Overview
A transaction instance is a single occurrence of a business transaction as identified by the Pull Model query. Each instance represents one unit of work — for example, one order, one file transfer, or one API call — tracked across its configured stages.
In the Pull Model, instances are created automatically by BAM when a scheduled query returns a result that matches the transaction's correlation property. Your integration solution does not need to signal the start or end of an instance — BAM discovers and constructs it from the queried data.
Business value
Transaction instances give your operations team a concrete, searchable record of every tracked unit of work. Because instances are created and updated automatically from your existing telemetry, you get full transaction visibility with no additional instrumentation — making it practical to monitor integrations that are already running in production.
How it works
When BAM executes the scheduled query for a business transaction, it evaluates the results and determines whether each result represents a new instance or an update to an existing one. The correlation property — a field configured in the transaction definition — is used to group results into instances.
Pull Model transaction instances display one of the following status values:
- Inprogress — BAM has identified at least one stage for this correlation key but not yet all configured stages.
- Success — All configured stages have been identified for the instance.
- Failure — The instance has been identified as failed, either because a stage query returned a result mapped to the Failure status, or because a monitoring rule triggered a failure state.
- Cancelled — The instance has been marked as cancelled.
Each instance moves through the following lifecycle states:
- Created — BAM identifies a new correlation value in the query results that does not match any existing instance. A new instance is created with the stage data available at that point.
- Updated — A subsequent query returns results for a correlation value that already has an instance. BAM updates the instance with the new stage data — for example, marking a later stage as complete.
- Overdue — A stage has not been identified within the expected duration configured for that stage. BAM flags the instance and can trigger an alert based on the monitoring configuration.
The table below summarises how Pull Model instances differ from Push Model instances:
| Aspect | Push Model | Pull Model |
|---|---|---|
| How instances are created | Your solution explicitly sends the first event | BAM creates the instance when the query first returns a matching result |
| Real-time vs scheduled | Created in real time as events arrive | Created or updated after each scheduled query execution |
| Stage completion | Recorded when your solution emits the stage event | Recorded when the stage query returns a matching result |
| Data source | BAM API | Azure Application Insights, Log Analytics, Azure Data Explorer (ADX) |
Once created, Pull Model instances appear in the BAM tracking view alongside Push Model instances. You can search, filter, and inspect instances by transaction, stage, status, date range, and tracked property values. The tracking experience is consistent across both models.