Application Insights Profiler for Worker Service Example

Follow this example to use Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.AspNetCore in Worker Services.

Add NuGet Packages

These NuGet packages are needed:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.WorkerService" Version="2.21.0" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.AspNetCore" Version="2.5.0-beta3">

See ServiceProfilerInWorkerNet6.csproj for details.

⚠️ The profiler package to support worker service Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.AspNetCore is in alpha. Download both packages here: https://github.com/xiaomi7732/ApplicationInsights-Profiler-AspNetCore/releases/tag/v2.5.0-alpha3.
⚠️ Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.AspNetCore.2.5.0-beta3 or above is required to support the Worker Service.

Add application insights connection string in the secrets

In this example, UserSecrets is used to protect the connection string. Choose your own way to set it up.

• Create an application insight resource if you haven't already. Note down the connection string.
• Create a file named secrets.json in current folder.
• Add content like this:

{
    "ApplicationInsights":
    {
        "ConnectionString": "InstrumentationKey=iKey;IngestionEndpoint=someurl/;LiveEndpoint=..."
    }
}

• Apply the user secrets:

type secrets.json | dotnet user-secrets set

You should see prompt like this:

Successfully saved 1 secrets to the secret store.

Enable Application Insights and Profiler by code

Enable application insights and profiler by registering the services in the dependency injection container.

services.AddApplicationInsightsTelemetryWorkerService();    // Enable Application Insights for Worker
services.AddServiceProfiler();                              // Enable Application Insights Profiler

See Program.cs for more details.

Manually instrument the code as request operations

As of today, Profiling is request based. You will need to instrument your code for Profiler to capture it. For example

// These request operations will be captured by the profiler
using (_telemetryClient.StartOperation<RequestTelemetry>("operation"))
{
    // Simulate some operation that takes 200 ms to finish
    await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(200), stoppingToken);
}

See Worker.cs for more details.

Optionally configure the behavior of the profiler

For debugging, in appsettings.Development.json:

{
  ...
  "ServiceProfiler":{
    "Duration": "00:00:15",
    "PreserveTraceFile": true
  }
  ...
}

See Customize Application Insights Profiler for all available options.

Run Profiler locally

Run the project locally, you will see logs like this:

info: ServiceProfilerInWorkerNet6.Worker[0]
      Worker running at: 11/01/2022 17:33:47 -07:00
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Hosting environment: Development
info: Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.Core.ServiceProfilerProvider[0]
      Service Profiler session started.                                         # Profiler started.
...
info: Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Profiler.Core.ServiceProfilerProvider[0]
      Service Profiler session finished.                                        # Profiler finished.
...

Wait for 2 to 5 minutes for the application insights to ingest all events, and you will see the profile session in your Application Insights resource. Your application is ready to be deployed with Profiler.

⚠️ You will need to come up with your way to setup connection string for the Production Environment. Please refer to Connection strings for more info.