Actions in transaction instances

Overview

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) provides a set of actions you can take directly on transaction instances in the Custom Logging type. These actions let you manage failed transactions, mark critical instances for quick access, override statuses, and reprocess transactions from within BAM — without switching to the underlying Azure resource.

Business value

Direct actions on transaction instances reduce operational overhead when failures occur. Instead of tracking down failed messages across Azure services, you can triage, reprocess, or reassign them from a single interface. Status overrides and ignore actions prevent known, expected failures from cluttering the failure queue.

Prerequisites

Required permissions

How it works

All actions in this article are available only in the Custom Logging type of BAM. Navigate to Business Activity Monitoring > Tracking to access transaction instances and perform these operations.

Action Required tab

The Action required tab displays all failed transaction instances for the period you specify. You can filter the list by tracked properties to narrow down the instances needing attention.

The following failed transaction types are excluded from this tab:

• Reprocessed transaction instances
• Ignored transaction instances

Favorite transactions

Mark as favorite

Marking a transaction instance as a favorite flags it for quick retrieval from the Favorite transactions tab, so you can return to specific instances without re-running a search.

1. On the Tracking page, locate the transaction instance you want to mark.
2. Click the Actions menu ( ⋮ ) next to the instance.
3. Select Mark favorite.

The instance appears under the Favorite transactions tab at the top of the Tracking page.

Remove from favorite

To remove a favorited instance, you must first switch to the Favorite transactions tab — the removal option is only available from that view.

1. On the Tracking page, click the Favorite transactions tab.
2. To remove a single instance, click the Actions menu next to it and select Remove from favorite.
3. To remove multiple instances at once, select the checkboxes next to the instances and click Remove favorite in the toolbar.

Transaction instance graph (detailed view)

Clicking Edit when viewing the message flow of a transaction instance opens a detailed view of the transaction instance graph. This view shows each stage's status and its tracked properties. You can customize the transaction flow alignment and make changes to stage status and properties from this view.

Steps

The following steps cover the main actions available on transaction instances. Navigate to Business Activity Monitoring > Tracking to begin. Each action below requires the Custom Logging type.

Update transaction status

Updating a transaction's status lets you manually correct the tracking state when the displayed status does not reflect the actual outcome — for example, when an expected backend failure should be closed, or when a completed transaction is still showing as in progress due to an instrumentation issue.

1. Click the Actions menu next to the transaction instance you want to update.
2. Select Update transaction instance.
3. Choose the desired status.
4. Enter a reason for the change. The reason is accessible under the i button in the UpdatedBy column.
5. Click Continue.

To update multiple instances at once, select them and click Update.

Updated instances can be identified by querying with the Updated and UpdatedBy keys.

Automate status updates using transaction configuration

If transaction instances remain in the same state for extended periods, you can configure automatic status transitions. In the business transaction configuration, specify the current state, the target state, and the time threshold after which the transition should occur.

Once configured, BAM automatically updates matching transaction instances. Automatically updated instances display a Updatedby = "system" tooltip when you hover over the status color.

You can filter auto-updated instances using the query: Updatedby = "system".

Update stage status and properties

Updating stage status and properties lets you correct individual stage outcomes or property values without reprocessing the entire transaction.

1. Open the transaction instance graph by clicking the tracking data for the instance.
2. Click Edit to open the detailed view.
3. Select the stage you want to update.
4. Change the status or properties as needed.

Updated stage status and properties can be tracked using the Updated and UpdatedBy query keys.

Ignore transaction instances

Ignoring a transaction instance removes it from the Action Required tab without reprocessing it. Use this action when a failure is expected or insignificant and does not require remediation.

1. Select one or more transaction instances.
2. Click Ignore and provide a description.

Reprocess a transaction instance

Reprocessing sends a failed transaction instance back through the pipeline from a specified stage. Use this when the original failure was caused by a transient issue and the transaction can be safely retried.

Prerequisites

• A default reprocess stage must be set on the business transaction.
• Reprocess configuration must be provided for the stages in the transaction.
• The stage statuses eligible for reprocessing are defined in the business transaction settings.

Reprocess steps

1. Navigate to Tracking and select the transaction instance to reprocess.
2. Click the tracking data to open the message flow graph.
3. Select the stage to reprocess from the graph.

Reprocessed stages are identified by a blue border on the stage icon in the message flow.

Bulk reprocess

Bulk reprocessing lets you reprocess multiple failed transaction instances simultaneously. Select the instances and use the Reprocess option. BAM reprocesses them based on the configured default stage. You can also choose First Failed or Last Failed as the reprocess target.

If the selected stage lacks a reprocess configuration, BAM automatically falls back to the previous failed stage until a valid configuration is found.

Limitations

• All actions in this article are available only in the Custom Logging type. These operations are not available for Data Queries type transactions.
• Reprocessing requires a reprocess configuration on the transaction stages before it can be used.
• Manual status and stage updates may be overridden by future instrumentation data from the same transaction instance.
• Favorite transactions are visible only to the user who marked them.

Troubleshooting

1. Reprocess option is not available for a transaction instance.
   Cause: No default reprocess stage has been set on the business transaction, or the current stage status is not included in the reprocess eligibility settings.
   Fix: Open the business transaction configuration, set a default reprocess stage, and confirm the stage statuses eligible for reprocessing.

2. Transaction status reverts after a manual update.
   Cause: A subsequent event from the instrumented stage overwrote the manual status change.
   Fix: This is expected behaviour. Manual updates are overridden by live instrumentation data. Use the auto-update configuration to set a persistent state transition rule instead.

3. Action Required tab shows transactions that have already been reprocessed.
   Cause: The reprocess action was not completed successfully, or the transaction was reprocessed from outside BAM.
   Fix: Verify the reprocess configuration and check the stage-level tracking data to confirm whether a reprocess event was received.

4. Ignore option is not visible.
   Cause: You do not have the Manage transaction instance permission required to perform tracking actions in BAM.
   Fix: Contact your BAM administrator to confirm your role includes the Manage transaction instance permission.

5. Bulk reprocess falls back to an unexpected stage.
   Cause: The selected stage does not have a reprocess configuration. BAM falls back to the nearest previous stage with a valid configuration.
   Fix: Review the reprocess configuration for each stage in the transaction and confirm the fallback behaviour matches your intent.

Related articles

• Transaction instances
• Querying transaction instances
• Assigning users to transaction instances
• Configuring reprocess for transaction stages