Deploy an Azure Web App

TFS 2017

Note

In Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2018 and previous versions, build and release pipelines are called definitions, runs are called builds, service connections are called service endpoints, stages are called environments, and jobs are called phases.

Use Azure Pipelines to automatically deploy your web app to Azure App Service on every successful build. Azure Pipelines lets you build, test, and deploy with continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) using Azure DevOps.

YAML pipelines are defined using a YAML file in your repository. A step is the smallest building block of a pipeline and can be a script or task (pre-packaged script). Learn about the key concepts and components that make up a pipeline.

You'll use the Azure Web App task to deploy to Azure App Service in your pipeline. For more complicated scenarios such as needing to use XML parameters in your deploy, you can use the Azure App Service Deploy task.

To learn how to deploy to an Azure Web App for Linux Containers, see Deploy an Azure Web App Container.

Note

This guidance applies to Team Foundation Server (TFS) version 2017.3 and later.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.

Make sure you have the following items:

• A GitHub account where you can create a repository. Create one for free.

• An Azure DevOps organization. Create one for free. If your team already has one, then make sure you're an administrator of the Azure DevOps project that you want to use.

• An ability to run pipelines on Microsoft-hosted agents. You can either purchase a parallel job or you can request a free tier.

Create an Azure App Service in the Azure portal

Create an Azure App Service on Linux or Windows with Azure Cloud Shell. To get started:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. Launch the Cloud Shell from the upper navigation pane of the portal.

For more information, see Overview of Azure Cloud Shell.

Linux

Create an Azure App Service on Linux.

# Create a resource group
az group create --location eastus2 --name myapp-rg

# Create an app service plan of type Linux
az appservice plan create -g myapp-rg -n myapp-service-plan --is-linux

# Create an App Service from the plan 
az webapp create -g myapppipeline-rg -p myapp-service-plan -n my-app-dotnet --runtime "DOTNETCORE|3.1" 

Windows

Create an Azure App Service on Windows.

# Create a resource group
az group create --location eastus2 --name myapp-rg

# Create an app service plan of type Windows
az appservice plan create -g myapp-rg -n myapp-service-plan

# Create an App Service from the plan 
az webapp create -g myapppipeline-rg -p myapp-service-plan -n my-app-dotnet-win --runtime "DOTNETCORE|3.1" 

Build your app with Azure Pipelines

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

Tip

If you're new to Azure DevOps Server or TFS, then see Create your first pipeline before you start.

To get started:

1. Create a pipeline and select the ASP.NET Core template. This selection automatically adds the tasks required to build the code in the sample repository.

2. Save the pipeline and queue a build to see it in action.

3. Create a release pipeline and select the Azure App Service Deployment template for your stage. This automatically adds the necessary tasks.

4. Link the build pipeline as an artifact for this release pipeline. Save the release pipeline and create a release to see it in action.

Now you're ready to read through the rest of this topic to learn some of the more common changes that people make to customize an Azure Web App deployment.

Use the Azure Web App task

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

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. Templates exist for apps developed in various programming languages. If you can't find a template for your language, select the generic Azure App Service Deployment template.

When you link the artifact in your release pipeline to a build that compiles and publishes the web package, it's automatically downloaded and placed into the $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory) folder on the agent as part of the release. This is where the task picks up the web package for deployment.

Use a service connection

To deploy to Azure App Service, you'll need to use an Azure Resource Manager service connection. The Azure service connection stores the credentials to connect from Azure Pipelines or Azure DevOps Server to Azure.

Learn more about Azure Resource Manager service connections. If your service connection is not working as expected, see Troubleshooting service connections.

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

To learn how to create an Azure service connection, see Create an Azure service connection.

Deploy to a virtual application

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

By default, your deployment happens to the root application in the Azure Web App. If you want to deploy to a specific virtual application, enter its name in the Virtual Application property of the Azure App Service Deploy task.

Deploy to a slot

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

You can configure the Azure Web App to have multiple slots. Slots allow you to safely deploy your app and test it before making it available to your customers.

Use the option Deploy to Slot or App Service Environment in the Azure App Service Deploy task to specify the slot to deploy to.

You can swap the slots by using the Azure App Service Manage task.

Deploy to multiple web apps

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

If you want to deploy to multiple web apps, add stages to your release pipeline. You can control the order of deployment. To learn more, see Stages.

Configuration changes

For most language stacks, app settings and connection strings can be set as environment variables at runtime. App settings can also be resolved from Key Vault using Key Vault references.

For ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core developers, setting app settings in App Service are like setting them in <appSettings> in Web.config. You might want to apply a specific configuration for your web app target before deploying to it. This is useful when you deploy the same build to multiple web apps in a pipeline. For example, if your Web.config file contains a connection string named connectionString, you can change its value before deploying to each web app. You can do this either by applying a Web.config transformation or by substituting variables in your Web.config file.

