In this tutorial:
- Create the Azure App services
- Add an application to the deployment
- Create a deployment slot for a staging application
- Swap the application from staging to production
Note: You will need an active Azure Tenant or a Trial subscription to complete these tasks, however it is a quick read with snapshots to follow along.
Introduction
Azure App Serviceis a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering thatallows you to quickly build, deploy, and scale Web, API, Mobile, and Function apps. The App Service platform supports both Windows andLinux for running applications in a variety of languages and frameworks, such as.NET, .NET Core, Java, Ruby, Node.js, PHP, Python, and Docker containers.
App Service plans are containers for the apps that you deploy in App Service. App Service plans are offered in different tiers, withmore functionality provided by higher, more expensive tiers. The following list highlights some of the distinctions between the available tiers:
- Free(Windows only):Run a small number of apps for free
- Shared(Windows only): Run more apps and provides support for custom domains
- Basic: Run unlimited apps and scale up to three instances with built-in load balancing
- Standard: The first tier recommended for production workloads. It scales upto ten (10) instanceswith Autoscaling support and VNet integration to access resources in your Azure virtual networks without exposing them to the internet
- Premium: Scale upto 20 instances and additional storage over the standard tier
- Isolated: Scale upto 100 instances, runs inside of an Azure Virtual Network isolated from other customers, and supports private access use cases
The most up-to-date information for thefeatures included with each tier is available hereand in the Azure Portal as you will see in this Lab Step where you create an App Service plan.
Create App Service Plan
1. In the search bar at the top of the Azure Portal, enterapp service plans. ClickApp Service plansunderServices:
2. Click+ Addto create a new App Service plan:
3. In theNewApp Service Planform, enter the following values and accept the defaults for the rest:
- ResourceGroup:Create a new resource group in the tenant
- App Service plan:wme-lab-plan(The name must be unique per subscription, but not globally)
- Operating System:Windows
- Location:East US
Go to the new resource
Create the App Service Web App
Azure App Service Web Apps, or simply Web Apps, are the instances of your websites and web applications hosted in Azure App Service. For most scenarios, Web Apps is the best choice for hosting websites and web applications in Azure. Each Web App is deployed into an App Service plan. Web Apps are DevOps-ready and can be deployed using a variety of continuous deployment tools.
In this Lab Step, you will create a Windows-based Web App and learn about the other options available.
Navigate to ‘App Services’ in the console
. In theWeb Appform, enter the following values and accept the defaults for the rest:
- ResourceGroup: Select Use existing, then select the Lab’s resource group from the drop-down menu (use the one you created)
- Name:wme-lab-01-####where you replace #### with random digits. (The name must be globally unique because it is part of the DNS name for the app.)
- Runtime stack: .NET Core 2.x (LTS) (where x isthe latest minor version number available)
- OS: Windows
- Region:East US
- App Service plan/Windows Plan:wme-lab-plan
The properties will reveal the new URL, Browse to the new URL in the App
For this lab , it is https://app-lab-01-1234.azurewebsites.net/ , but your URL will be based on whatever you named the service in the previous properties window.
Add A Deployment slot
Deployment slotsallow you to have separate instances of your application that have their own hostnames. This is useful for several reasons:
- You can organize yourworkflow by having dedicated testing and staging slots in addition to the default production slot.
- Once you have vetted a new release in the staging slot, you can swap it into production to avoid having to warm up the production application.
- By swapping releases into production, the previousreleaseremains in a slot where it can easily be swapped back into production if an issue is found in the new release.
Each deployment slot maintains its own configuration and application settings.Deployment slots are available with the standard and premium App Service plans.
You will create one deployment slot tostage releases in this Lab Step.
Go to the new app service and Deployment>Deployment Slot
As you can see, your new application is running!
Using the Add Slot option
Select Name: staging and do not clone settings
After created you will see both apps
Now that we have a staging version of the application to switch, we can add an application to manage
Key benefits of deployment slots are the ability to swap pre-warmed websites into production, and to easily roll back to the previous version,by repeating the last swap. It is a best practice to use deployment slots when deploying a Web App. There are different types of swaps that you can use depending on the level of confidence you have in a release:
- Auto Swap: As soon as an application is deployed to a slot it automatically swaps into a target slot. This is not the same as deploying directly to the target becausethe applicationgets a warm start, and the previous release of the target slot is preserved if a rollback is required.
