Azure Function App — Queue-Based Architecture for Long-Running Sync Jobs
The Problem: HTTP Triggers and Long-Running Jobs Don't Mix Here's a situation you've probably run into: you have a job that needs to loop over dozens of Azure resources, call APIs, and do real work. You wrap it in an HTTP-triggered Azure Function so it can be called on demand. It works great and after a few minutes, the caller gets a 504 Gateway Timeout. The 230-second limit is enforced by Azure Front Door / the platform load balancer. It cannot be overridden by app settings or host configuration. Any HTTP trigger that runs longer than ~3.5 minutes will timeout for the caller. In our case, the job iterates over 30+ Azure subscriptions — for each one it switches context, lists resources, and triggers image imports. Total runtime: anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes depending on how many ACRs need updating. Way over the limit. The Solution: Decouple Request from Execution via a Queue The fix is clean once you see it: the HTTP trigger shouldn't do the work — it should just accept the work and hand it off. That's what a queue is for. The flow splits into two independent phases: Request phase — The HTTP trigger validates the caller (JWT + app role check), packages the job parameters into a queue message, and returns 202 Accepted. This takes under 3 seconds. Execution phase — A Queue Trigger picks up the message and runs the actual sync. No HTTP connection involved, so there's no timeout. On a Dedicated (P-series) plan, execution time is unlimited. Approach What the caller gets Result HTTP trigger → run sync inline Waits for the full job to complete 504 TIMEOUT after 230 seconds HTTP trigger → Queue → Queue Trigger 202 Accepted immediately NO TIMEOUT job runs as long as needed 🤸♀️There's an added bonus - Reliability in Azure Queue Storage: Azure Storage Queues give you automatic retry out of the box. If the job crashes halfway through, the message becomes visible again after a visibility timeout and the Queue Trigger picks it up for a retry — up to 5 attempts before the message is moved to the poison queue. No retry logic to write 🤸♀️. Locking Down the Endpoint Since the HTTP trigger is the public entry point, it needs solid auth. We layer two things: ⭐Use EasyAuth for the "is this a real Entra ID token?" check, and a custom App Role for the "is this person allowed to trigger syncs?" check. These are independent concerns and should stay that way. Layer What it does How EasyAuth (Entra ID) Rejects requests without a valid Entra ID Bearer token — before your code even runs Configured at the Function App level via the Authentication blade App Role check Validates that the token contains the SyncJob.Execute role — only assigned users/SPs can trigger the job Decoded in the function code from the JWT roles claim Managed Identity Authenticates the Function App to Azure APIs (no credentials in code) Connect-AzAccount -Identity — identity assigned via RBAC One gotcha worth knowing: when using v2 tokens (which is the default with modern App Registrations), the aud claim in the token is the raw App ID GUID — not the api:// prefixed URI. You need to explicitly add both forms to your allowedAudiences in EasyAuth, otherwise valid tokens get rejected. APP_ID="<your-app-id>" TENANT_ID="<your-tenant-id>" FUNCTION_APP_URL="https://<your-function-app>.azurewebsites.net" # Interactive login (device code flow — works from any terminal) az login --tenant "${TENANT_ID}" \ --scope "api://${APP_ID}/.default" \ --use-device-code TOKEN=$(az account get-access-token \ --scope "api://${APP_ID}/.default" \ --query accessToken -o tsv) # Trigger the sync — returns 202 immediately curl -s -X POST "${FUNCTION_APP_URL}/api/SyncContainerRegistryHttpTrigger" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" Passing Parameters Through the Queue One nice property of this pattern: the queue message is just JSON, so you can pass whatever parameters the job needs. In our case, we pass a subscriptionFilter wildcard so callers can target a subset of subscriptions without touching any code. The parameter travels the full chain: HTTP body → queue message → Queue Trigger → PowerShell script parameter. Here's how each step handles it. Step 1 — HTTP Trigger reads the body and enqueues the message using the Push-OutputBinding output binding. Azure Functions wires the binding to the queue automatically — no SDK call needed: param($Request, $TriggerMetadata) # ... decode the JWT, check role assignment $queuePayload = @{ triggeredBy = $decoded.Payload.upn ?? $decoded.Payload.oid triggeredAt = (Get-Date -Format 'o') subscriptionFilter = if ($body.subscriptionFilter) { $body.subscriptionFilter } else { "*" } } | ConvertTo-Json -Compress Push-OutputBinding -Name QueueMessage -Value $queuePayload Push-OutputBinding -Name Response -Value ([HttpResponseContext]@{ StatusCode = [System.Net.HttpStatusCode]::Accepted Body = @{ message = "Sync job queued. Check Azure Monitor logs for execution status." } }) ⭐Push-OutputBinding is how Azure Functions PowerShell workers write to output bindings (queues, blobs, HTTP responses…). The binding name QueueMessage maps to the queue defined in function.json — the runtime handles serialisation and delivery. Step 2 — Queue Trigger passes the filter to the script as a named parameter: param($QueueItem, $TriggerMetadata) Write-Host "Triggered SyncContainerRegistry via Storage Queue. Payload: $QueueItem" $subscriptionFilter = if ($QueueItem.subscriptionFilter) { $QueueItem.subscriptionFilter } else { "*" } $SubscriptionFilter = $subscriptionFilter . "$PSScriptRoot/../SyncContainerRegistry/run.ps1" Step 3 — Long running job with the filter as parameter: param($Timer) if (-not $SubscriptionFilter) { $SubscriptionFilter = "*" } $subscriptions = Get-AzSubscription | Where-Object { $_.Name -like $SubscriptionFilter } foreach ($subscription in $subscriptions) { Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId $subscription.Id | Out-Null # ... do the work } Targeting a subset of subscriptions # Sync all subscriptions (default — omit the body) curl -s -X POST "${FUNCTION_APP_URL}/api/SyncContainerRegistryHttpTrigger" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" # Sync only subscriptions matching a pattern curl -s -X POST "${FUNCTION_APP_URL}/api/SyncContainerRegistryHttpTrigger" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"subscriptionFilter": "*project-alpha*"}' ⭐PowerShell's -like operator uses * as a wildcard anywhere in the string. The pattern *project-alpha* matches sub-mycompany-project-alpha-prd, sub-mycompany-project-alpha-dev, etc. A pattern without a leading * only matches from the start of the string — keep this in mind when naming subscriptions. Pushing a Message Directly via PowerShell You can also push a message straight to the queue without going through the HTTP trigger — useful for testing, scripting, or bypassing the auth layer in a controlled environment. Connect-AzAccount # or -Identity for a Managed Identity context $storageAccount = "<your-storage-account>" $queueName = "sync-job-queue" # Build the payload — same shape the HTTP trigger produces $payload = @{ triggeredBy = $env:USERNAME triggeredAt = (Get-Date -Format 'o') subscriptionFilter = "*project-alpha*" # or "*" for all } | ConvertTo-Json -Compress # Get a queue client via the connected account (no key needed) $ctx = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName $storageAccount -UseConnectedAccount $queue = Get-AzStorageQueue -Name $queueName -Context $ctx $queue.QueueClient.SendMessage($payload) ⭐ -UseConnectedAccount authenticates via the current Connect-AzAccount session — no storage key required, as long as your identity has the Storage Queue Data Message Sender role on the storage account. The Queue Message The HTTP trigger packages the caller identity and filter into a simple JSON payload before enqueuing. The Queue Trigger reads it back as a deserialised PowerShell object — no manual JSON parsing needed. { "triggeredBy": "user@company.com", "triggeredAt": "2026-06-01T11:03:55.570+02:00", "subscriptionFilter": "*project-alpha*" } Design Decisions at a Glance Decision Choice Why Async execution Azure Storage Queue HTTP trigger has a hard 230s timeout. The sync job takes 2–10 minutes. The queue decouples acceptance from execution — and gives us retry for free. Authentication EasyAuth + App Role No credentials in code. Access is controlled via Entra ID app roles — revocable per user without touching infrastructure. Azure identity Managed Identity No secrets to rotate or store. The Function App authenticates to Azure APIs using its platform-assigned identity. Job parameter Wildcard filter via queue payload Lets callers target any subscription subset without code changes. The filter travels through the queue — the Queue Trigger just passes it along. Hosting plan Dedicated (P-series) Consumption plan caps function execution at 10 minutes. A Dedicated plan has no execution time limit — essential when the job can run longer. See you in the Cloud Jamesdld
