Deploying to the Azure App Service through Github is a simple but effective way to deploy websites that don’t require too much ceremony. Because many projects use Github for hosting their Git repositories, it’s a pretty seamless deployment process that is more around point and clicking in the Azure portal rather than having to write complicated deployment scripts.
It should be noted while this post references Github throughout, the exact same process can be used to setup Bitbucket to automatically deploy on a push.
Setting Up Github Deployment In Azure Portal
Setting up a Github Deployment for an Azure Web App Service is nothing more than a point and click process. Inside your App Service on the Azure Portal, select Deployment Options from under the Deployment category.
Select “Setup” on the online menu, and then select your source. In our case either Github or Bitbucket. You should now be able to click “Authorize” and use OAuth to connect your Github/Bitbucket account to Azure. Note that this account will be available for all other Azure App Services, not just this one.
Select your project and branch from the options. Typically your branch can just be master, but if this is a development instance you may want to use your develop branch, or you can even select a particular release branch if you are just using this deployment method as an easy way to push code rather than a continuous deployment strategy.
After connecting, wait 5 minutes for your project to sync up. Note that sometimes you need to go to a different blade in the portal and then head back to see updates (Not the greatest, but it works eventually!)
A great feature is that the deployment engine behind this will only sync files that are changed (Since it can see what has changed inside GIT). This makes deployments much faster than a FTP transfer or similar because it’s only uploading what it needs.
Any pushes to your selected branch will be deployed automatically within seconds, but if you get impatient, you can click the Sync button inside the Deployment Options blade and you should get a deployment going within seconds.
Rollback A Deployment
The Github CD Process allows you to roll back any deployment right from inside the Azure portal. Head to the Deployment Options screen inside your Azure App Service and select the deployment you wish to roll back to.
Select the option to “Redeploy” along the top menu and your previous deployment will be redeployed to production.
Linux App Service
If you are attempting to use Azure App Service with Linux (And now is a good time to be doing so, it’s 50% off!), unfortunately I couldn’t get Continuous Deployment working. Using the exact same Github repository but with a Linux App Service, the deployment failed. I have a sneaky suspicion that is related to the Docker Settings on App Service, but I wasn’t able to get things up and running. Feel free to drop a comment below if you have got it up and running!