Azure App Service Deploy task allows users to modify configuration settings in configuration files (*.config files) inside web packages and XML parameters files (parameters.xml), based on the stage name specified.

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

To change connectionString by using variable substitution:

1. Create a release pipeline with two stages.
2. Link the artifact of the release to the build that produces the web package.
3. Define connectionString as a variable in each of the stages. Set the appropriate value.
4. Select the XML variable substitution option under File Transforms and Variable Substitution Options for the Azure App Service Deploy task.

Deploying conditionally

You can choose to deploy only certain builds to your Azure Web App.

YAML

YAML pipelines aren't available in TFS 2017.

Classic

In your release pipeline, you can implement various checks and conditions to control the deployment:

• Set branch filters to configure the continuous deployment trigger on the artifact of the release pipeline.
• Set pre-deployment approvals as a pre-condition for deployment to a stage.
• Configure gates as a pre-condition for deployment to a stage.
• Specify conditions for a task to run.

To learn more, see Release, branch, and stage triggers, Release deployment control using approvals, Release deployment control using gates, and Specify conditions for running a task.

(Classic) Deploy with a release pipeline

You can use a release pipeline to pick up the artifacts published by your build and then deploy them to your Azure web site.

1. Do one of the following to start creating a release pipeline:

   • If you've just completed a CI build, choose the link (for example, Build 20170815.1) to open the build summary. Then choose Release to start a new release pipeline that's automatically linked to the build pipeline.

   • Open the Releases tab in Azure Pipelines, open the + drop-down in the list of release pipelines, and choose Create release pipeline.

2. The easiest way to create a release pipeline is to use a template. If you are deploying a Node.js app, select the Deploy Node.js App to Azure App Service template. Otherwise, select the Azure App Service Deployment template. Then choose Apply.

   Note

   The only difference between these templates is that Node.js template configures the task to generate a web.config file containing a parameter that starts the iisnode service.

3. If you created your new release pipeline from a build summary, check that the build pipeline and artifact is shown in the Artifacts section on the Pipeline tab. If you created a new release pipeline from the Releases tab, choose the + Add link and select your build artifact.

4. Choose the Continuous deployment icon in the Artifacts section, check that the continuous deployment trigger is enabled, and add a filter to include the main branch.

   Note

   Continuous deployment is not enabled by default when you create a new release pipeline from the Releases tab.

5. Open the Tasks tab and, with Stage 1 selected, configure the task property variables as follows:

   • Azure Subscription: Select a connection from the list under Available Azure Service Connections or create a more restricted permissions connection to your Azure subscription. If you are using Azure Pipelines and if you see an Authorize button next to the input, click on it to authorize Azure Pipelines to connect to your Azure subscription. If you are using TFS or if you do not see the desired Azure subscription in the list of subscriptions, see Azure Resource Manager service connection to manually set up the connection.

   • App Service Name: Select the name of the web app from your subscription.

   Note

   Some settings for the tasks may have been automatically defined as stage variables when you created a release pipeline from a template. These settings cannot be modified in the task settings; instead you must select the parent stage item in order to edit these settings.

6. Save the release pipeline.

Create a release to deploy your app

You're now ready to create a release, which means to run the release pipeline with the artifacts produced by a specific build. This will result in deploying the build:

1. Choose + Release and select Create a release.

2. In the Create a new release panel, check that the artifact version you want to use is selected and choose Create.

3. Choose the release link in the information bar message. For example: "Release Release-1 has been created".

4. In the pipeline view, choose the status link in the stages of the pipeline to see the logs and agent output.

5. After the release is complete, navigate to your site running in Azure using the Web App URL http://{web_app_name}.azurewebsites.net, and verify its contents.

Deploy to an Azure Government cloud or to Azure Stack

Create a suitable service connection:

• Azure Government Cloud deployment
• Azure Stack deployment

Deployment mechanisms

The preceding examples rely on the built-in Azure Web App task, which provides simplified integration with Azure.

If you use a Windows agent, this task uses Web Deploy technology to interact with the Azure Web App. Web Deploy provides several convenient deployment options, such as renaming locked files and excluding files from the App_Data folder during deployment.

If you use the Linux agent, the task relies on the Kudu REST APIs.

One thing worth checking before deploying is the Azure App Service access restrictions list. This list can include IP addresses or Azure Virtual Network subnets. When there are one or more entries, there is then an implicit "deny all" that exists at the end of the list. To modify the access restriction rules to your app, see Adding and editing access restriction rules in Azure portal. You can also modify/restrict access to your source control management (scm) site.

The Azure App Service Manage task is another task that's useful for deployment. You can use this task to start, stop, or restart the web app before or after deployment. You can also use this task to swap slots, install site extensions, or enable monitoring of the web app.

You can use the File Transform task to apply file transformations and variable substitutions on any configuration and parameters files.

If the built-in tasks don't meet your needs, you can use other methods to script your deployment. View the YAML snippets in each of the following tasks for some examples:

• Azure PowerShell task
• Azure CLI task
• FTP task