ABP Studio: Monitoring Applications

ABP Studio offers a comprehensive centralized monitoring solution, enabling you to oversee all applications from a single interface. To see the monitoring tabs you can select the Solution Runner or Kubernetes from the left menu, monitoring tabs are automatically opened in the center. You can start the applications for monitoring. Various monitoring options are available, including Overall, Browse, HTTP Requests, Events, Exceptions, Logs, Tools.

If you want to open any of these tabs in separate window, just drag it from the header a little bit and it will pop-up in a new window. In this way you can monitor multiple tabs at once:

Collecting Telemetry Information

There are two application types: C# and CLI. Only C# applications can establish a connection with ABP Studio and transmit telemetry information via the Volo.Abp.Studio.Client.AspNetCore package. However, we can view the Logs and Browse (if there is a Launch URL) for both CLI and C# application types. Upon starting C# applications, they attempt to establish a connection with ABP Studio. When connection successful, you should see a chain icon next to the application name in Solution Runner. Applications can connect the ABP Studio with Solution Runner -> C# Application -> Run -> Start or from an outside environment such as debugging with Visual Studio. Additionally, they can establish a connection from a Kubernetes Cluster through the ABP Studio Kubernetes Integration: Connecting to the Cluster.

You can configure the AbpStudioClientOptions to disable send telemetry information. The package automatically gets the configuration from the IConfiguration. So, you can set your configuration inside the appsettings.json:

• StudioUrl: The ABP Studio URL for sending telemetry information. Mostly, you don't need to change this value. The default value is http://localhost:38271.
• IsLinkEnabled: If this value is true, it starts the connection to ABP Studio and transmits telemetry information. You can switch this to false for deactivation. In a production deployment, you should explicitly set this value to false. The default value is true.

"AbpStudioClient": { 
 "StudioUrl": "http://abp-studio-proxy:38271",
 "IsLinkEnabled": false
}

Alternatively you can configure the standard Options pattern in the ConfigureServices method of the YourApplicationModule class.

public override void ConfigureServices(ServiceConfigurationContext context)
{
    Configure<AbpStudioClientOptions>(options =>
    {
        options.IsLinkEnabled = false;
        //options.StudioUrl = "";
    });
}

Overall

In this tab, you can view comprehensive overall information. You have the option to search by application name and filter by application state. To reset all filters, use the Clear Filters button. When you apply a filter header informations gonna refresh by filtered applications.

• Apps Running: The number of applications running. It includes only C# applications. In the example, nine C# microservice applications are running.
• Requests: The number of HTTP requests received by all C# applications.
• Events: The number of Distributed Event sent or received by all C# applications.
• Exceptions: The number of exceptions thrown by all C# applications.

In the data grid, details for each application are displayed. It's possible to sort rows by columns.

• Name: The name of the application.
• State: The state of the application. It can take on several values such as Scheduled, Starting, Started, Stopping and Stopped. The Scheduled state indicates the application is waiting for an automatic restart (e.g., after a crash or when watch mode detects changes). You can cancel the scheduled restart at this stage.
• Health: The health state of the application. The icon indicates the current health status: Healthy (green), Unhealthy (red), Degraded (yellow), or Unknown (gray). Clicking on the icon shows the latest health check response in JSON format. Displays N/A if the application is not running or health check is not configured for the application.
• Instances: Indicates the count of running instances for the application. This value is particularly helpful when scaling the application within a Kubernetes cluster, providing visibility into the number of currently active pods.
• Uptime: The time elapsed since the application started.
• Requests: The number of HTTP requests received by the application.
• Events (R/S): The number of Distributed Events received or sent by the application.
• Exceptions: The number of exceptions thrown by the application.
• Actions: The actions that can be performed on the application. You can start and stop the application.

Context Menu Actions

When selecting a row, you can right-click to access the context menu with the following actions:

For the events system, you can exclusively view the Distributed Events. Generally, the Local Events are not included.

