For all that is good and holy, how do I see all the currently running container apps?

Azure Container Apps does not provide a single built-in “all environments, all apps, all replicas” live view in Azure Managed Grafana in the provided context. However, the available observability features can be combined to approximate what is needed.

1. To see how many replicas are currently running per app/environment

Use Azure Monitor metrics for Container Apps and surface them in Grafana:

• The Replicas metric (namespace Microsoft.App/containerapps) gives the number of active replicas per revision.
• In the Azure portal, open a container app → Metrics to verify the metric and its dimensions (Replica, Revision). From there, charts can be pinned to dashboards or used as a basis for Grafana queries.
• Metrics explorer also supports:
  • Filters by revision/replica.
  • Splitting by revision or replica so that a single chart shows per-revision replica counts.
  • Adding multiple scopes so metrics from multiple container apps appear in one chart.

Once the metric and dimensions are understood in Azure Monitor, configure Azure Managed Grafana to query the same metrics (via the Azure Monitor data source) and build a dashboard that:

• Uses Replicas as the metric.
• Splits or groups by container app and revision.
• Optionally uses multiple scopes to cover all container apps in an environment or subscription.

2. To see what version/image tag is currently running

The provided context does not expose a metric for image tag or version. That information is not listed among the available metrics in Microsoft.App/containerapps or Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments. It must be obtained from configuration (revisions, images) rather than from the metrics pipeline, so it cannot be surfaced directly via the documented metrics into Grafana based on this context.

3. To see “what’s happening right now” across apps

Within Azure itself, there are two main real-time views described:

• Metrics snapshots in the Container App Overview
  • On a container app’s Overview page, the Monitoring tab shows current CPU, memory, and network utilization. These can be pinned to dashboards.
  • Metrics explorer can then be used to:
    • Add multiple scopes (multiple container apps) to a single chart.
    • Split by revision/replica.
• Grafana dashboards in Azure Container Apps (preview)
  • Prebuilt dashboards are available:
    • Container app dashboard: per-app CPU, memory, request rates, replica counts, restarts.
    • Environment dashboard: overview of all container apps in an environment, including revision names, replica ranges, resource allocations, and performance data.
  • These dashboards are accessed from:
    • Container app → Monitoring → Dashboards with Grafana (per-app view).
    • Container Apps environment → Monitoring → Dashboards with Grafana (environment-wide view).
  • Dashboards can be customized and exported to any Grafana instance, including Azure Managed Grafana, to create a consolidated view.

4. Alternative real-time view: Aspire Dashboard (for .NET Aspire workloads)

If using .NET Aspire, the Aspire Dashboard can provide live traces, metrics, and logs for applications in a Container Apps environment:

• Enable from the container app Overview page by turning on Aspire Dashboard, then use Open dashboard.
• Or enable at the environment level with:

    az containerapp env dotnet-component create \
      --environment <ENVIRONMENT_NAME> \
      --name aspire-dashboard \
      --resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME>
  

• The dashboard shows:
  • Traces (request lifecycles across services).
  • Metrics (real-time health/performance).
  • Logs.
  • Pod information via the Kubernetes API.

This is not a Grafana dashboard, but it is a real-time, environment-wide view of what is running and how it is behaving.

Summary of what can be done with the documented features:

• Use Azure Monitor metrics (Replicas, CPU, memory, requests, etc.) and multiple scopes in metrics explorer to build charts that show current replica counts per app/revision across multiple apps.
• Export or recreate those charts in Azure Managed Grafana using the Azure Monitor data source.
• Use the prebuilt Environment Grafana dashboard for Container Apps as a starting point and customize it to show replica counts and other metrics across all apps in an environment.
• For .NET Aspire workloads, enable Aspire Dashboard for a live, environment-wide view of traces, metrics, and logs.

References:

• Monitor Azure Container Apps metrics
• Grafana dashboards in Azure Container Apps (preview)
• Read real time app data with Aspire Dashboard in Azure Container Apps (portal)
• Read real time app data with Aspire Dashboard in Azure Container Apps (azurecli)