如何将具有多个组件的应用程序部署到Azure？

Question

So my application is composed of a handful of separate .NET components that all run in Azure. To give you an idea of what's involved:

• A main ASP.NET MVC5/Web API 2 REST service that runs as an Azure website (I think they renamed these to web apps?).
• A SQL database that the main REST service uses.
• Another internal Web API REST service that the main REST service talks to that runs as an Azure website.
• An Azure storage table that the the internal Web API REST service uses.
• 3 scheduled jobs (just .NET exe's) that do work in the background and also talk to the main SQL database.

All that's running great in Azure right now. My problem is automating the deployment and configuration.

Right now it's all manual. I right-click and publish both web apps from Visual Studio. I build and FTP up the web jobs. The database and Azure storage already exist so I don't have to re-set them up.

But say something bad happens - a datacenter goes down or something. I'd like to be able spin up a new version of my app (with all those components) that is ready to go with minimal effort.

I'm pretty new to the world of Azure so I'm not sure where to start. What are my options?

Answer 1

You are looking to automating deployments in Azure. I recommend to use ElasticBox to solve it.

To achieve the automation you will need to create a box for every different service or component you need to deploy (a box is the abstraction unit that uses to define the installation and configuration of the deployment of a service or application in any cloud).

It's possible also to create boxes based on VM Instances, VM Roles, or Worker Roles and also automate the deploy of Microsoft SQL Servers. Let's say near every option offered by Azure.

Then with those boxes completed (that can be customized and reuse your legacy code from your previous manual installation), you can deploy the multiple vms with near no manual intervention, just one click or a command with some parameters.

A box includes the variables necessary for your deployment (you can set default values for those variables) and your legacy scripts (In this case probably PowerShell, but they could be bash, python, perl, java, or any other language)

When you deploy your boxes:

• Creates a Cloud Service or VM in the location that you choose and with the Azure configuration that you preconfigured. It takes care of provision the vm in your Azure provider, or near any other cloud provider in the market.

• Installs, configure files with your specified variables and execute your SQL or Web services that you have defined.

Other ways to interact with the service:

• Jenkins' Plugin could be used to build a CI environment connecting your code updated or a Pull Request with automated deployments in Azure or any other public cloud.

• Command line tool that enables to do VM deployments of your boxes and also you can manage your deployed vm instances with it.

Answer 2

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is intended to solve exactly the issues you described.

The basic idea is that you use a JSON template to describe all your services. You can then give that template to ARM and it will create the services as defined in the template. If you want to make a change, instead of doing it imperatively (via powershell or manually in the portal) just update your template, pass it to ARM and it will make whatever changes are necessary to make the services match your template.

Some resources:

• ARM talk at MS Ignite 2015
• ARM template language reference
• Quickstart templates on GitHub
• Azure Resource Explorer - view ARM templates of existing resources
• Resource Group Deployment Projects in Visual Studio

Answer 3

I think your looking for something to help you handel deploys to your windows Azure servers. If that is the case I recommend looking into Jenkins CI . There are many resources available online you can look into in terms of having Jenkins and Azure work together.