How to debug rules created with Rules Engine

Debug Rules allows you to check whether rules or rule sets created using the Rules Engine module for Applications and Firewall have been successfully executed in your application.

You can debug rules using the GraphQL API, Azion Data Stream, and Azion Real-Time Events.

There are separate instructions using legacy Domains settings and using the new Workloads product.

Enabling Debug Rules

To debug your rules or rule sets, you must first activate the Debug Rules feature on Azion’s interface.

To enable Debug Rules for Application:

1. Access Console.
2. Go to Products menu > Application.
3. Select an existing application to activate debug.
4. On the Main Settings tab, enable the Debug Rules option.
5. Click the Save button.

To enable Debug Rules for Firewall:

1. Access Console.
2. Go to Products menu > Firewall.
3. Select the firewall you want to configure.
4. On the Main Settings tab, enable the Debug Rules option.
5. Click the Save button.

Debugging rules with the GraphQL API

To query the available rules data in the GraphQL API, follow the steps described on How to query GraphQL requests on Postman using the https://api.azionapi.net/events/graphql URL.

Then, on Postman’s GraphQL request code box, add the following HTTP Query, modifying the tsRange to fit the time interval you want:

The example above shows a query for rule data using the HTTP Events dataset. The limit field filters the last 10 entries within the tsRange field. The presented data is ordered through the ts (timestamp) field.

The query above should return:

• ts: the time range for when each request was initiated.
• remoteAddress: the IP of the client that made the request to the application.
• requestUri: the type of HTTP request and URI.
• stacktrace: executed rules and rule sets.

Send your request. You’ll receive a response similar to this:

In this example, the GraphQL API has returned all active request and response phase rules created for Applications, as well as an active Firewall rule set.

For more information on the GraphQL API, visit the datasets documentation page.

Debugging rules using Data Stream

To debug rules via Data Stream, follow these steps:

1. Access Console.
2. Select Products menu > Data Stream.
3. Click + Stream.
4. Choose a name for your stream.
5. On the Source dropdown menu, select Applications.
6. On the Template dropdown menu, select Custom Template.
7. On the Data Set code box, add the following variables:

To make sure your logs are being sent to your endpoint through the configured stream, you can use Real-Time Events to query detailed analysis.

To see all your created stream, go to the Data Stream page on Azion Console and select one from the list. Feel free to create multiple ones.

Variables definition

Debugging rules using Real-Time Events

To access Real-Time Events, follow these steps:

1. Access Console.
2. On the upper-left corner, select Products menu > Real-Time Events.
3. Select the HTTP Requests tab.
4. Modify the desired time range and add filters if needed.
5. Click the Search button.
6. Select the log body you want to inspect.
7. Look for the traceback field.

The traceback field should contain the type of rule executed and the behavior triggered within the selected time range. For instance:

In this example, the traceback field contains all active request and response phase rules created for Applications, as well as an active Firewall rule set.