Browse

ABP Studio includes a built-in browser that allows access to websites and running applications. You can open new tabs to browse different websites or view active applications. It's a convenient utility to access websites and applications without leaving ABP Studio. Clicking the Browse tab displays the running applications and an Open new tab button.

You can open the Browse tabs as many times as you want. It's possible to open the same application in several tabs simultaneously. To open an application, you can:

• Double-click on an application in the Solution Runner tree.
• Right-click on an application and select Browse from the context menu.
• Click on a running application in the application list shown in the Browse tab.

These options are only available when the application has a Launch URL configured. Additionally, you can access any URL by entering it into the address bar.

Browser Toolbar

The browser toolbar provides the following controls:

Default Credentials Notification

When browsing certain applications (such as AppHost dashboards), ABP Studio displays a notification bar with default credentials. This helps you quickly log in during development. You can dismiss this notification permanently by clicking the Don't show again option.

HTTP Requests

Within this tab, you can view all HTTP Requests received by your C# applications. You have the option to filter requests based on URLs by using the search textbox or by selecting a particular application from the combobox. The Clear Requests button removes all received requests. Moreover, you have the ability to sort requests by columns.

Request List Columns

The request list displays the following information:

Request Details

Clicking on a row enables you to view the details of each HTTP request:

• URL: The full request URL.
• Method: The HTTP method used.
• Status Code: The response status code.
• Duration: Request processing time in milliseconds.
• Timestamp: When the request was received.
• Headers (Request): All request headers sent by the client.
• Headers (Response): All response headers returned by the server.
• Request (Payload): The request body with size information.
• Response: The response body with size information.

Formatting JSON Content

Both request and response payloads have a Format button that formats JSON content for better readability. This is available when the content type is application/json.

Quick URL Filter

When viewing request details, you can right-click and select Filter Selected URL to quickly apply the current URL as a filter. This is useful when you want to see all requests to a specific endpoint.

Configuring Ignored URLs

By clicking the gear icon in the HTTP Requests tab, you can access the Solution Runner HTTP Requests Options window. Within the Ignored URLs tab, you have the ability to exclude particular URLs by applying a regex pattern. Excluded URLs won't be visible in the HTTP Requests tab. By default, the metrics URL is already ignored. You can add or remove items as needed.

After adding a new URL pattern, it will only affect subsequent requests. Existing requests will remain visible.

Events

In this tab, you can view all Distributed Events sent or received by your C# applications. You can filter them by Event Name using the search textbox or by selecting a specific application. Additionally, you can choose the Direction (Received/Sent) and Source (Direct/Inbox/Outbox) of events. The Clear Events button removes all events.

Direction and Source Filters

• Direct: Events sent or received without using the Inbox/Outbox pattern.
• Inbox: Events received through the transactional inbox.
• Outbox: Events sent through the transactional outbox.

Event Details

Clicking on a row enables you to view the details of each event:

• Application: The application that sent or received the event.
• Event Name: The full event type name.
• Direction: Whether the event was received or sent.
• Source: The event source (Direct, Inbox, or Outbox).
• Timestamp: When the event was processed.
• Event Data: The event payload in JSON format.

Formatting Event Data

The Event Data section includes a Format button that formats the JSON content for better readability. This makes it easier to inspect complex event payloads.

ABP Studio automatically decodes Base64-encoded event data. If your event bus uses Base64 encoding for message transport, the data will be displayed in its decoded, readable form.

Exceptions

This tab displays all exceptions thrown by your C# applications. You can apply filters using the search textbox based on Message, Source, ExceptionType, and StackTrace or by choosing a specific application. Additionally, you have the option to select the Log Level for filtering. To clear all exceptions, use the Clear Exceptions button.

Exception List

The exception list shows a summary of each exception:

• Exception Type: The short exception type name (e.g., NullReferenceException instead of System.NullReferenceException).
• Message: A truncated version of the exception message.
• Timestamp: When the exception occurred.
• Level: The log level (Error, Warning, etc.).

