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Support Azure App Configuration references in Azure App Services #62
Description
What about offering the opportunity to reference App Configuration values the same way we can do with Key Vault References.
Key Vault: @Microsoft.KeyVault(SecretUri=https://myvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/mysecret/ec96f02080254f109c51a1f14cdb1931)
App Configuration: @Microsoft.AppConfiguration(ConfigurationUri=https://my.azconfig.io/configs/mykey/mylabel)
That way, we can provision those references during provisioning phase, keeping client code agnostic of the environment in which its deployed.
This is especially interesting when using Managed Identities.
Activity
drago-draganov commentedon May 14, 2019
AKC (@arkiaconsulting),
It's a great suggestion indeed! My understanding is that specific reference is only applicable for Azure App Services/Azure Functions. Nevertheless, we should work with these respective teams to help App Configuration feel native across Azure.
zhenlan commentedon Oct 12, 2019
We just announced the Key Vault Reference feature in App Configuration. Please open new issues if you have any feedback.
Azure/AppConfiguration-Announcements#1
alex-3sr commentedon May 5, 2020
Hi,
This is a « must have » feature ! Without references link for app services, it’s useless at this time. We really love to have it as feature.
Thanks,
Alex
adriend-advz commentedon Sep 14, 2020
Hello!
Do you guys have any news on providing this feature?
Thanks!
zhenlan commentedon Sep 14, 2020
We've been in conversation with the App Service/Azure Functions team but looks like this was not able to be scheduled within this year. We will keep trying to get this into their future planning.
cc: Lisa Guthrie (@lisaguthrie) Alexandra Kemper (@AlexandraKemperMS)
arkiaman commentedon Sep 15, 2020
adriend-advz I think that with the AppConfiguration nuget, binding your App Service/Function is very easy, removing the need to be able to reference App Configuration items that way. Do you have a special use case ?
alex-3sr commentedon Sep 15, 2020
Hi AKC (@arkiaconsulting) , from Ops side, this is a not acceptable solution that AppService get directly information from a KV or App Configuration. Usually dev team ask a grant for list all settings, and so we can't control which config/secrets especially when KV/AppConfiguration are shared by multiples teams/projects.
So, to reference in AppSetting permit to control who and what are consumed from WebApp/FunctionApp, and in more when we deploy infra with IaC (like Terraform) we can know if some configs/secrets are not use anymore and can be delete, without tracking GIT repo for code as C# for people doesn't know some dev language.
In conclusion, AppConfiguration for ops teams without AppSettings referencing is acually useless and we still use AppSettings for configuration. And about Key Vaults secrets, like referencing is possible, we deploy it everytime and everywhere when it's needed. So until we don't have this feature, AppConfiguration will never use in our projets.
Hope that this use case, who is not special, can explain the reason of this must-have feature.
Have a nice day, and remain at your disposal if need further informations
Regards
Alexandre
adriend-advz commentedon Sep 15, 2020
Hi!
I just have one more question regarding this: I was planning to however use this app configuration task but removing everything related to key vault references to avoid pushing wrong reference.
When doing the deployment, it basically wiped all the keys that were not in the properties file.
Is there a way to avoid such a behavior?
Thanks in advance!
arkiaman commentedon Sep 15, 2020
adriend-advz What
app configuration taskare you talking about ?14 remaining items
mattboothman commentedon Dec 16, 2021
It'd be separate from that, wouldn't it?
zhenlan commentedon Dec 16, 2021
If you are using the App Configuration provider library, you won't need this because you can pull configuration and feature flags from App Configuration directly. This integration is useful for applications that don't know (or you don't want it to know) about App Configuration because key-values in App Configuration will be available as environment variables to your applications.
PanosKousidis commentedon Dec 18, 2021
Understood Zhenlan Wang (@zhenlan), clients who care about these features should still be using the AppConfiguration library. Thanks.
AlexandraKemperMS commentedon Mar 29, 2022
Hi AKC (@arkiaconsulting), alex-3sr, adriend-advz, Matt Boothman (@mattboothman), cpdohert, Panos Kousidis (@PanosKousidis), Spi (@BzSpi), David Jürgens (@Kittoes0124), and Aleksy Zalenski (@azalenski),
based on your requests, we have been building the @Microsoft.AppConfiguration Reference in App Service and it is now available in Private Preview! We would love for you to try out this feature and hear your feedback. To get access to the private preview, please fill out this survey: App Config Reference Private Preview Access Survey and we will reach out to you. Note that for any Microsoft private preview, you or your company will need to sign an NDA if you/they have not already done so.
avanigupta commentedon Sep 1, 2022
Hello AKC (@arkiaconsulting), alex-3sr, adriend-advz, Matt Boothman (@mattboothman), cpdohert, Panos Kousidis (@PanosKousidis), Spi (@BzSpi), David Jürgens (@Kittoes0124), and Aleksy Zalenski (@azalenski), this feature is now in Public Preview.
Please let us know if you have any feedback!
ianrandell-sh commentedon May 22, 2023
Hi Avani Gupta (@avanigupta) - where do you want feedback? If here then:
I'm hitting our App Configuration Service (ACS) from an Azure Function using app configuration references. I notice that a request appears to be made to ACS for each app setting individually, ie the config retrieval is not batched into a single call.
I can retrieve all of our app config keyvalues using azure cli eg
where "/ian/api/dev/" is the common prefix of all of my app config key names.
Obviously the key names could be completely different with no common prefixing.
But I wonder whether some logic could be built into the "fetch" code that checks for common prefixing and retrieves a whole batch (up to 100 entries?) in a single call. Retrieved keyvalues could then be matched to app settings based on their full keyname.
Would eliminate some of the 429s we're seeing (even in Standard tier).
Thanks!
avanigupta commentedon May 23, 2023
Thanks for the feedback Ian Randell (@ianrandell-sh). This is definitely something we want to add in future.
carlo-quinonez commentedon Jul 8, 2023
When a AppService uses a Key Vault Reference and the secret changes, the App Service will be restarted. From this article
Do changes to AppConfig also trigger restart of an AppService with AppConfig References? If not, is this on the roadmap?
zhenlan commentedon Jul 12, 2023
Changes in AppConfig won't be picked up in App Service automatically today. You will have to manually trigger a restart of your App Service for it to pick up the changes. Will an auto refresh within 24 hours, like what's supported in the Key Vault reference, work for you?
carlo-quinonez commentedon Jul 19, 2023
Zhenlan Wang (@zhenlan) Bouncing Yes, automatically restarting - even ~24hrs after changing config - would be useful when changing non-essential config, like log level or APM config.
salihcantekin commentedon Jan 8, 2024
I'm really looking forward to see it working soon.
jimmyca15 commentedon Aug 13, 2025
Azure App Configuration references are GA in Azure App Service. I will be closing this issue as that was the original concern. Avani Gupta (@avanigupta) mentioned she will open a separate issue to track refresh.