Managing the health of a Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O) environment is crucial, and Application Insights is becoming an essential tool for monitoring performance, diagnosing issues, and gaining visibility into user interactions.
If you haven’t explored this feature yet, it provides out-of-the-box monitoring and diagnostic capabilities, along with pre-built dashboards that require minimal setup. These dashboards allow you to start gathering insights right away, without writing custom code. However, Application Insights is also highly customizable, enabling organizations to define specific metrics and visualizations for proactive issue detection and alerting.
Solution Architecture Overview
To understand how Application Insights fits into D365 F&O, let’s look at its architecture.
Application Insights is an extension of Azure Monitor, which collects telemetry data from multiple sources. In the context of D365 F&O, most of the telemetry data comes from custom sources, feeding into Azure Monitor for processing.
How It Works:
- Data Sources: Information flows from applications, Azure services, and infrastructure components into Azure Monitor.
- Data Ingestion: This data is stored in a Log Analytics Workspace, where Azure Monitor tracks changes, traces, and metrics.
- Data Insights & Actions: The insights from this data can be used for:
- Proactive alerts to detect anomalies.
- Dashboards & reports using Power BI, Workbooks, or Azure Data Explorer.
- Integration with automation tools like Logic Apps to trigger workflows based on specific conditions.
With these capabilities, organizations can move beyond reactive troubleshooting and take a data-driven approach to application health monitoring.
The Shift from Lifecycle Services (LCS) to Application Insights
For years, Lifecycle Services (LCS) has been the go-to tool for monitoring D365 F&O environments. However, as business needs evolve and application complexity increases, LCS has struggled to keep pace.
Some key challenges with LCS:
- It lacks real-time monitoring and proactive alerts.
- It offers limited visibility into integrated solutions across Dataverse, Power Platform, and Copilot.
- It does not provide deep telemetry and diagnostic tools.
Given these limitations, Microsoft is phasing out many monitoring capabilities in LCS and migrating them to Application Insights.
Capabilities Migration: Moving to Application Insights
Many of the key telemetry and monitoring features that were previously handled by LCS are now shifting to Application Insights. This includes:
- Querying and searching logs
- Performance monitoring
- SQL insights
- Error tracking and diagnostics
To ensure a smooth transition, Microsoft is notifying tenant administrators through:
- Message Center notifications
- Banners in LCS
- Documentation updates detailing the migration process
Some lesser-used features in LCS have already been deprecated, while others are gradually being transitioned.
Telemetry in Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM
Currently, D365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (SCM) sends four primary types of telemetry data to Application Insights:
- Page Views: Application Insights tracks form loads and maps them to the Page Views table for performance analysis.
- Exceptions & Errors: Any X++ errors passing through the info log are logged in the Exceptions table.
- Custom Events: Developers can add custom telemetry for specific processes.
- Custom Metrics: Performance metrics can be tracked and analyzed in real-time.
Each of these data points enables detailed troubleshooting, performance monitoring, and proactive issue resolution.
Key Monitoring Features in Application Insights
1. Monitoring Form Loads in Finance & SCM
One of the most requested features has been tracking form load times. With Application Insights, businesses can:
- Identify most-used forms and their execution frequencies.
- Monitor minimum, maximum, and average load times.
- Use activity IDs to track performance issues.
These insights can significantly improve user experience and system efficiency.
2. Tracking X++ Errors
Error tracking is another critical function. Application Insights logs not just error messages but also the full call stack, making it easier to:
- Summarize errors by message type and occurrence frequency.
- Analyze error trends over time.
- Quickly diagnose and resolve issues using pre-built dashboards.
3. Identifying Slow Queries
Slow query detection is another valuable feature. Unlike SQL Query Store, Application Insights tracks slow queries at the AOS kernel level, providing:
- A list of slow queries with execution times.
- Call stack details for deeper investigation.
For best performance, it is recommended to enable slow query tracking only in sandbox environments, as high-transaction production environments may generate excessive telemetry data.
Adding Custom Telemetry via API
For organizations that require custom monitoring, Application Insights allows the addition of custom telemetry via API.
This enables:
- Tracking specific processes within D365 F&O.
- Monitoring ISV solutions across multiple customers.
- Extending out-of-the-box monitoring to capture organization-specific insights.
Using the API, you can:
- Format a telemetry data contract with relevant fields.
- Call the telemetry logger to track events and metrics.
- Automatically log the data to Application Insights.
This level of customization ensures that business-critical operations are monitored effectively.
Custom Dual Write Telemetry
A great example of custom telemetry is Dual Write monitoring. Businesses that need to track Dual Write performance and reliability can:
- Implement custom code to send telemetry data.
- Build custom dashboards in Application Insights.
- Monitor sync errors, data transfer times, and system health.
This approach provides deeper visibility into Dual Write transactions, helping to optimize integrations and troubleshoot issues proactively.
Conclusion
As D365 F&O continues to evolve, proactive monitoring and data-driven insights are becoming essential. Application Insights provides a modern, powerful, and flexible alternative to traditional LCS monitoring, offering:
✅ Real-time visibility into system health
✅ Customizable dashboards and alerts
✅ Advanced telemetry and diagnostics
By leveraging Application Insights, organizations can improve system reliability, optimize performance, and ensure seamless user experiences—all while moving towards a future-proof monitoring strategy for D365 F&O.
If you’re looking to implement Application Insights or need guidance on custom telemetry setup, feel free to reach out—we specialize in helping businesses get the most out of their D365 F&O environments.