- Swap: The most basic swap type that requires you to manually trigger the swap operation.
- Swap with preview: This type is similar to a regular swap but allows you to preview the swap before completing it.Because each slot maintains its own configuration andapplication settings, the web app may not behave exactly as it did in the originating slot, and that is a good thing.
Some settings such as SSL certificates, custom domain names, and scale settings do not swap when you swap deployment slots. Other settings do swap, such as monitoring and diagnostic settings, framework versions, app settings, and connection strings. However, app settings and connection strings can be configured to be sticky and stay with a slot. For example, if you have separatetest and production databases, you can configure the database connection string to stick toeach slot.
In this Lab, you will deploy a newrelease to staging and swap into production. You will use a pre-builtASP.NET Core 2app bundled in a Zip file thatis ready to deploy for simplicity.It is better to use a source-controlled deployment method in production. App Services supports deployments via GitHub, BitBucket, Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), DropBox, and more. You will also see how app settings can be configured to stick to a slot.
Import Testing Application
- Download the pre-built applicationCALabApp.zip filethat you will deploy to the staging slot.
- In the staging app Slot >>Development tools>>Advanced tools
- Click the Go button to Launch Kudo
- Go to tools Zip Push Deploy
- Upload the Zip file provided from step 1 by dragging it into the window
5. Drag the Zip file into the Window provided
Go to the URL for the Website to see application
- Under Application settings for the new application >> New Application Setting
Name: test-setting
Value: blue
- Save the configuration
- See the staging page update
Now we are going to swap the application versions from the staging page to the production version
- Go to the staging properties window and press the swap button on top of the page.
- Source=staging
- Target=production
- Check Perform Swap with Preview
- After reviewing the changes, press swap and validate changes
In this Lab Step, you deployed a Web App to production using Zip file deployment and a staging slot. It is a best practice to use deployment slot swaps to release Web Apps to production with zero downtime and pre-warming. You also saw how slot settings can be used to configure the behavior of Web Apps based on the slot that they occupy.
In the next Part II, we will go through Logging analytics to Monitor and Troubleshoot your application.
FAQs
Can we swap the deployment slots while it is in the production slot? ›
App content and configurations elements can be swapped between two deployment slots, including the production slot. Deploying your application to a non-production slot has the following benefits: You can validate app changes in a staging deployment slot before swapping it with the production slot.
How do I deploy WebApp using Azure DevOps? ›- Overview on Azure Web App.
- Prerequisite.
- Step 01: – Deploy Azure WebApp for CI/CD Pipeline.
- Step 02: – Enable Continuous Integration from Azure Web App.
- Step 03: – Continuous Deployment on WebApp using Azure DevOps.
- Summary.
- References.
- Navigate to Deployment slots in the function app, and then select the slot name.
- Select Configuration, and then select the setting name you want to stick with the current slot.
- Select Deployment slot setting, and then select OK.
- Introduction 2 min.
- Create a web app in the Azure portal 6 min.
- Exercise - Create a web app in the Azure portal 5 min.
- Prepare the web application code 3 min.
- Exercise - Write code to implement a web application 5 min.
- Deploy code to App Service 3 min.
- Exercise - Deploy your code to App Service 5 min.
- Summary 2 min.
Upon swapping the slots, by default, along with the content, some application configuration settings like the database connection strings are also swapped. So this means, production slot is now pointing to the staging database and the staging slot is pointing to the production database.
What are Web App deployment slots and how can they be used? ›The deployment slot has a different URL, maybe something like staging.website.com. Your users would be accessing your original Web App because that is your production environment slot. You can deploy a new version of the Web App into a secondary deployment slot, so you can test it before it goes live.
How do I deploy to Azure with Azure DevOps? ›- Prerequisites. An Azure subscription. ...
- Sign in to the Azure portal. ...
- Configure access to your GitHub repo and select a framework. ...
- Configure Azure DevOps and an Azure subscription. ...
- Commit changes to GitHub and automatically deploy them to Azure. ...
- Examine the Azure Pipelines CI/CD pipeline. ...
- Clean up resources. ...
- Next steps.