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Ciao everyone, I’m working on https://github.com/osirisjson/osiris, a vendor-neutral specification for describing infrastructure resources and their relationships as portable point-in-time snapshots. To proof that the specification could work in real-scenarios I already built an initial https://osirisjson.org/en/docs/producers/hyperscalers/microsoft-azure in Go. You run on-premise and it connects through the Azure CLI, reads Azure subscriptions and emits an OSIRIS JSON document that can be used for documentation, topology diagrams, audits, configuration drift analysis, CMDB/IPAM/DCIM workflows, or controlled AI/context workflows without giving those platforms/tools direct access to Azure. The producer currently covers several Azure areas, including networking, compute, storage, identity, databases, containers, integration, observability, backup, automation, management groups, and cross-resource dependency edges such as Private Endpoint to PaaS targets, App Service to Application Insights / Log Analytics, AKS to subnets and node pools, and backup vault relationships. It supports two output purposes: documentation: minimal high-level projection for diagrams, inventory dashboards, and architectural documentation audit: deeper projection with readable properties and extensions after sensitive-field redaction This is not intended to replace Azure tooling, Azure Resource Graph, IaC, Azure Policy, or any existing governance/control-plane workflow. OSIRIS JSON is simply a read-only external producer that generates a vendor-neutral snapshot of the observed Azure environment. I would really appreciate feedback from Azure architects, cloud engineers, and governance practitioners on the mapping model: Which Azure resources and relationships are the most important for documentation and topology generation? Are the current connection types useful for real-world architecture views? What should be prioritized in next releases? Would a documentation/audit split be useful in enterprise environments? You find the current Azure producer documentation here: https://osirisjson.org/en/docs/producers/hyperscalers/microsoft-azure I would really appreciate any feedback, suggestions, edge cases, or ideas from people who operate, document, audit, or govern Azure environments and I also welcome anyone who want to participate on development. Ciao from Italy, Tia
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My Journey with Azure SRE Agent
Introduction A customer came to me with a problem that many organisations have. They control their infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code, but there are often scenarios where an admin needs to go in and make a change - even though they would ideally not want this to happen. The use an Entra feature Privileged Identity Management (PIM). Users statically don't have contributor access to Azure resources, but PIM allows them to elevate their access for a period of time. As part of PIM, the admin needs to give a reason for the elevation. Wouldn't it be good if an agent of some sort could look at this reason, then look at what the user actually did and make an assessment on whether what they did aligned with the reason given? Then alert if not. I initially built Python agents to handle this, but as with many "build vs. buy" decisions, I eventually discovered that Azure SRE Agent (in preview at the time of writing) could do what I needed – and more. This blog chronicles my journey from initial scepticism to building a fully autonomous PIM elevation audit agent. Along the way, I learned valuable lessons about what SRE Agent is designed for, how to work with its tooling model, and the difference between interactive exploration and production automation. The Starting Point: Python Agents and the Buy vs. Build Decision Before discovering SRE Agent, I had functional Python scripts that queried Azure Audit Logs and Activity Logs to correlate PIM activations with actual Azure operations. They worked, but they required maintenance, error handling, scheduling infrastructure, and ongoing attention. When I heard about Azure SRE Agent's capabilities as an autonomous monitoring platform, I decided to investigate. The decision: If there's a choice between buy versus build, buy should win – especially when the "buy" option is a managed Azure service with built-in security, monitoring, and integration capabilities. First Impressions: The Interactive Front End One of the first features that caught