To know about URL ping test feature

Question

To know about URL ping test feature

RevalliAruna-0051 0

I wanted to know about URL ping test feature, what it does and what are the migration steps for standard test?

Ajay Rathod 360 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-31T06:35:50.4233333+00:00
Hi @RevalliAruna-0051

Greetings for the day, Thanks for reaching out to Q&A.

Quick note first: URL ping tests and Standard tests are an Application Insights (Azure Monitor) feature, not Azure App Service - you may want to re-tag the question so the right people find it.

What a URL ping test does

It's the classic, single-request availability test in Application Insights. On a schedule (default every 5 minutes) it sends one HTTP/HTTPS request to a public URL from the Azure test locations you pick - up to 16, with 5 recommended as a minimum - and records whether the endpoint responded and how long it took. Its success criteria are limited: expected HTTP status code, an optional plain-text content match, a timeout, and optionally parsing dependent requests. It can raise an alert when enough locations report failure.

What changes on 30 September 2026

URL ping tests retire on that date, and existing URL ping tests are removed from your resources. Anything you haven't migrated simply stops running and its alerting goes silent - so it's worth doing this now rather than in late September.

What a Standard test adds

A Standard test is the direct replacement. It sends the same single request and keeps all the success criteria you already use, plus:

TLS/SSL certificate validity check

Proactive lifetime check, so the test warns you before the certificate expires

Choice of HTTP request verb (GET, HEAD, POST)

Custom headers

Custom request body

One thing to plan for: Standard tests incur charges when enabled. Review Azure Monitor pricing before you switch things on: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/monitor/#pricing

Prerequisites: a workspace-based Application Insights resource, and permission to read and create Microsoft.Insights/webTests resources.

Migration steps (Azure portal)

Step 1. Open your Application Insights resource and go to Availability.

Step 2. Select "Add Standard test".

Step 3. Re-enter the settings from your existing ping test - name, URL, test frequency, test locations, timeout, expected HTTP response code, content match. Turn on "Enable retries for availability test failures"; a failure is then only reported after three consecutive failed attempts, and on average about 80% of failures disappear on retry. Select Create. Verify: within roughly 5-10 minutes the new test starts showing successful results in the Availability chart for every location you selected.

Step 4. Let it run alongside the ping test for a day or so. Creating a Standard test doesn't modify or remove your URL ping test, and the new test has no alert rules by default - so nothing goes noisy and your existing alerts stay as the safety net. Review the migrated test before you rely on it; some URL ping test validation rules need manual conversion.

Step 5. Repoint your alerts. Alert rules are NOT migrated automatically. In Monitor > Alerts > Alert rules, open each rule that references the old ping test and point it at the new Standard test, or recreate it on the new test. A good threshold is: alert location threshold = number of test locations minus 2, with at least 5 test locations. Verify: the rule's scope shows the new Standard test name and an action group is attached - without an action group you only get in-portal notifications, no email.

Step 6. Only once the alerts are cut over, disable or delete the URL ping test.

That's the whole migration for a handful of tests.

Optional - bulk migration with PowerShell

If you have many tests spread across resource groups or subscriptions, there's a scripted path. First, find every ping test you own by running this in Azure Resource Graph Explorer:

resources | where ['type'] =~ "microsoft.insights/webtests" | where tostring(properties.Kind) =~ "ping" | extend webTestResourceGroup = resourceGroup, webTestName = name, enabled = tobool(properties.Enabled), locations = properties.Locations | mv-expand bagexpansion=array tags | extend tagName = tostring(tags[0]) | where tagName startswith "hidden-link:" | extend appInsightsResourceId = substring(tagName, strlen("hidden-link:")) | where appInsightsResourceId contains "/providers/microsoft.insights/components/" | extend resourceIdParts = split(appInsightsResourceId, "/") | project subscriptionId, webTestResourceGroup, webTestName, enabled, locations, appInsightsResourceGroup = tostring(resourceIdParts[4]), appInsightsName = tostring(resourceIdParts[8]), appInsightsResourceId | order by subscriptionId, webTestResourceGroup, webTestName

Then connect and list the ping tests in a subscription:

Connect-AzAccount Set-AzContext -Subscription "<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"

Get-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest | Where-Object { $_.WebTestKind -eq "ping" } | Format-Table -Property ResourceGroupName,Name,WebTestKind,Enabled

This block then creates a Standard test that copies the ping test's URL, locations, frequency, timeout, retry setting, expected status code and "Find Text" content match. It works for both HTTP and HTTPS endpoints:

$resourceGroup = "<PING_TEST_RESOURCE_GROUP>" $appInsightsComponent = "<APP_INSIGHTS_NAME>" $pingTestName = "<EXISTING_PING_TEST_NAME>" $newStandardTestName = "<NEW_STANDARD_TEST_NAME>"

