Getting Started With Microsoft Windows Azure

I am going to start a new article for users who want to learn Microsoft Windows Azure from the scratch. Let's start with a step by step approach.

Windows Azure

Firstly, go to http://azure.microsoft.com/ and create a free Microsoft Windows Azure Account.

portal

When you log in Windows Azure with any Microsoft Account like Outlook, Live or other, you will get an Account. After that go to https://manage.windowsazure.com/ and login, then click on portal link.

You can see the image in the following portal.

Visual Studio Server Explorer

Now you can manage your Azure portal from web account or directly from your Visual Studio using Azure SDK. If you are using VS2012, download Azure SDK first.

And after installing Azure SDK, your Visual Studio Server Explorer will be visible.

Connect to Microsoft Azure Subscription

Right Click on SDK and click “Connect to Microsoft Azure Subscription...”.

login in Windows Azure Account

It will open a window to log in Windows Azure Account.

Microsoft Account Id

Enter your Microsoft Account Id on which you have Azure Subscription, then password details and press enter to login.

Azure Account

Now go to Azure SDK in Visual Studio Server Explorer and open Web Sites. Now you can see all the web sites created in your Azure Account.

select Create New Site

If you need to add or create a new website in your Azure Account, we have the following two ways:

  1. By Windows Azure SDK in Visual Studio.
  2. By Windows Azure Web Portal.

So let’s see both one by one and step by step.

By Windows Azure SDK in Visual Studio

Step 1. Go to Azure SDK in Server Explorer and right click on Web Sites and find the link “Create New Site”.

create new site

Now you’ll see a window where you have to enter the following details:

  1. Site Name.
  2. Select Region.
  3. Database Server (if you have).

select East Asia at last Select Database

Let say I have entered my new site name “meandmy”, if the name is available it will allow me to create web site. Select a region like I selected East Asia. At last select database if you have any database on Azure for your web site.

web site to SDK

When you click on create button, you can see your web site to SDK or Azure web portal.

portal created by SDK

Now go to your Azure portal and refresh. After refreshing it, you can see the same site in your web portal created by SDK.

Azure Web Portal

By Windows Azure Web Portal

Now I am going to create web site from Web Portal, so let’s go to web portal and see the NEW button on the left side bottom and click on it.

Web Portal

Now click COMPUTE, then WEB APP and QUICK CREATE:

Quick Create

Now enter a URL for Website on which you need to host you web site and select APP SERVICE PLAN  and lastly click CREATE WEB APP:

Create Web App

After that enter all the details.

enter all details

Now web site is ready to use.

web site is ready to be use

If you want to use this in SDK, open SDK and right click on Refresh.

Refresh

Now you can see the websites on SDK.

Web Site

Create Web Project in Visual Studio to host on Web site that is already created on Azure Account. Open Visual Studio, File, then New Project and select Web. After that click ASP.NET Empty Web Application and press OK.

New Project

Open Solution Explorer now and right click on Project, then add any Default page to View the Test Output.

web form

Write any name for view page.

view page

I just wrote a welcome message on page for testing.

page for testing

If I run this web application on local system, the output will be the following:

run this web application
Now I will upload this to web site in Azure.

Firstly, right click on the project and find the link Publish...

find the link Publish

Select the publish targetselect type and if you want to publish on windows azure, select the first link in the following window and click Publish button.

click publish button

Now select your website name from the dropdown where you need to upload.

Select your website name

After selecting the website, it will download all the publish profiles from Azure and will fill all the details.

publish profile
 
Click on Validate Connection button to check all the settings are valid or not. If all are valid, click Publish Button.

Validate Connection

Now see the upload progress in output window.

upload progress

After Publish succeeds it will directly open the URL in the Web Browser. Now you can check this link anywhere or any device like mobile.

open the URL

Thanks for reading the article.