Getting Started With Microsoft Azure Web App On Linux

Introduction

This article provides a quick and smart high-level overview of Microsoft Azure Web apps on Linux with a practical example of how to start creating and deploying a Web app on Linux, using Azure portal.

For novice Cloud developers, aspiring Cloud architects, Pre-sales consultants and all other IT professionals associated with Cloud computing, especially with Microsoft Azure, this tutorial will explain the importance and capabilities of Microsoft Azure mobile apps.

Quick High-level Overview

As defined, “Azure App Service is a fully managed "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) offering for the professional developers, which brings a rich set of capabilities to the Web, mobile and integration scenarios.

Now, we can use Microsoft Azure app Service on Linux to host the Web apps natively on Linux for Node.js & PHP application stacks. Currently, FTP, Local & GitHub can be used for deploying applications. The most needed web app feature, scaling of application, is also possible here on Linux and can be achieved by changing tiers in the App Service Plan.

Azure app Service on Linux is currently in public preview and supports running web apps natively on Linux. This public preview is currently available only in the Western U.S., Western Europe & Southeast Asia.

Currently a few features like virtual network integration, Azure Active Directory/third-party authentication or Kudu site extensions doesn’t work, but there are plans to get it to work as soon as possible.

An important point to remember here is, as mentioned by Microsoft,

"Web Apps on Linux is only supported in the Dedicated app service plans and does not have a Free or Shared tier. Also, App Service plans for regular and Linux web apps are mutually exclusive, so you cannot create a Linux web app in a non-Linux app service plan. Web Apps on Linux must be created in a resource group that does not contain non-Linux web apps in the same region."

Prerequisites

For creating web apps on Linux, all we need is Microsoft Azure Account. If not, create your free account by clicking here.

Once app is created, let’s start

Go to Microsoft Azure portal, log-in with your Azure account credentials.

Click ‘+’ sign => Web + Mobile => Web App on Linux (preview)



Blade with following details will appear

• App Name - Enter a Unique name for your Web App. This name is unique across Azure.
• Subscription - Your subscription for Azure services
• Resource Group - Group of related products / service created on Azure Portal. You can select existing resource group or create new.
• App Service Plan - You can select an existing App Service Plan or create new.
• Runtime Stack - Choose the application stack that you intend to use. You can choose among several versions of Node.js and PHP as seen in below image.

For this article, I have entered the below details. Once you're done with entering all the required details, click "Create"



As seen in the above image, we have pinned this to our Dashboard. You can very well track the deployment process over the Dashboard.



After successful deployment, it can be viewed under Resource Group section.



An Overview of created web apps on Linux can be seen here with all essential details.



Click on URL to view web app on Linux live on public domain.



You can change the application stack being selected earlier during creation, from the application settings, as shown in the following image.



For pushing applications over the site, you can use FTP.

You can get the FTP endpoint, from the diagnostics logs section as shown in the following image



You can get the FTP endpoint, from the diagnostics logs section as shown in the following image

Also, you can use local a Git or GitHub repository to deploy your application.

Steps for performing the same, are similar to those for a non-Linux web app.

Would recommend you read , how to deploy files to app using GitHub.



Now one important thing to notice is, though you stop the web app, charges are still applicable.

For this article, I have stopped the web app on Linux, and below message was displayed in Azure portal, mentioning about charges.



Conclusion or Summary

Azure Web App on Linux is really super easy to start working with. We will be learning more about Azure Web App on Linux in upcoming articles.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions with respect to the same or any interesting use-case or suggestion, please do comment below.

Knowledge grows by sharing! Don't forget to share this article. If it has helped you, it will also help many others too!

Thank You! Happy Azure Coding