Azure Web Apps Basics

In this chapter, we will be introducing Azure App Service, App Service Environment and its types. We will then cover App Service plans and the different pricing plans on offer in order to understand which plan will fulfill your needs. Lastly, you will learn how to create these service in the Azure portal.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Introduction to Azure App Service
• App Service plans
• App Service Environment
• Creating an App Service plan
• Creating an App Service

Introduction to Azure App Service

Azure App Service is one of Microsoft Azure's Platform as a service (PaaS) offerings. It is used to run your applications on Azure in a fully managed service environment.

This offering provides the following services:

• Web Apps: Used to host your web apps that need to scale with your business
• API Apps: Used to easily build and consume APIs on the cloud
• Mobile Apps: Used to build mobile apps for any device
• Logic apps: Used to automate business processes across Software as a service (SaaS) and on-premises systems
• Function apps: Used to integrate systems, work with IoT, process data, and even build simple APIs and microservices.

In this chapter, we will be focusing on Azure Web Apps specifically.

Azure Web Apps

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App Service plans

When you create an App Service, such as a Web App for example, you will be asked to specify the App Service plan.

An App Service plan is like the hardware host on which you run your VMs. It contains the resources that are shared among the App Service. As a result, we can look at App Service as VMs running on the host, which is the App Service plan.

The App Service plan also defines many settings for the App Service that will be built on it, such as the region, number of instances, whether it will be able to scale out/in or not, and much more, which will be covered later on.

Azure offers different plans to fulfill different customers' needs, such as the following:

• Shared infrastructure plans:
  • Free plan: This is the entry level plan, and as its name implies, it's available for free. It's meant for dev/test scenarios, or if you wish to deploy a...

Azure App Service Environments

Generally speaking, when you deploy an App Service on an App Service plan, these apps will be deployed in a multi-tenant environment. In other words, the VMs that will host the apps will be in a shared pool, hosting other customers' apps as well.

Azure's App Service Environment will not do this. Instead, it will provide you with an isolated environment, such as that available on the isolated service plan, which needs an App Service Environment to function in a way that takes advantage of the benefits it offers.

App Service Environment provides the following benefits:

• Isolation—you will run your own app on a single tenant, so you can make it compliant with your policy standards
• Bring your own virtual network—you can use specific virtual networks for the VMs running your App Service, giving you more control over the traffic...

Creating an App Service plan

With the information we have seen so far, you should be excited to get started and create an App Service plan. Therefore, without further ado, let's get started:

1. Navigate to the Azure portal and search for app service plans, as shown in the following screenshot:

2. A new blade will be opened, where you can view/add new App Service plans, as shown in the following screenshot:

3. When you click on Add, a new blade will be opened where you have to specify the following:
   • App Service plan: Specify a descriptive name for the plan
   • Subscription: Specify the subscription that will be charged for using this service
   • Resource group: Specify the resource group in which the app service plan will exist as a resource.
   • Operating system: Specify whether the plan is Windows-based or Linux-based
   • Location: Select the region where you want to deploy your app service...

Creating an App Service

Creating an App Service is a very straightforward process too. To do it, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Azure portal and search for App Services:

2. When you click on it, a new blade will be opened, where you can view/add App Service:

3. When you click on Add, a new blade will be opened, where you can select from different App Service and even some templates for HTML5, WordPress, Joomla, and much more:

4. In our case, we will select Web App. Once selected, you will be navigated to a new blade, which will give you an overview of Azure Web Apps:

5. Next, click on Create, which will open a new blade where you have to specify the following:
   • App name: Specify a name for your app
   • Subscription: Select the subscription that will be charged for using this service
   • Resource Group: Specify the resource group in which the app will exist as a resource...

Summary

In this chapter on Azure App Service, we were introduced to some highlights of App Service plans and App Service Environments, so you can now specify the differences between them, and how and when to use each one.

In the next chapter, you will learn more about Azure Web Apps and how to manage them in a way that will provide a highly reliable solution.

Questions

1. Which of the following apps are supported by Azure App Service?
   • Web apps and desktop apps
   • Function apps and logic apps
   • None of them
2. Which of the following App Service plans support adding custom domain names?
   • Shared
   • Basic
   • Standard
   • All of them
3. You can run a Linux App service on a Windows App Service plan?
   • True
   • False

Further reading

• Use an App Service Environment (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/environment/using-an-ase)
• App Service plans (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/app-service/plans/)