MSDN Documentation

Continuous Deployment to Azure App Service

Azure App Service provides powerful features to automate your application deployment pipeline. Continuous Deployment (CD) helps you deliver code changes to your live applications quickly and reliably by integrating with popular source control repositories and CI/CD tools.

Benefits of Continuous Deployment

• Faster Release Cycles: Automate deployments whenever code is committed, reducing time-to-market.
• Reduced Errors: Minimize manual intervention, lowering the chance of human error during deployments.
• Improved Productivity: Developers can focus on coding rather than manual deployment tasks.
• Consistent Deployments: Ensure every deployment follows the same automated process.

Supported Deployment Sources

Azure App Service integrates seamlessly with various popular source control and artifact repositories:

• Azure Repos Git: Microsoft's Git-based source control service.
• GitHub: A widely used platform for open-source and private repositories.
• Bitbucket Cloud: Another popular Git repository hosting service.
• External Git: Connect to any Git repository accessible via HTTP/HTTPS.
• OneDrive/Dropbox: Deploy files directly from cloud storage.
• Team Foundation Server (TFS): Integrate with on-premises or cloud TFS instances.
• Azure DevOps Pipelines: Leverage comprehensive CI/CD pipelines for build and release automation.

Setting up Continuous Deployment

You can configure continuous deployment directly from the Azure portal or by using Azure CLI or PowerShell.

Using the Azure Portal

1. Navigate to your App Service in the Azure portal.
2. In the left-hand menu, under "Deployment," select "Deployment Center."
3. Choose your desired source control provider (e.g., GitHub, Azure Repos).
4. Authenticate with your provider and select the repository and branch you want to deploy from.
5. Configure build options if necessary (e.g., select a build provider like Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions).
6. Click "Continue" and then "Finish" to enable continuous deployment.

Once configured, Azure App Service will automatically monitor your selected repository. When changes are pushed to the specified branch, a deployment will be triggered.

Deployment Slots

Deployment slots allow you to manage deployments with zero downtime. You can deploy your application to a staging slot, test it, and then "swap" it into the production slot. This is a crucial part of a robust continuous deployment strategy.

Key Benefits of Deployment Slots:

• Zero Downtime Deployments: Swap seamlessly between slots without interrupting user experience.
• Staging and Testing: Test new versions in an environment identical to production.
• Rollback Capabilities: Quickly revert to a previous working version by swapping back.

Automating with CI/CD Tools

Azure App Service integrates with leading CI/CD tools:

Azure Pipelines

Azure Pipelines provides a fully managed CI/CD service that works with any cloud and any language. You can define your build and release pipelines in YAML or through the visual editor.

# Example azure-pipelines.yml snippet for deploying to Azure App Service
trigger:
- main

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: AzureWebApp@1
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: ''
    appName: ''
    package: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/**/*.zip'
    deploymentMethod: 'zipDeploy'

GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions allows you to automate your software development workflows, including building, testing, and deploying your code directly from GitHub.

# Example workflow file for GitHub Actions
name: Deploy to Azure App Service

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Setup Node.js version
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: '14.x'
    - name: npm install, build, and test
      run: |
        npm install
        npm run build --if-present
        npm test
    - name: 'Deploy to Azure Web App'
      uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
      with:
        app-name: ''
        package: '.'
        publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE }}

Troubleshooting Deployments

If your deployments fail, check the following:

• Deployment logs in the Azure portal (Deployment Center -> Logs).
• Build logs from your CI/CD provider (Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions).
• Permissions for the service principal or deployment credentials.
• Application configuration settings in App Service.
• Compatibility of your application runtime with the App Service environment.

By leveraging continuous deployment, you can significantly streamline your development workflow and deliver high-quality applications to your users more efficiently.