Intro

Use App Configuration to store all the settings for your application and secure their access in one place.

Documentation

• Explore the Azure App Configuration service

Tips and Tidbits

• Explore the Azure App Configuration service

• App Configuration offers the following benefits:

  • A fully managed service that can be set up in minutes

  • Flexible key representations and mappings

  • Tagging with labels

  • Point-in-time replay of settings

  • Dedicated UI for feature flag management

  • Comparison of two sets of configurations on custom-defined dimensions

  • Enhanced security through Azure-managed identities

  • Complete data encryptions, at rest or in transit

  • Native integration with popular frameworks

  • Centralize management and distribution of hierarchical configuration data for different environments and geographies

  • Dynamically change application settings without the need to redeploy or restart an application

  • Control feature availability in real-time

• The easiest way to add an App Configuration store to your application is through a client library that Microsoft provides.

• Create paired keys and values

• Azure App Configuration stores configuration data as key-value pairs.

• Keys serve as the name for key-value pairs and are used to store and retrieve corresponding values.

  • It's a common practice to organize keys into a hierarchical namespace by using a character delimiter, such as / or :

  • Easier to read, Easier to manage, Easier to use.

  • AppName:Service1:ApiEndpoint AppName:Service2:ApiEndpoint

• Keys stored in App Configuration are case-sensitive, unicode-based strings.

• You can use any unicode character in key names entered into App Configuration except for *, ,, and \.

  • These characters are reserved.

  • If you need to include a reserved character, you must escape it by using \{Reserved Character}.

• There's a combined size limit of 10,000 characters on a key-value pair.

   

• Key values in App Configuration can optionally have a label attribute.

• Labels are used to differentiate key values with the same key.

• Key = AppName:DbEndpoint & Label = Test Key = AppName:DbEndpoint & Label = Staging Key = AppName:DbEndpoint & Label = Production

• App Configuration doesn't version key values automatically as they're modified.

• Use labels as a way to create multiple versions of a key value.

• You query an App Configuration store for key values by specifying a pattern.

  • The App Configuration store returns all key values that match the pattern and their corresponding values and attributes.

• Values assigned to keys are also unicode strings.

• You can use all unicode characters for values.

• There's an optional user-defined content type associated with each value.

  • Use this attribute to store information, for example an encoding scheme, about a value that helps your application to process it properly.

Secure app configuration data

• Secure app configuration data

• Every App Configuration instance has its own encryption key managed by the service and used to encrypt sensitive information.

• Sensitive information includes the values found in key-value pairs.

• When customer-managed key capability is enabled, App Configuration uses a managed identity assigned to the App Configuration instance to authenticate with Azure Active Directory.

  • The managed identity then calls Azure Key Vault and wraps the App Configuration instance's encryption key.

  • The wrapped encryption key is then stored and the unwrapped encryption key is cached within App Configuration for one hour

• You can use private endpoints for Azure App Configuration to allow clients on a virtual network (VNet) to securely access data over a private link.

• The private endpoint uses an IP address from the VNet address space for your App Configuration store.