Some time ago I wrote a post called Find application registrations used by Logic Apps. This post is really similar. If you know how to access and use the Azure Resource Graph Explorer, just skip to the end to get the KQL.

Using On Prem gateways to access data behind a firewall is great. You get a firewall friendly way of accessing services and databases simply by using HTTPs. The downside is that you need to keep track of all those gateways and most importantly: where are they used? This is a great candidate for using the Azure Resource Graph Explorer.

Enter Azure Resource Graph Explorer

This is a tool that uses KQL to query Azure resources. List all the VMs, show a list of all IP-addresses used etc etc. It is very very useful. Particularly in this case, when looking for a gateway usage.

Access

First off you need access to the resources you want to query. That might go without saying but I thought I just point that out.

Finding it

Use the search box in Azure (at the top of the page) and type resource graph. The service will show up in the result.

Using it

There are a number of predefined queries, and there is also an explorer to the left, showing you all types of Azure resources grouped by type. You can click any of these and they will show up in the query window.

Using it for Logic Apps

Sadly, there is very little in the way of help for Logic Apps and connectors but the resource type is very easy to find. Just pull up resource of the type you want to the query to be about and look under properties. There is always a property called Resource ID. That contains the resource type.

Find the gateway usage

Enter this KQL to list all the connections that use the given gateway.

resources
| where properties.parameterValues.gateway.name == "Gateway name here"

Hopefully you can find the information you need in the result. Use the resource group name or look under properties by scrolling to the right and clicking See details.

This seems like a really strange error and I have to admit, it stumped me for months. I am running an automated job once a week and the result is sent to me via e-mail. A great way to start the week. This started failing and I tried to solve it but failed again and again. I ran the job manually instead.

Until this morning

The pipeline

The pipeline is really simple.

1. Get values from a KeyVault.
2. Execute a PowerShell script using values.
3. Send an output file as an email attachment.

The problem

My pipeline just failed with the message: “Job is pending”. Not much information to go on.

A quick google search did not really turn up anything useful for my case.

The solution

Turns out that there was an authentication error in a Library. The pipeline uses a Library to get a key to authenticate to the send e-mail service. This Library uses a service connection to authenticate. This service connection was invalid and the Library could not be populated at runtime.

I updated the service connection and everything just worked.

Yes I know, the title is not exactly catchy.

The issue

My issue was this: A business user needs access to tracking info in a Logic App in order to help with finding solutions to issues. There is a very nice built in role for that called Logic App Operator. Adding that user as an operator is easy using the portal.

However, the user received an error when he wanted to look at tracking data for the APIm-connector. The Logic App was using the standard Azure API management connector in order to connect to our instance of APIm. Normally this works fine as other users tend to have, at least read access, in the connected APIm.

In this case, the user was a business user, and as such, had no other access at all.

The answer to the question is really easy because it is right there in the error message: The user does not have read access for the API you are calling.

So how do you assign access on this level. You could make the business user a reader for the whole APIm instance, but that is too much.

The solution

You can use Azure CLI in order to assign that specific access level. My assumption is that you know how to install and run Azure CLI. If not, just follow the link.

I usually run Azure CLI from the terminal in VS Code.

First off, you need the access level to assign roles. If you don’t have that, this will not work.

If you have access, you need to login. Run this command:

az login

Then simply run this command from the terminal:

az role assignment create --assignee user@company.com --role "Reader" --scope "/subscriptions/[subscription GUID]/resourceGroups/[RG name]/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/[Apim instance name]/apis/[api name]"

For Frank at the contoso company that needs read access to the orders api it might look like this.

az role assignment create --assignee frank@contoso.com --role "Reader" --scope "/subscriptions/e8b5e5a6-4b7d-4f8e-9b2d-8c6d7e5a4b7d/resourceGroups/contoso-apim-prod-RG/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/contoso-apim-prod/orders"

Hope this helps.

