Azure C# (.NET) timer function not running on schedule OR manually - azure

Question

I have an Azure Function with a Timer trigger. The schedule is "*/6 * * * *" (running every six minutes). I cannot run it manually and it does not fire automatically. Below is my function.json:
{
"generatedBy": "Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Functions-1.0.31",
"configurationSource": "attributes",
"bindings": [
{
"type": "timerTrigger",
"schedule": "%TimerTriggerPeriod%",
"useMonitor": true,
"runOnStartup": false,
"name": "myTimer"
}
],
"disabled": false,
"scriptFile": "../bin/AccessChangeMonitoring.dll",
"entryPoint": "Microsoft.IT.Security.AccessChangeMonitoring.AccessChangeMonitoring.InitiateChangeMonitoring"
}
%TimerTriggerPeriod% is defined in my local.settings.json file ("TimerTriggerPeriod": "0 */6 * * * *"). Looking at the Application Function Count metric display on the dashboard, it shows that my function has been executed 0 times:
Below is my host.json:
{
"version": "2.0",
"logging": {
"applicationInsights": {
"samplingExcludedTypes": "Request",
"samplingSettings": {
"isEnabled": true
}
}
},
"functionTimeout": "00:07:00"
}
Below is the function code:
[FunctionName("InitiateChangeMonitoring")]
public static async Task InitiateChangeMonitoring([TimerTrigger("%TimerTriggerPeriod%")] TimerInfo myTimer, ILogger log)
{
log.LogInformation("Change Monitoring started.");
// Reset the listing of app ids we need to retrieve delta role assignments for
oneAuthZAppIds = new List<string>();
await GetOneAuthZAppIdsAsync();
// Create the necessary Cosmos DB infastructure
await CreateDatabaseAsync();
await CreateContainerAsync();
await CreateDeltaAPICallDatabaseAsync();
await CreateDeltaAPICallContainerAsync();
await CreateManagerMappingDatabaseAsync();
await CreateManagerMappingContainerAsync();
// Compute the authentication token needed to access the PAP Service API
log.LogInformation("\nRetrieve PAPServiceAPIToken");
string PAPServiceAPIToken = await GetTokenAsync(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OneAuthZAppUri"), Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OneAuthZAppId"),
PAPAuthenticationSecret);
log.LogInformation("PAPServiceAPIToken = " + PAPServiceAPIToken);
string GraphAPIAuthenticationToken = await GetTokenAsync(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("GraphAppUri"), Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("GraphClientId"),
graphKey);
log.LogInformation("graphAPIAuthenticationToken = " + GraphAPIAuthenticationToken);
await runChangeMonitoringSystemAsync(PAPServiceAPIToken);
}

Answer 1

First, I notice you specify you are using local.settings.json to save the environment variable and at the same time you show the metric on azure.
So, I think the first problem why your azure function can not be triggered is because you don't set the environment variable on azure.
You should set in this place instead of local.settings.json (because when a function is deployed to Azure, it will never take environment variable from local.settings.json):
(Don't forget to save the edit.)
Second, as Ivan says, your format of cron is wrong. The format of timetrigger should be in this format:
{second} {minute} {hour} {day} {month} {day of week}