Snapshots Help Debug Production Azure Web Apps

• Snapshot debugging allows developers to debug certain production Azure applications without interrupting users.
• Debugging production deployments can reduce the need to create test environments to reproduce problems for diagnosis.
• The feature has several requirements, such as ASP.NET and a recent version of Visual Studio Enterprise.
• The feature allows developers to observe production user data, which could contain sensitive information.

Snapshot Debugger, a feature of Azure and Visual Studio that became generally available in late 2017, allows developers to debug Web application code that has been deployed to production in Azure without affecting application availability.

Debugging Production Apps Typically Difficult

Debugging problems that arise in applications while they are deployed in production can be difficult and time consuming because developers typically cannot interrupt production environments to diagnose problems where and when they occur.

The debugging process, therefore, usually involves reviewing logs and building test environments as similar as possible to production to attempt reproductions of reported issues. Differences in the test environment, such as load, data, and timing, make it difficult to identify the root cause of bugs experienced in production. Furthermore, coordination between development and IT staff can complicate traditional manual procedures used for production debugging, although trends in so-called DevOps processes have worked toward easing these processes.