Introduction
This article provides a quick and smart high-level overview of Microsoft Azure Web apps on Linux with a practical example of how to start creating and deploying a Web app on Linux, using Azure portal.
For novice Cloud developers, aspiring Cloud architects, Pre-sales consultants and all other IT professionals associated with Cloud computing, especially with Microsoft Azure, this tutorial will explain the importance and capabilities of Microsoft Azure mobile apps.
Quick High-level Overview
As defined, “Azure App Service is a fully managed "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) offering for the professional developers, which brings a rich set of capabilities to the Web, mobile and integration scenarios.
Now, we can use Microsoft Azure app Service on Linux to host the Web apps natively on Linux for Node.js & PHP application stacks. Currently, FTP, Local & GitHub can be used for deploying applications. The most needed web app feature, scaling of application, is also possible here on Linux and can be achieved by changing tiers in the App Service Plan.
Azure app Service on Linux is currently in public preview and supports running web apps natively on Linux. This public preview is currently available only in the Western U.S., Western Europe & Southeast Asia.
Currently a few features like virtual network integration, Azure Active Directory/third-party authentication or Kudu site extensions doesn’t work, but there are plans to get it to work as soon as possible.
An important point to remember here is, as mentioned by Microsoft,
"Web Apps on Linux is only supported in the Dedicated app service plans and does not have a Free or Shared tier. Also, App Service plans for regular and Linux web apps are mutually exclusive, so you cannot create a Linux web app in a non-Linux app service plan. Web Apps on Linux must be created in a resource group that does not contain non-Linux web apps in the same region."
Prerequisites
For creating web apps on Linux, all we need is Microsoft Azure Account. If not, create your free account by clicking
here.
Once app is created, let’s start
Go to
Microsoft Azure portal, log-in with your Azure account credentials.
Click ‘+’ sign => Web + Mobile => Web App on Linux (preview)
![Image]()
Blade with following details will appear
- App Name - Enter a Unique name for your Web App. This name is unique across Azure.
- Subscription - Your subscription for Azure services
- Resource Group - Group of related products / service created on Azure Portal. You can select existing resource group or create new.
- App Service Plan - You can select an existing App Service Plan or create new.
- Runtime Stack - Choose the application stack that you intend to use. You can choose among several versions of Node.js and PHP as seen in below image.