Tips and Tricks: Azure API Management

Use Policies Effectively:

Policies are a powerful feature of APIM that can be used to transform payloads, control flow, validate requests and responses, and more. They can be applied at multiple scopes (global, product, API, operation), so understand the best level to apply them for your requirements.

Leverage Named Values:

Named values can be used to manage constants that can be reused in policies throughout the service instance. They can store secrets, URLs, and other frequently used values. This can simplify management and improve security.

Use Products to Bundle APIs:

Products are a great way to organize and expose your APIs. You can group related APIs into a product and manage access at the product level.

Versioning and Revisions:

If your APIs are expected to evolve, consider using the versioning and revision features in APIM. This can help manage changes in your APIs without breaking existing consumers.

Monitor Your Service:

Use Azure Monitor and Application Insights for detailed insights into the performance and usage of your APIM service. Enable diagnostic logs to get detailed data for troubleshooting.

Automate Deployments:

Automate API deployments using Azure Resource Manager templates or Azure PowerShell to ensure consistency and reduce manual errors.

Secure Your APIs:

Use APIM's security features like OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect for user authentication, IP filtering to restrict access, and subscription keys for client authentication.

Optimize for Performance:

APIM provides various features for performance optimization such as response caching, request throttling, and backend service pooling. Understand these features and use them appropriately.