Application Insights Java Agent: Sampling overrides for database operations do not work

[fung-hei-man]

Expected behavior

• Filter and skip uploading unnecessary database-related telemetries, which include
  • Ping / Commit
  • Set variable 'autocommit' / access mode, etc.

Actual behavior

• Used applicationinsights.json to setup sampling overrides (configurations listed below)
• Tried various setups but will cannot stop above mentioned telemetries to be uploaded to Azure

↑ Only records in red are wanted, and failed to stop others to be uploaded.

To Reproduce

• It is a Java Spring Boot Web application deployed to Azure App Service.
  • JRE-21, Spring Boot version: v3.5.8, Application Insights Java Agent version: v3.7.3

Some configurations in applicationinsights.json I have tried:

Disable JDBC

"instrumentation": {
    "jdbc": {
      "enabled": false
    }
  }

Results:

• All "actual SQL queries" records are gone (those Name started with SELECT in above screen shot), while others are still being uploaded
• Exactly the opposite what I want

Filter by db.statement

• Gathered several possible SQL queries for the telemetry to be filtered
• Also tried value like PING or COMMIT for both cases using strict type with the same result

"sampling": {
    "overrides": [{
        "telemetryType": "dependency",
        "attributes": [
          {
            "key": "db.statement",
            "value": "(?i)^(commit|rollback|set autocommit.*|ping|SELECT 1.*)",
            "matchType": "regexp"
          }
        ],
        "percentage": 0
      }
  ]
}

Results:

• Nothing is filtered

Filter by db.operation

"sampling": {
    "overrides": [{
        "telemetryType": "dependency",
        "attributes": [
          {
            "key": "db.operation",
            "value": "PING",
            "matchType": "strict"
          }
        ],
        "percentage": 0
      }
  ]
}

Results:

• Nothing is filtered

System information

Please provide the following information:

• SDK Version:
  • Application Insights Java Agent v3.7.3
  • telemetry.sdk.version = 1.50.0
• OS type and version: Docker eclipse-temurin:21-jre
• Application Server type and version (if applicable): N/A
• Using spring-boot? Y (v3.5.8)
• Additional relevant libraries (with version, if applicable): N/A

Logs

Startup log:

Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -javaagent:/agents/java/applicationinsights-agent-codeless.jar
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: Sharing is only supported for boot loader classes because bootstrap classpath has been appended
2026-01-05 06:24:22.882Z INFO  c.m.a.a.i.c.ConfigurationBuilder - Some telemetry may be sampled out because a default sampling configuration was added in version 3.4.0 to reduce the default billing cost. You can set the sampling configuration explicitly: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-monitor/app/java-standalone-config#sampling
2026-01-05 06:24:25.586Z WARN  i.o.s.a.ResourceConfiguration - Found reference to io.opentelemetry.sdk.autoconfigure.internal.EnvironmentResourceProvider in otel.java.enabled.resource.providers. Please update to io.opentelemetry.sdk.autoconfigure.EnvironmentResourceProvider. Support for the old provider name will be removed after 1.49.0.
2026-01-05 06:24:31.359Z INFO  c.m.applicationinsights.agent - Application Insights Java Agent 3.7.3 started successfully (PID 1, JVM running for 12.461 s)
2026-01-05 06:24:31.391Z INFO  c.m.applicationinsights.agent - Java version: 21.0.9, vendor: Eclipse Adoptium, home: /opt/java/openjdk

Debug logs for some of the unwanted spans:

• PING

2025-12-30 08:39:38.822Z DEBUG c.m.a.a.i.exporter.AgentSpanExporter - exporting span: SpanData{spanContext=ImmutableSpanContext{...}, 
parentSpanContext=ImmutableSpanContext{...}, 
resource=Resource{schemaUrl=null, attributes={service.name="dev-xxx", telemetry.sdk.language="java", telemetry.sdk.name="opentelemetry", telemetry.sdk.version="1.50.0"}}, 
instrumentationScopeInfo=InstrumentationScopeInfo{name=MySQL Connector/J, version=9.5.0, schemaUrl=null, attributes={}}, name=Ping, kind=CLIENT, startEpochNanos=1767083978792441794, endEpochNanos=1767083978800465996, 
attributes=AttributesMap{data={thread.id=45, db.system=mysql, db.statement=PING, db.user=xxx, db.name=xxx, thread.name=restartedMain, db.operation=PING}, capacity=128, totalAddedValues=9}, 
totalAttributeCount=9, events=[], totalRecordedEvents=0, 
links=[ImmutableLinkData{...}], 
totalRecordedLinks=1, status=ImmutableStatusData{statusCode=UNSET, description=}, hasEnded=true}

• autocommit

2025-12-30 08:40:37.782Z DEBUG c.m.a.a.i.exporter.AgentSpanExporter - exporting span: SpanData{spanContext=ImmutableSpanContext{...}, 
parentSpanContext=ImmutableSpanContext{...}, 
resource=Resource{schemaUrl=null, attributes={service.name="dev-xxx", telemetry.sdk.language="java", telemetry.sdk.name="opentelemetry", telemetry.sdk.version="1.50.0"}}, i
nstrumentationScopeInfo=InstrumentationScopeInfo{name=MySQL Connector/J, version=9.5.0, schemaUrl=null, attributes={}}, 
name=Set variable 'autocommit', kind=CLIENT, startEpochNanos=1767084037772131150, endEpochNanos=1767084037779955066, 
attributes=AttributesMap{data={thread.id=66, db.system=mysql, db.statement=SET (...), db.user=xxx, db.name=xxx, thread.name=http-nio-8080-exec-2, applicationinsights.internal.operation_name=GET /*, db.operation=SET}, capacity=128, totalAddedValues=10}, 
totalAttributeCount=10, events=[], totalRecordedEvents=0, 
links=[ImmutableLinkData{...}], 
totalRecordedLinks=1, status=ImmutableStatusData{statusCode=UNSET, description=}, hasEnded=true}

Screenshots

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