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Day 4 of 5
⏱ ~60 minutes
Azure in 5 Days — Day 4

Azure App Service

Deploy a web app from GitHub, configure environment variables, use deployment slots for staging, and add a custom domain.

Create an App Service

Azure CLI
# Create an App Service Plan (the VM running your app)
az appservice plan create \
  --name myapp-plan --resource-group myapp-rg \
  --sku B1 --is-linux

# Create the web app
az webapp create \
  --resource-group myapp-rg --plan myapp-plan \
  --name my-unique-app-name \
  --runtime 'NODE:20-lts'

# Deploy from GitHub
az webapp deployment source config \
  --name my-unique-app-name --resource-group myapp-rg \
  --repo-url https://github.com/you/your-repo \
  --branch main --manual-integration
Environment Variables
# Set app settings (environment variables)
az webapp config appsettings set \
  --resource-group myapp-rg --name my-unique-app-name \
  --settings \
    DATABASE_URL='...' \
    API_KEY='...' \
    NODE_ENV='production'
Deployment Slots
# Create a staging slot
az webapp deployment slot create \
  --name my-unique-app-name --resource-group myapp-rg \
  --slot staging

# Deploy to staging first
az webapp deployment source config \
  --name my-unique-app-name --resource-group myapp-rg \
  --slot staging --repo-url ... --branch main

# Swap staging to production (zero-downtime)
az webapp deployment slot swap \
  --name my-unique-app-name --resource-group myapp-rg \
  --slot staging --target-slot production
💡
Deployment slots are powerful. Deploy to staging, run smoke tests, then swap. If something breaks, swap back. Zero downtime, instant rollback.
📝 Day 4 Exercise
Deploy a Node App to App Service
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Day 4 Summary

  • App Service runs web apps without managing VMs. Supports Node, Python, PHP, .NET, Java.
  • Environment variables in App Service = az webapp config appsettings set. Never hardcode secrets.
  • Deployment slots enable zero-downtime deployments with instant swap and rollback.
  • B1 plan is the smallest paid tier ($13/mo). Free tier (F1) has limited CPU — fine for dev.
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