Windows Azure - Start And Stop an Existing Application in Azure Management Portal

Introduction:

In this article we are going to see how to Stop and Start an Azure Application using the Windows Azure Management Portal.

Overview:

In our earlier articles, we have seen how to create a service, host the application and access it online. In this article we will see how to maintain the application by stopping the application for some downtime and starting it back to online after downtime. Basically using Azure Management Portal is straightforward and easy for a novice developer or an administrator. Azure Management Portal has the facility to stop and start the service of the application as and when required using some simple button clicks. Let us see step by step how to Start and Stop the application process using the Windows Azure Management Portal.

Steps:

Login to the Management Portal using the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/
We will see a screen like below. Select the Sign into Management Portal at the top right corner



After selecting that, sign in to Management Portal; you will be asked for the Username and Password to authenticate the process as shown in the following screen:



After providing the correct credentials and clicking on the submit button it will navigate to the main screen of the portal as shown in the following screen:



Now click on the Hosted Services, Storage Account and CDN option in the bottom menu and then select the Hosted Services as shown in the screen below.

Now select the deployed application (F5 Debug) as shown in the screen below. Here we will see options like the environment on which its deployed and the DNS name to access the application etc.

In the top Ribbon Menu we will see the Stop button as highlighted in the screen below. Using this button we can stop the application service. Select the application name which we want to stop and click on the Stop button.

Clicking on the Stop button will stop the application and we will see the progress as highlighted in the screen below.

First it stops the Host service of the instance and we will see the status as shown in the screen below.

Once the complete process is done we will see the status of the application as stopped as shown in the screen below.

Now the application is stopped and available for downtime, any changes and upgrades can be done and to start the application again we will see an option in the top menu Start Button as shown in the screen below.

Clicking on the Start Menu button will start the process and we will see the status of the application as highlighted in the screen below.

First it prepares the instance of the application and initializes the role as shown in the screen below.

Once it prepares the necessary instance it will start the instance and we will see the status as shown in the screen below.

We will see the final status once the complete process is done as shown in the screen below. Now the application is available online again after the downtime.

We will see the DNS name at the right corner menu as shown in the screen below. Clicking on the link will open the application online.

Conclusion:

So in this article we have seen how to stop and start the application for the downtime using the Windows Azure Management Portal.