using MCP

mcp_azure_mcp_resourcehealth
  intent: "check health status of <resource-name>"
  command: "get"
  parameters:
    resourceId: "<resource-id>"

Using CLI

# Check specific resource health
az resource show --ids RESOURCE_ID

# Check recent activity
az monitor activity-log list -g RG --max-events 20

References