Exception Details

Click on a row to inspect the full details of each exception:

• Application: The application where the exception occurred.
• Exception Type: The full exception type name including namespace.
• Source: The source file or component where the exception originated.
• Timestamp: When the exception was thrown.
• Level: The log level associated with this exception.
• Message: The complete exception message.
• StackTrace: The full stack trace showing the call hierarchy.

Inner Exceptions

If an exception contains inner exceptions, they are displayed hierarchically in the details panel. This allows you to trace the root cause of wrapped exceptions, which is common in scenarios like database errors wrapped in application-level exceptions.

Logs

The Logs tab allows you to view all logs for both CLI and C# applications. To access logs, simply select an application from the dropdown. You can also apply filters using the search textbox by log text or by selecting a specific Log Level.

Log Level Filtering

When you select a Log Level, it shows the selected level and all higher severity levels:

Log Display Features

• Color Coding: Log entries are color-coded by level for quick visual identification. Errors and critical logs stand out with distinct colors.
• Auto Scroll: When enabled, the display automatically scrolls to show new logs as they arrive. This is useful for real-time monitoring.
• Clear Logs: Clears the logs for the currently selected application only. Other applications' logs remain intact.
• Text Filter: Search within log messages using the search textbox. The filter is applied in real-time with a slight delay for performance.

Tools

The Tools tab provides quick access to web-based management interfaces for infrastructure services like Grafana, RabbitMQ, pgAdmin, and Redis Commander. Each tool opens in a dedicated browser tab within ABP Studio, eliminating the need to switch between external browser windows.

The microservice template includes pre-configured tools for common infrastructure services. You can customize these tools or add new ones based on your project requirements.

Adding a New Tool

To add a new tool, click the + button in the Tools tab. This opens the Create Tool dialog where you can configure the tool properties.

Tool Properties

Each tool has the following configurable properties:

Editing and Removing Tools

• Edit: Right-click on a tool tab and select Edit to modify its properties.
• Remove: Right-click on a tool tab and select Close to remove it from the profile.
• Clear Cookies: Right-click on a tool tab and select Clear Cookies to reset the browser session for that tool.

Tool Activation States

Tools can be in different activation states depending on their configuration:

Kubernetes Integration

When you specify a Related Kubernetes Service, the tool gains the ability to seamlessly switch between local and Kubernetes environments. This is particularly useful for microservice development where you run some services locally while others remain in a Kubernetes cluster.

Automatic URL Switching:

1. Local Mode: When the Related Container is running, the tool uses the configured URL (e.g., http://localhost:3000).
2. Kubernetes Mode: When the container stops and you're connected to a Kubernetes cluster, the tool automatically redirects to the matching Kubernetes service.
3. Pattern Matching: The Related Kubernetes Service accepts regex patterns. For example, .*-grafana matches any service name ending with -grafana.

This automatic switching eliminates the need to manually update URLs when transitioning between local development and Kubernetes-based testing.

Run Profile Configuration

Tools are persisted in the Run Profile file (.abprun.json). Below is an example configuration with common infrastructure tools:

{
  "tools": {
    "grafana": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3000",
      "relatedContainer": "grafana",
      "relatedKubernetesService": ".*-grafana",
      "relatedKubernetesServicePort": 3000
    },
    "rabbitmq": {
      "url": "http://localhost:15672",
      "relatedContainer": "rabbitmq",
      "relatedKubernetesService": ".*-rabbitmq",
      "relatedKubernetesServicePort": 15672
    },
    "redis-commander": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8081",
      "relatedContainer": "redis-commander"
    },
    "pgadmin": {
      "url": "http://localhost:5050",
      "relatedContainer": "pgadmin"
    },
    "seq": {
      "url": "http://localhost:5341"
    }
  }
}

Default Credentials

Some tools display a notification bar with default credentials when opened for the first time:

You can dismiss this notification permanently by clicking the Don't show again option.