Navigate to your app in the Azure portal and select Deployment Center under Deployment. Follow the instructions to select your repository and branch. This will configure a DevOps build and release pipeline to automatically build, tag, and deploy your container when new commits are pushed to your selected branch.
How deployment is done in Azure DevOps? ›Go to Pipelines -> Releases -> New Release Pipeline, then select the template Azure App Service deployment, list the stage name as DEV and click on Add an artifact. Select project and source (build pipeline), then select default version as Latest, click on Add.
What is a deployment slot setting in Azure? ›Deployment slots are live apps with their own host names. They can be used for many reasons, like performing a zero-downtime deployment, validating changes before swapping them to the production slot and many other.
Which Azure powershell cmdlet is used to swap deployment slots in a website? ›
The Switch-AzWebAppSlot cmdlet switches two slots associated with an Azure Web App.
How many additional deployment slots can you create in Azure? ›Deployment slots are a feature of Azure App Service Plans. As a result, every App Service resource (Web App, Web API, Mobile App) in Microsoft Azure has the ability to create up to 4 additional deployment slots with the Standard tiers, and up to 20 deployment slots with the Premium tiers.
What are the steps of deployment process? ›The deployment process flow consists of 5 steps: Planning, development, testing, deploying, and monitoring.
How do I deploy a web deployment package? ›- You can use the MSDeploy.exe command-line utility directly.
- You can run the [project name]. deploy. cmd file that the build process generates.
- Log in to the Azure portal.
- Click Create a resource > Compute, and then scroll down to and click Cloud Service.
- In the new Cloud Service pane, enter a value for the DNS name.
- Create a new Resource Group or select an existing one.
- Select a Location.
- Click Package.
When you run the swap operation, Azure makes the “test” slot “production” and the “production” slot into “test”. Usually, this slot swap happens in a matter of seconds but I was running into a problem where the slot swap was taking 10 or 15 minutes and sometimes even timed out and failed.
What is swap in Azure? ›In effect, swapping promotes a new cloud service that's staged to production release. Note. You can't swap between an Azure Cloud Services (classic) deployment and an Azure Cloud Services (extended support) deployment.
What problem does a deployment slot solve? ›Azure deployment slots are very useful. They allow you to run multiple versions of your application code on the same infrastructure. Let's understand the use of deployment slots with an example. Let's say you have a web application (MyWebApp) deployed in azure.
Which of the following is an advantage of using deployment slots? ›Deploying your application to a deployment slot has the following benefits: You can validate web app changes in a deployment slot before swapping it with the another slot. Eliminate downtime on deployment, and automate the swapping. Easy to swap a bad deployment back.
What are the benefits of web application deployment? ›- Multiple users can access the same version of an application.
- Users don't need to install the app.
- Users can access the app through various platforms such as a desktop, laptop or mobile.
- Users can access the app through multiple browsers.
What are the different methods of deploying apps? ›
You can consider multiple deployment strategies and variations for rolling out new versions of software in a continuous delivery process. This section discusses the most common deployment methods: all at once (deploy in place), rolling, immutable, and blue/green.
How do I link my Azure DevOps to Azure? ›- Select the Manage Connections button in Team Explorer to open the Connect page. Choose Connect to a Project to select a project to connect to. ...
- Select Add Azure DevOps Server to connect to a project in Azure DevOps Services. ...
- Select a project from the list and select Connect.
6. Configuration Management Tool: Ansible. Ansible is an open-source CM DevOps tool that is also used for deployment, automation, and orchestration. While Ansible leverages infrastructure as a code architecture, it uses SSH connection for its push nodes thus agentless.
How do you deploy Azure data/factory pipeline using Azure DevOps? ›- Create a new build pipeline in the Azure DevOps project.
- Select Azure Repos Git as your code repository.
- From the Azure Repos, select the repo that contains the Data Factory code. ...
- Select Start Pipeline as your build pipeline type.
- Replace the default YAML code with the below code. ...
- Click Save.
Deploy the web app
In a local terminal window, change the directory to the root of your Git repository, and add a Git remote using the URL you got from your app. If your chosen method doesn't give you a URL, use https://<app-name>.scm.azurewebsites.net/<app-name>.git with your app name in <app-name> .
