将 Web 应用程序 + sql db + windows 服务部署到 Azure

Question

I've never deployed to azure and I have several issues trying to get this to work. Im using the free services with azure.

I have an mvc web app that's a custom calendar i made, a personal project of mine. The web app allows you to enter reminders and other kind of events to a local database i made. Then theres a windows service I created to poll the database every minute to check if theres a reminder or similar event for that current time. If there is the service emails that user the reminder and other details. Locally everything works beautifully and i want to deploy to the web to show it off.

For me, deployment has been the issue. I've tried deploying the web app as a cloud service and web app + sql server. I then had problems with changing the connection strings in my web app to match azures. So then I just tried to open the app itself and it took approx 30s per page to load. The VS solution has multiple projects because its a multi-tiered app (projects: database, DAL, BL, UI, Common).

Then, I tried to add my version control code to the azure project which is in TFS. I have like 4 projects i keep in source control but it only finds 1 in azure. I've researched this over and over and cant find anything on it.

I haven't even gotten to the windows service cause i can't get the app/db working together.

TLDR; The web app enters data into the database. The service finds data entered and emails based on a matching date for each user. I'm doing deployment for the first time with azure and can't get the web app to connect to the database in azure to work properly, and the app is super slow when deployed.

Main problems being TFS not showing all projects in azure, do i include all projects in solution or just the UI, getting connection strings to match azure. I'm a bit lost overall I guess... how can i get this all working?

Answer 1

When you say Web App I assume you mean Azure App Service ( https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/app-service/ ).

Setting an connectionstring for your App Service to use can be done in the portal by navigating to Application settings > Connection string under the resource. It should be a regular connectionstring here, the only thing you need to do is make sure the server name is right and that you have a user and pwd set that will give you access to the database. If you created the resources using the Wep Abb (Web +SQL) in the portal then you entered a user and password for the database there, that will be fine for you to use in the connectionstring. You might want to add a dedicated user to the SQL server at a later stage and use that specifically for this application.

App Services has a built in feature that lets you deploy your code automatically from your source control. You can set it up to build and deploy your MVC code to the App Service on commits to a specific branch in your repo. Navigate to Deployment options under your App Service in the portal. Here you set it up to target your TFS repo. Your problem might be that since you have 4 projects in your repo the build script wont know which one to build and deploy if all 4 are web projects. If you need all 4 running then you need 4 App Services. You can modify the script but it takes some work. https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu/wiki/Custom-Deployment-Script

Another option may be to setup Visual Studio Team Service to work for you using the Continuous Deploy feature (it's in preview but works fine).

As for the continuously running service that should poll the database I recommend you look at Web Jobs to do that for you. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-web/websites-dotnet-webjobs-sdk-get-started . The web jobs will run on the same App Service instance you run your site on.

Last, in order to send emails from Azure you need to use an email service. SendGrid is one that works well with Azure App Services and is easy enough to setup.