my attention was SRE Agent's chat interface. Unlike my static Python scripts, I could have conversational interactions with the agent, refining queries and exploring my Azure environment in natural language. This was powerful for discovery and prototyping. Initial Success (and Failure) When I first asked SRE Agent to analyse PIM elevation patterns, the results were... disappointing. The agent couldn't initially answer my PIM elevation questions effectively. However, this is where the interactive experience shone: through. With coaching in an interactive session, I could: - Explain what PIM activation events look like in Azure Audit Logs - Show the agent how to correlate `CorrelationId` between activation requests and justifications - Demonstrate how to build time windows from activation start to deactivation/expiration - Guide it through matching Azure Activity operations against justification keywords After several rounds of refinement, the agent eventually got excellent results. The interactive session wasn't just a chatbot – it was a learning tool that helped me shape the agent's behaviour. The Subagent Puzzle: Interactive vs. Headless What I really needed was an autonomous agent that could run on a schedule. As I got better results from the interactive sessions, Subagents is the tool in SRE Agent for this. I naturally wanted to convert the interactive session into a subagent that could run autonomously. This is where I hit my first conceptual stumbling block. The Aha Moment: Understanding SRE Agent's Purpose I was initially confused about how to structure a subagent. Should it replicate the interactive conversation flow? How do I capture all that back-and-forth in a static configuration? After discussions with the engineering, I learned a critical lesson: The interactive experience is fantastic for exploration, prototyping, and troubleshooting – but it's not what you should be aiming for in production automation. This reframed my entire approach. Instead of trying to replicate the conversational flow, I needed to distil my learnings from those sessions into the instructions for a subagent. Struggling with Subagent Format Even with this clarity, I struggled with the format of a subagent definition. The YAML structure, the `system_prompt` verbosity, the tool declarations – it felt overwhelming to translate my interactive sessions into a configuration file. The Game-Changer: Let the Agent Write Itself Then came the game-changing advice from engineering: This was brilliant in its simplicity. I had already what I wanted the agent to do in the interactive chat session. It was a simple as "generate a subagent from this conversation". I must admit, I did have to ask it to generate an email with the report, but the bulk of the effort in generating the YAML subagent file was done by the agent. What would have taken me hours of trial and error was done in minutes. Tool Configuration: The Missing Pieces With a subagent definition in hand, I deployed it and... nothing worked. This began the most educational part of my journey: understanding how tools work in Azure SRE Agent. Challenge #1: Accessing Log Analytics My subagent kept failing to query Log Analytics. I initially thought this was a role assignment issue – did the agent's managed identity have Log Analytics Reader permissions? I spent time checking RBAC, verifying workspace access, and reviewing Entra ID permissions. The real issue? I needed to add `QueryLogAnalyticsByWorkspaceId` as a tool in my subagent configuration! tools: - QueryLogAnalyticsByWorkspaceId The Azure SRE Agent UI supports selecting this tool during configuration, but I had missed it. More importantly, I needed to mention the Log Analytics workspace ID in my subagent's `system_prompt` so the agent knew which workspace to target: system_prompt: > ... Query the workspace: XXXXXX-d119-4550-86c0-YYYYYYYYYYY... Lesson learned: Tools aren't automatically available – you must explicitly declare them. The agent uses this to understand what capabilities it has and to configure the appropriate authentication and access patterns. Challenge #2: Sending Email Notifications The next hurdle was sending email reports. My PIM audit was working beautifully, but the results were only visible in logs. I needed email notifications. Initially, there didn't seem to be a built-in email tool I could choose from the portal. I attempted to write a custom Python tool that sent emails via Microsoft Graph API. This seemed logical – I'd done this in my previous Python