Azure App Services – PaaS Compute Options

Azure App Services – PaaS Compute Options

Azure App Services refers to the applications, websites, mobile backends, or REST APIs that you deploy to the App Service plans. Earlier, App Services were known as web apps. In some documentation, you might still find this reference. So, if you see this term, that’s an App Service. The following are some of the benefits offered by App Services:

• Multiple frameworks and languages: App Services support ASP.NET, Java, PHP, Node.js, Ruby, and Python. In addition, you can execute PowerShell and other scripts as background services.
• DevOps integration: Continuous integration can be set up with Azure DevOps, GitHub, and BitBucket.
• Container support: You can use images from Docker Hub or Azure Container Registry to run containerized applications. Continuous integration can be set up for these applications as well.
• High availability: From the Basic tier onward, you have support for a built-in load balancer. Autoscaling is available from the Standard tier onward.
• Compliance: ISO, PCI, and SOC compliance is available for App Services. You can easily integrate authentication providers such as Azure AD and other social logins (Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft) for authenticating users.
• Marketplace templates: Popular applications like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal can be deployed to App Services from Azure Marketplace.
• Visual Studio integration: Publishing apps is seamless in the Visual Studio IDE. There are dedicated tools available for publishing and managing apps.
• API and mobile features: Extended features like CORS support, offline data sync, and push notifications are available for App Services.
• Serverless code: You can run functions or scripts on demand.

To explain the features of App Services, it’s better to create an App Service and explain the features on the fly. In Exercise 9.2, you will be adding an App Service to the App Service plan that you created in Exercise 9.1.

EXERCISE 9.2
 Creating an App Service Plan

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and search for App Service. Click App Service, and this will take you to the App Service blade.
2. Click Create to start creating an App Service. You need to fill in the basic details such as the subscription and resource group. In our demonstration, we are planning to use the App Service plan you created in Exercise 9.1, so you need to select the resource group to which the plan is created. Along with that, you need to add instance details.
3. In the instance details, you need to provide the following details:

• Name: This is the name of the App Service, and it needs to be unique across Azure as the app will be created under the azurewebsites.net domain. For example, if the name of your app is ax0f45, then the URL will be ax0f45.azurewebsites.net.
  • Publish: You can choose either Code or Docker Container. If you choose Code, you need to select the runtime stack of our code, and if you are selecting Docker Container, you need to specify the image repository and image name.
  • Runtime stack: This is shown only if the publish is set to Code. You can select a runtime stack that includes various versions of .NET, Java, Node, PHP, Python, and Ruby. For this demo, you will select ASP.NET V4.8.
  • Operating system: In our case, we selected ASP.NET V4.8, which is supported only on Windows. So, we will not be able to change the operating system. However, if you are choosing a cross-platform language like Python or .NET Core, then you will be able to switch between Linux and Windows.
  • Region: Select an Azure region. This is important because if you are planning to associate an existing App Service plan, then you need to choose the same region as the plan.