Umbraco deployment to windows azure

Question

I have a new Umbraco 4.9 site I created locally using a SQL CE database and now I'm looking to push everything to windows azure. Can someone suggest an easy way to accomplish this task? I'd also like to continue development locally and push as easily as possible to azure when desired.

Answer 1

The easiest way is AZURE WEBSITES.

A shared hosting, that you can use continuously out of Team Foundation Server or from Visual Studio.

Here's a detailed instruction post, how you can do it:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2012/06/26/deploying-windows-azure-website-using-visual-studio-web-publish-wizard.aspx

Answer 2

The key here is moving the database structure AND data up to the server. I've only done this once, and if I ever had to do it again I'd look for a less tedious, more automated way to do so. But, I did it using the query window of Azure's database manager, the only obstacle being a query size limit.

• Firstly I generated the scripts for the database minus the data using SQL Management Studio - this is a relatively small about of raw text and the browser-enabled SQL management query window can handle this.
• Secondly, the data. I generated the scripts for the database again but skipped CREATES and this time backed up the data in the output. The hiccup then comes when you realise the stuff already in the database (after local development, row versions and logs are created frivilously) amounts to more than can be handled by the Azure panel.
  • So, to overcome this, scan the generated script (or use SQL to manipulate the database data if you have a full backup) and quite literally remove bunches of unnecessary records as you see fit - empty this like the Umbraco log table, and historic saves of templates and such and so.

Right now this is ugly, it was hack and slash progress at the time, but it got me to the point of deployment and I haven't had to do it since, hence no real investigation into improving the process.