Quickstart: Deploy an artifact file to Azure Container Apps

In this quickstart, you learn to deploy a container app from a prebuilt artifact file. The example in this article deploys a Java application using a JAR file, which includes a Java-specific manifest file. Your job is to create a backend web API service that returns a static collection of music albums. After completing this quickstart, you can continue to Communication between microservices to learn how to deploy a front end application that calls the API.

The following screenshot shows the output from the album API service you deploy.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Instructions
Azure account	If you don't have one, create an account for free. You need the Contributor or Owner permission on the Azure subscription to proceed. Refer to Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal for details.
GitHub Account	Get one for free.
git	Install git
Azure CLI	Install the Azure CLI.
Java	Install the JDK, recommend 17, or later
Maven	Install the Maven.

Setup

To sign in to Azure from the CLI, run the following command and follow the prompts to complete the authentication process.

Bash

az login

Azure PowerShell

az login

Ensure you're running the latest version of the CLI via the upgrade command.

Bash

az upgrade

Azure PowerShell

az upgrade

Next, install, or update the Azure Container Apps extension for the CLI.

Bash

az extension add --name containerapp --upgrade

Azure PowerShell

az extension add --name containerapp --upgrade

Register the Microsoft.App and Microsoft.OperationalInsights namespaces they're not already registered in your Azure subscription.

Bash

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights

Azure PowerShell

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights

Now that your Azure CLI setup is complete, you can define the environment variables that are used throughout this article.

Bash

Define the following variables in your bash shell.

RESOURCE_GROUP="album-containerapps"
LOCATION="canadacentral"
ENVIRONMENT="env-album-containerapps"
API_NAME="album-api"
SUBSCRIPTION=<YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID>

If necessary, you can query for your subscription ID.

az account list --output table

Azure PowerShell

Define the following variables in your PowerShell console.

$RESOURCE_GROUP="album-containerapps"
$LOCATION="canadacentral"
$ENVIRONMENT="env-album-containerapps"
$API_NAME="album-api"
$SUBSCRIPTION=<YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID>

If necessary, you can query for your subscription ID.

az account list --output table

Prepare the GitHub repository

Begin by cloning the sample repository.

Use the following git command to clone the sample app into the code-to-cloud folder:

git clone https://github.com/azure-samples/containerapps-albumapi-java code-to-cloud

cd code-to-cloud

Build a JAR file

Note

The Java sample only supports a Maven build, which results in an executable JAR file. The build uses default settings as passing in environment variables is unsupported.

Build the project with Maven.

Bash

mvn clean package -DskipTests

Azure PowerShell

mvn clean package -DskipTests

Run the project locally

Bash

java -jar target\containerapps-albumapi-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Azure PowerShell

java -jar target\containerapps-albumapi-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

To verify application is running, open a browser and go to http://localhost:8080/albums. The page returns a list of the JSON objects.

Deploy the artifact

Build and deploy your first container app from your local JAR file with the containerapp up command.

This command:

• Creates the resource group
• Creates an Azure Container Registry
• Builds the container image and push it to the registry
• Creates the Container Apps environment with a Log Analytics workspace
• Creates and deploys the container app using a public container image

The up command uses the Docker file in the root of the repository to build the container image. The EXPOSE instruction in the Docker file defines the target port. A Docker file, however, isn't required to build a container app.

Note

Note: When using containerapp up in combination with a Docker-less code base, use the --location parameter so that application runs in a location other than US East.

Bash

az containerapp up \
  --name $API_NAME \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  --location $LOCATION \
  --environment $ENVIRONMENT \
  --artifact ./target/containerapps-albumapi-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar \
  --ingress external \
  --target-port 8080 \
  --subscription $SUBSCRIPTION

Azure PowerShell

az containerapp up `
    --name $API_NAME `
    --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP `
    --location $LOCATION `
    --environment $ENVIRONMENT `
    --artifact ./target/containerapps-albumapi-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar `
    --ingress external `
    --target-port 8080 `
    --subscription $SUBSCRIPTION

Verify deployment

Copy the FQDN to a web browser. From your web browser, go to the /albums endpoint of the FQDN.

Deploy a WAR file

You can also deploy your container app from a WAR file.

Clean up resources

If you're not going to continue to use this application, you can delete the Azure Container Apps instance and all the associated services by removing the resource group.

Follow these steps to remove the resources you created:

Bash

az group delete \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

Azure PowerShell

az group delete `
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP

Tip

Having issues? Let us know on GitHub by opening an issue in the Azure Container Apps repo.

Next steps

Learn more about developing in Java on Container Apps