$componentId = (Get-AzApplicationInsights -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $appInsightsComponent).Id $pingTest = Get-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $pingTestName $pingTestRequest = ([xml]$pingTest.ConfigurationWebTest).WebTest.Items.Request $pingTestValidationRule = ([xml]$pingTest.ConfigurationWebTest).WebTest.ValidationRules.ValidationRule

$dynamicParameters = @{}

if ($pingTestRequest.IgnoreHttpStatusCode -eq [bool]::FalseString) { $dynamicParameters["RuleExpectedHttpStatusCode"] = [convert]::ToInt32($pingTestRequest.ExpectedHttpStatusCode, 10) }

if ($pingTestValidationRule -and $pingTestValidationRule.DisplayName -eq "Find Text" -and $pingTestValidationRule.RuleParameters.RuleParameter[0].Name -eq "FindText" -and $pingTestValidationRule.RuleParameters.RuleParameter[0].Value) { $dynamicParameters["ContentMatch"] = $pingTestValidationRule.RuleParameters.RuleParameter[0].Value $dynamicParameters["ContentPassIfTextFound"] = $true }

New-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest @dynamicParameters -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $newStandardTestName -Location $pingTest.Location -Kind 'standard' -Tag @{ "hidden-link:$componentId" = "Resource" } -TestName $newStandardTestName -RequestUrl $pingTestRequest.Url -RequestHttpVerb "GET" -GeoLocation $pingTest.Locations -Frequency $pingTest.Frequency -Timeout $pingTest.Timeout -RetryEnabled:$pingTest.RetryEnabled -Enabled:$pingTest.Enabled -RequestParseDependent:($pingTestRequest.ParseDependentRequests -eq [bool]::TrueString) -RuleSslCheck:$false

Verify: run this and confirm WebTestKind comes back as "standard", then check the Availability blade shows it passing from every location:

Get-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $newStandardTestName

After you've validated it and repointed the alert rules (Steps 4 and 5 above), remove the ping test:

Remove-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $pingTestName

References

Application Insights availability tests — https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/availability (see "Types of availability tests", "Create an availability test", and "Migrate classic URL ping tests to standard tests")

Azure Monitor pricing — https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/monitor/#pricing

Migrate classic URL ping tests to standard tests (procedure + migration steps) https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-monitor/app/availability?tabs=standard#migrate-classic-url-ping-tests-to-standard-tests

Information about URL ping test retirement https://supportabilityhub.microsoft.com/solutions/apollosolutions/e58fa03a-b33c-05ac-1dbe-6cd17d77f9f4/b787f984-58e1-4dcb-ad91-7a6140188247

Types of availability tests (Standard test vs URL ping tests; feature list) https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-monitor/app/availability

Standard availability tests overview https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-monitor/app/availability-standard-tests

Azure Monitor pricing (for availability test costs) https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/monitor/#pricing

Update/manage alert rules in Azure Monitor (for cutover step) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/alerts/alerts-manage-alert-rules

Thanks

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

A URL ping test in Application Insights is a single-request availability test used to check whether an endpoint is responding. It is the older availability test type and is deprecated. URL ping tests retire on September 30, 2026, and existing URL ping tests are removed from resources after that date.

A Standard test is the current replacement for URL ping tests. It also sends a single request, but adds more capabilities, including:

TLS/SSL certificate validity checks
Proactive certificate lifetime checks
HTTP verbs such as GET, HEAD, and POST
Custom headers
Custom data in the HTTP request

Key migration points:

Creating a Standard test does not modify or remove the existing URL ping test.
Alert rules are not migrated automatically.
Standard tests incur charges when enabled.
Some URL ping test validation rules might require manual conversion.
The new Standard test does not have alert rules by default, which helps avoid noisy alerts.

Migration steps to Standard test:

Ensure prerequisites are available:
- Permission to read and create Microsoft.Insights/webTests resources
- Existing URL ping tests
- Azure PowerShell access
Connect to the subscription in Azure PowerShell:
```
   Connect-AzAccount
   Set-AzContext
```

List URL ping tests in the current subscription:

   Get-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest | `
   Where-Object { $_.WebTestKind -eq "ping" } | `
   Format-Table -Property ResourceGroupName,Name,WebTestKind,Enabled;

Identify the URL ping test to migrate and record its resource group and name.
Create a Standard test with the same logic as the URL ping test.
Validate the new Standard test before cutover.
Update alert rules that currently reference the URL ping test so they reference the Standard test instead.
After validation and alert cutover, disable or delete the old URL ping test. Azure PowerShell example:
```
   Remove-AzApplicationInsightsWebTest -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Name $pingTestName;
```

If discovery across subscriptions is needed, Azure Resource Graph Explorer can be used to find existing URL ping tests before migration.