Create an app with an outputs. conf and push it out to the forwarder. The deployment server should find that the app has been created and automatically push it as long as the server has been added as a client machine to the server class itself.
How do I manually deploy an app service? ›- Open Azure portal, log in, and create a new App Service (you can type 'App Service' in the search bar).
- Click Add and then fill in the required details. Subscription. Choose your subscription. ...
- Click Review + Create button, and wait until the app is deployed successfully.
Azure supports three approaches to deploying cloud resources - public, private, and the hybrid cloud. Selecting between them will change several factors of the services you move into Azure including cost, maintenance requirements, and security.
How many stages of deployment are there in DevOps? ›The DevOps pipeline typically has eight stages. In the Development phase, they are: plan, code, build, and test. In the Operations phase, the stages are: release, deploy, operate, and monitor.
Is Azure DevOps a deployment tool? ›Azure DevOps is a Software as a service (SaaS) platform from Microsoft that provides an end-to-end DevOps toolchain for developing and deploying software. It also integrates with most leading tools on the market and is a great option for orchestrating a DevOps toolchain.
How do you deploy apps on Azure? ›
To deploy to any Azure App service (Web app for Windows, Linux, container, Function app or web jobs), use the Azure App Service Deploy task. This task is automatically added to the release pipeline when you select one of the prebuilt deployment templates for Azure App Service deployment.
What is default deployment slot available in Azure Web application? ›The magic of deployment slots: we can do swapping with zero downtime which means, end users will notice nothing and experience no downtime. Yes, users will experience no downtime. Therefore, this is one of the awesome features of Azure app services. Default app instance is always mapped to the production slot.
What is the name of the default Azure App Service deployment slot? ›So you need a testing environment that's as close as possible to your production environment. App Service has a great solution. It's called a deployment slot. By default, an app has one deployment slot called “Production”.
Which PowerShell command will create a new deployment slot for a web app? ›| Command | Notes |
|---|---|
| New-AzWebApp | Creates a web app. |
| Set-AzAppServicePlan | Modifies an App Service plan to change its pricing tier. |
| New-AzWebAppSlot | Creates a deployment slot for a web app. |
| Set-AzResource | Modifies a resource in a resource group. |
Specify an application object to get its deployment types. To get this object, use the Get-CMApplication cmdlet.
How do I deploy an Azure virtual machine using PowerShell? ›Launch Azure Cloud Shell
To open the Cloud Shell, just select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com/powershell. Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press enter to run it.
In addition to the Production deployment slot, how many additional deployment slots can you create? You can add additional deployment slots for a total of 5 deployment slots that can be swapped with the production slot, or other non-production slots. The 4 additional slots can be used for staging and testing purposes.
How many applications can you deploy to a single app service plan? ›You can host up to 100 apps in a single app service plan, but the key thing to know here is that as with the free plan you are charged per app, not per app service plan. Each instance of a web app you deploy in the shared plan get's it's own 240 CPU minutes limit and is charged per app.
Can we deploy multiple applications in app service? ›Yes, the setup is very much possible and is a common requirement. You can deploy multiple separate 'WebApps' under an 'App Service Plan'.
What are the 3 main steps in the deployment process? ›- Preparation. ...
- Testing. ...
- Deployment.
What are the five stages of deployment? ›
The Five Stages
These stages are comprised as follows: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, re-deployment and post-deployment. Each stage is characterized both by a time frame and specific emotional challenges, which must be dealt with and mastered by each of the Family members.
- Version Control.
- Acceptance Tests.
- Independent Deployment.
- Production Deployment.
- Introduction 2 min.
- Create a web app in the Azure portal 6 min.
- Exercise - Create a web app in the Azure portal 5 min.
- Prepare the web application code 3 min.
- Exercise - Write code to implement a web application 5 min.
- Deploy code to App Service 3 min.
- Exercise - Deploy your code to App Service 5 min.
- Summary 2 min.
- Install and configure IBM HTTP Server with WebSphere Application Server. ...
- Install and configure Oracle HTTP Server with Oracle WebLogic Server. ...
- Installing and configuring Apache HTTP Server. ...
- Building your web application for deployment.
- setting up the machine to be able to access the internet and run your code.
- exposing the correct ports.