agents. Problem: Corporate email policies blocked my application from sending emails via Graph. This was a security feature, not a bug, but it meant my custom tool approach was dead in the water. Discovering the Outlook Connector Then I noticed the Outlook connector in the SRE Agent configuration portal. This was a managed connector specifically for sending emails with pre-configured authentication. I set it up, configured it (noting the connector ID: `connector-abf2`), and waited for emails. Still nothing. The Manual YAML Edit Trawling through other sample subagent configurations, I discovered a tool called SendOutlookEmail. This tool wasn't available in the portal's dropdown menu, but it existed in the platform. I needed to **manually add this to my subagent YAML file**: tools: - QueryLogAnalyticsByWorkspaceId - SendOutlookEmail After this change and redeploying the subagent, emails started flowing perfectly. Lesson learned: The portal UI is evolving (remember, this is preview), and not all tools are exposed visually yet. Don't be afraid to hand-edit the YAML when you know a capability exists. The documentation and sample repositories are your friends. Making It Fully Autonomous: Scheduled Triggers With a working subagent that could query logs, analyse alignment, and send emails, I had one final step: scheduling it. I created a scheduled task trigger in Azure SRE Agent configured to run every 24 hours (UTC). This trigger invokes my PIM elevation subagent, which executes its entire workflow autonomously and emails stakeholders with any findings. The subagent configuration includes this execution schedule guidance: system_prompt: > Execution schedule: Run every 24h (UTC). Now, every morning, our security team receives a PIM elevation alignment report without any manual intervention. The Result: A Production PIM Elevation Agent My final solution is an **autonomous agent** that: Runs on a 24-hour schedule Queries Azure Audit Logs for PIM activations Extracts user justifications from the log Builds precise activation time windows Queries Azure Activity logs during that time window Classifies alignment: Aligned, Partial, or NotAligned Generates JSON and plaintext reports Emails stakeholders with flagged non-aligned activity No Python scripts. No custom authentication handling. No infrastructure to maintain. You can see the full subagent configuration in my GitHub repository: PIM Elevation Agent Reflections: SRE Agent's Power and Rough Edges Azure SRE Agent is powerful. The ability to define complex audit workflows in declarative YAML, leverage natural language prompts for behaviour specification, and integrate with Azure services through managed tools is genuinely impressive. It also integrates with incident response services - both being able to generate incidents and to trigger flows from incidents. All as a first-class Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS). However, it's important to remember that this is a preview service (as of February 2026). There are rough edges: - Tool discoverability: Not all tools are visible in the portal UI - Documentation gaps: Some capabilities require digging through samples - Learning curve: Understanding the interactive-vs-headless paradigm takes time - Debugging: Error messages aren't always clear about what's misconfigured These are typical preview-stage challenges, and I expect they'll improve as the service matures. The core platform is solid, and the engineering team is responsive to feedback. Key Takeaways If you're considering Azure SRE Agent, here are my lessons learned: Use interactive sessions for discovery – They're excellent for prototyping and learning Think headless/autonomous for production – Autonomous agents should be declarative, not conversational Let the agent write itself – Ask the interactive session to generate subagent configs Explicitly declare tools – They're not automatic; you must add them to your config Include context in prompts – Workspace IDs, connector IDs, schedules – be specific Don't fear manual YAML edits – The portal is evolving, hand-editing is ok Check samples and docs*– Other configurations show patterns and tools not yet in UI, so check the YAML of these Embrace "buy over build" – Managed services reduce long-term maintenance burden Resources: - SRE Agent Documentation - my PIM Elevation subagent sample - Kusto (KQL) Query Reference *This blog post represents my personal experience and opinions. Azure SRE Agent capabilities and UI may have changed since the time of writing.*
