Managing business transactions

Overview

This article covers how to add, update, import, and export business transactions within a business process in the Data Queries (pull model) type of Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). Transactions define the units of work that BAM tracks by querying data from your Azure monitoring resources.

Business value

Configuring transactions in the Data Queries type connects BAM to your existing observability data — Application Insights, Azure Data Explorer (ADX), or Log Analytics — without requiring changes to your integration components. Once defined, each transaction surfaces trackable flows from data your systems already emit, giving operations teams visibility without additional instrumentation.

Prerequisites

A business process must already exist before you can add transactions to it. Transactions cannot be created in isolation. The Azure data source (Application Insights workspace, ADX cluster, or Log Analytics workspace) must be connected and accessible from BAM.

Required permissions

The Manage transactions permission is also granted to users with the Account owner, Contributor, or Reader role.

How it works

Transactions in the Data Queries type are backed by queries rather than push events. When you add a transaction, you select a data source type — Application Insights, Azure Data Explorer, or Log Analytics — choose the specific resource, and write the query that BAM runs to retrieve transaction data. Field mapping then binds the query result columns to BAM tracking properties (Instance id, Started at, Completed at, Duration) and defines status conditions. Optional batching and debatching settings are also configured during creation.

Because this model polls your data sources rather than receiving events directly, transaction definitions here control what BAM queries, how often, and how it interprets the results.

Steps

Use the following steps to manage transactions within a Data Queries business process. Navigate to your business process in Business Activity Monitoring and select Transactions to get started.

Add a transaction

Adding a transaction creates a new trackable unit of work, backed by a data source query.

1. Go to the Transactions section in a business process.
2. Click + Add in the Transactions pane.
3. Enter a Tracking name — the identifier used internally to match query results to this transaction.
4. Enter a Friendly name — the display label shown in the BAM UI for this transaction.
5. Optionally, enter a Description.
6. Select Inbound or Outbound from the Direction dropdown.
7. Select the Designer mode:
   • Auto-Generate — the transaction diagram is built automatically from a child query at runtime.
   • Manual — create and configure each stage manually using the designer.
8. Select the data source type from the Type dropdown — choose Application insight, Log analytics, or Azure data explorer.
9. Select the target resource from the Select application insight (or equivalent) dropdown.
10. Enter the query in the query editor and click Execute to validate it returns results.
11. In the Field Mapping section, configure the following:
    • Select properties to promote for correlation — select query columns to use as correlation properties.
    • Instance id — map to the query column that uniquely identifies each transaction instance.
    • Started at — map to the query column that represents the transaction start time.
    • Completed at — map to the query column that represents the transaction completion time.
    • Duration — map to the query column that represents transaction duration.
12. In the Status section, define the conditions that determine each transaction status. For each status row (Failure, Cancelled, Inprogress, Success), specify the Field, Condition, and Values from the query result that correspond to that status.
13. Optionally, configure batching and debatching settings:
    • Is batched transaction — enable if this transaction aggregates multiple child transactions. Select the child transaction, Batched transaction property, and Child transaction property.
    • Is debatched transaction — enable if this transaction is a child split from a parent. Select the parent transaction, Debatched transaction property, and Parent transaction property.
14. Click + Create.

Update a transaction

Updating a transaction lets you change its configuration — including the data source, query, or optional settings — without losing existing transaction instances.

1. Go to the Transactions section in a business process.
2. Click the Edit icon next to the transaction you want to update.
3. Make the required changes. The editable fields vary depending on the current data source configuration.
4. Click Update.

Import a transaction

Importing lets you synchronize transactions from a previously exported JSON file. Before confirming, BAM shows the status of each transaction in the file relative to the current business process.

1. Navigate to the Transactions section within the business process.
2. Click Import, select the exported transactions JSON file, and click Open.
3. Select transactions marked Added or Modified to include them. To remove transactions no longer present in the file, select those marked Not Found.
4. Click Next to proceed to resource selection.
5. Choose the target resources to use for tracking the selected transactions and click Validate to validate the associated query and verify the JSON.
6. Click Proceed.

Export a transaction

Exporting saves the selected transactions to a JSON file that you can use to import into another business process or environment.

1. Navigate to the Transactions section within the business process.
2. Click the Export icon in the Transactions pane.
3. Select the transactions to export.
4. Click Export. The selected transactions are compiled into a downloadable JSON file.

Troubleshooting

1. Transaction returns no data after creation
   Cause: The query configured on the transaction does not match the shape of data in the selected data source, or the resource is not emitting the expected telemetry.
   Fix: Test the query directly in the data source (Application Insights, ADX, or Log Analytics) to confirm it returns results before saving it to BAM.

2. Data source is not visible in the Type dropdown
   Cause: The data source resource has not been connected to BAM or does not have the required permissions.
   Fix: Verify the data source connection in BAM settings and confirm the service principal has Reader access to the resource.

3. Import fails at the Validate step
   Cause: The linked resource in the imported JSON file no longer exists or its query is invalid in the current environment.
   Fix: Select a valid replacement resource for each transaction on the resource selection screen and re-validate.

4. Import applies unwanted overrides
   Cause: Transactions marked Modified were selected without reviewing the changes they would apply.
   Fix: Deselect Modified transactions you do not want to override before clicking Proceed.

5. Transaction instances do not appear after the query executes
   Cause: The correlation properties configured on the transaction are not matching the fields returned by the query.
   Fix: Edit the transaction and verify that the correlation property paths match the exact field names in the query output.

Related articles

• Business transactions
• Managing business processes
• Transaction instances