- listening for HTTP requests (Internet requests)
- pointing a custom domain name to the server your application is running from.
- Prerequisites. An Azure subscription. ...
- Sign in to the Azure portal. ...
- Configure access to your GitHub repo and select a framework. ...
- Configure Azure DevOps and an Azure subscription. ...
- Commit changes to GitHub and automatically deploy them to Azure. ...
- Examine the Azure Pipelines CI/CD pipeline. ...
- Clean up resources. ...
- Next steps.
Azure App Service enables you to build and host web apps, mobile backends and RESTful APIs in the programming language of your choice without managing infrastructure.
How do I deploy an app in Windows Server? ›- Create a private cluster.
- Build the Windows Server application Docker image.
- Create a Deployment manifest file.
- Verify the Pod is running.
The random numbers that determine your outcome for that spin have already been set before you stop the reels. Game designers call it “illusion of skill.” You feel like you have control of the game. Your timing in stopping the reels doesn't really make any difference.
Can casinos manipulate slot machines? ›With the new casino operating technologies, casinos have been given a finer control over setting those odds. This has allowed them to try new things, which they very much like to do. These new things are to adjust the odds on slot machines more often than ever before.
Should you switch slot machines after winning? ›
There's no right answer to this question, as slot machines pay out randomly. So, sticking to one machine or roaming around all the machines in the casino will have the same outcome. It all depends on how lucky you are and on how much time and money you are willing to spend.
Can you play two slot machines at the same time? ›Playing Multiple Slot Machines
A hotly debated area of live slot machine etiquette is the right to play multiple machines at once. The rule of thumb is that if a casino is quiet, it's OK to play several neighboring machines at the same time.
Malfunctions occur for a variety of reasons including, improper tampering, coin jams, empty hoppers, switch failures, computer chip failure, power outages and accidental contact (bumping).
How do I stop losing at slots? ›- Have a good grasp on the basics.
- Make sure you know how your chosen slot works.
- Stop wasting the bonus rounds.
- Don't use betting strategies designed to chase your losses.
- Make sure you are finding the best casino deposit bonus offers.
- Change to a different game.
The most common ways to trigger a jackpot slot include: Randomly on any spin – like in the Mega Moolah slots. If you line up certain symbols on a payline – like the Megajackpots Cleopatra slot. Via a mini-game bonus – like in the Mega Fortune slot.
Is there a trick to gambling machines? ›There are no simple hacks, slots tips or tricks to winning on slot machines. If you want better odds to win on slots, you need to: Choose the slots that have high payouts. Choose the slots with the correct volatility level.
Do casinos track your winnings? ›Do casinos keep track of your winnings? Yes they do. Particularly slot play, as it is an exact figure.
Do Indian casinos in California pay taxes? ›Tribal members living on reservations, for example, are not subject to state income tax, and tribal casinos do not pay the corporate income tax. Regarding the sales and use tax, tribes are generally expected to collect taxes on purchases made by nontribal members for consumption or use off of reservations.
What casino games have the best odds to win? ›Blackjack has the best odds of winning in any game, with a 49% chance of winning. The reason blackjack is so appealing to players is that it is not a game of luck, but rather one based on numbers.
How do you tell if a slot is close to hitting a jackpot? ›You cannot tell when a modern slot machine will hit because the outcome of each spin is random. No matter how many times a machine has spun, and no matter what the outcomes of those spins were, the probability of the next result remains the same.
Do slot machines remember you? ›
Slots don't get hot or cold - Slot machines have something in common with goldfish: they have no memory. Every spin is independent of the previous and following spins. Every spin is considered a brand-new spin, with an outcome of any possible symbol combination.
Is it better to play one slot machine or multiple? ›Well, mathematically speaking, there is no difference whether or not you are playing one slot or moving around the casino. Due to the fact that slots are built around RNGs, and the consequence of every spin is totally arbitrary, you'll get the same fate whether you play at one slot the entire day, or move around.
Can you sit at a slot machine and not play? ›SEATS ARE FOR PLAYERS
Slot machines generally have one seat at each game. If you take that seat and don't play, you're taking that game out of commission.
Most modern video slots have five video reels can be as long as the gamemaker needs them to be. With 100 symbols on each of five reels, there are 10 billion combinations.