The basics

I will assume you know what Diagnostics are within Azure and that you know how to create and deploy Bicep. This post aims at showing you how you can solve how to connect Azure Diagnostigs to your resources, using Bicep.

The problem

When deploying a diagnostic setting you might not always know which metrics are available to you, and in some cases the metrics differ between the portal and the APIs used by Azure for deployment. So if you use the names in the portal might trigger strange errors complaining about different metrics not being available.

Another problem is that diagnostic settings are not exported as a part of the resource, so finding the settings can be really tricky.

The solution

It is not that hard actually. You can access the JSON/ARM before you create the setting.

Getting the ARM from the portal

1. Start by navigating to the resource you want to create diagnistics for. I am using an Azure Function. Find the Diagnostic Setting in the menu to the left:

2. On the new page, click the Add Diagnotic Setting.

3. Fill in the settings you need:

4. Then, up to the right. Way up there you can find a link that says JSON View. Click it. BOM! The ARM template for the diagnostic settings.

{
    "id": "/subscriptions/GUIDHERE/resourceGroups/RG-NAME/providers/Microsoft.Web/sites/FUNCTION_NAME/providers/microsoft.insights/diagnosticSettings/myDiagnosticSetting",
    "name": "myDiagnosticSetting",
    "properties": {
        "logs": [
            {
                "category": "FunctionAppLogs",
                "categoryGroup": null,
                "enabled": true,
                "retentionPolicy": {
                    "days": 0,
                    "enabled": false
                }
            },
            {
                "category": "AppServiceAuthenticationLogs",
                "categoryGroup": null,
                "enabled": false,
                "retentionPolicy": {
                    "days": 0,
                    "enabled": false
                }
            }
        ],
        "metrics": [
            {
                "enabled": true,
                "retentionPolicy": {
                    "days": 0,
                    "enabled": false
                },
                "category": "AllMetrics"
            }
        ],
        "workspaceId": "/subscriptions/GUIDHERE/resourceGroups/RG-NAME/providers/Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/LogAnalyticsName-here",
        "logAnalyticsDestinationType": null
    }
}

Converting it into Bicep

1. Open a new Bicep-file in VS-Code
2. Copy the ARM from the Azure Portal.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+P
4. Find Paste JSON as Bicep
5. Bom! Your ARM has been converted into Bicep.

Finishing up

Bicep is really useful when deploying infrastructure in Azure but sometimes you need a little help to find all the settings you need to make things work. JSON view is available in many places when creating resources, use it.

If you search using Google for “azure function app key deploy arm” or even Bicep, you will get some older results saying that it is not possible to do, that you have to enter app keys manually after deploy. That is not true anymore.

As always, just scroll down to the Bicep if that is what you are looking for.

Why do this?

When you call an Azure Function with just the minimum level of security, you supply a key. Either as a query parameter named code or as a header named x-functions-key. You can easily get a key from the function and just use the _master or default. However, from a maintainance perspective it is useful to have separate app keys for every consumer (such as your organization’s API manager).

You simply add a key and name it something that tells you how the key is used, such as ourAPIm-DEV. Now you need to deploy this app key to TEST and PROD as well, so you want to use Bicep for that. Here is how you do it:

The solution

@secure()
param functionAppKey string

var functionAppName     = 'MyFunctionName'
var functionAppKeyName  = 'MyAppKeyName'

resource FunctionAppName_default_keyName 'Microsoft.Web/sites/host/functionKeys@2022-03-01' = {
  name: '${functionAppName}/default/${functionAppKeyName}'  
  properties: {  
    name: functionAppKeyName  
    value: functionAppKey  
  }  
}  

The secret is that the function key settings is not under Microsoft.Web/sites but under Microsoft.Web/sites/host which is really confusing. Especially since the Microsoft.Web/sites/host is always default. The way you achieve this is to use some clever naming instead of using the parent property.

My bicep is shortened for this post, you should use parameters instead, such as the key name and the function name.

Lastly, use different values for different environments then give the key to the consumer.