During this topic we will go through the most fascinating features of Azure Web Apps, such as: deployment slots, application settings management, application health monitoring, etc. We will talk about site extensions you can use to make your life easier. We will also talk about internal architecture of Azure Web Apps. This topic is very demo-centric and we will see how easy we can: Introduce production, staging, integration, etc. environments to your app. Manage app configurations and avoid storing credentials in source control. Introduce continuous deploy for dev environment using build-in deploy server. Monitor app health based on both availability and performance. Configure autoscaling engine, based on schedule and/or user load.

1. Web Apps deep dive
Anton Boyko
Microsoft Azure MVP, MCP
Microsoft TE
v-anboyk@microsoft.com
boyko.ant@live.com

2. Before we start
If you have any questions – do not hesitate and
ask them right here and right now.

4. App Service - one integrated offering
API Apps
Easily build and
consume APIs in
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Web apps that scale
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Build Mobile apps
for any device
LOGIC Apps
Automate business
process across
SaaS and on-
premises

5. .NET | Node.js | PHP | Python | Java
Develop apps
with…

6. Web apps architecture
Microso4 Azure
Load Balancer
Run<me
Database
Applica<on
Database
API
Endpoint
Frontend (IIS
ARR)
Publish Endpoint Blob Storage
File Server
Metering
Deployment
Server

7. Quiz
Why do I need to have
2 load balancers that
should do more or less
the same job?

8. Quiz
Why do I need to have
2 load balancers that
should do more or less
the same job?
Azure network load
balancer works on L4
of network protocol and
is only able to operate
with protocol and port
number. IIS ARR works
on L7 and is able to
work on HTTP level.
ISS ARR is able to
handle “sticky
sessions”.

10. Source control
integration

11. GitHub Visual Studio
Team Services
Git BitBucket CodePlex DropBox FTP
Choose your own
adventure!

12. Generate deployment script

13. Edit deployment script
:: 5. Build
IF EXIST "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%
gruntfile.js" (
echo "grunt build"
pushd "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%"
call :ExecuteCmd npm install grunt-cli
grunt build
IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error
popd
)

14. Quiz
Why having a CPU-
intensive long running
build process on top of
Kudu can kill your app?

15. Quiz
Why having a CPU-
intensive long running
build process on top of
Kudu can kill your app?
Kudu runs on the same
nodes as your web app
and they share all
resources.

16. Auto scale

20. Quiz
Why web apps auto
scale feature can kill
your app?

21. Quiz
Why web apps auto
scale feature can kill
your app?
• Scale is not
instantaneous
• Only the web tier
scales

22. It’s not about “don’t use
auto scale” for the web
apps, it’s more about
“use your head”.

23. Deployment slots

24. Deployment slots
swap
Staging
slot
Produc<on
slot
Streamline dev, test and producBon deployment
workflow
Swap staging and producBon with zero downBme
Instantaneous rollback to previous “last known good
site”
Enables A/B tesBng, conBnuous deployment, staged
publishing and much more
Web App

26. If you want to live in
harmony with the rest
of the world – avoid
running load tests on
different deployment
slots of the same web
app.

27. Traffic manager

28. www.yourapp.com

29. www.yourapp.com

30. Quiz
What will traffic
manager do if you start
receiving 404 or 500
http status codes while
trying to access your
app main page?
Why?

31. Quiz
What will traffic
manager do if you start
receiving 404 or 500
http status codes while
trying to access your
app main page?
Why?
Traffic manager uses
an endpoint monitoring
rules that consist of
protocol, port and path.
It checks only this
particular endpoint for
your app health status,
it does not listen to all
traffic.

32. Auto heal

33. Auto heal triggers
<system.webServer>
<monitoring>
<triggers>
<!-- Scenario #1: Recycling based on Request Count -->
<requests count="1000" timeInterval="00:10:00"/>
<!-- Scenario #2: Recycling based on slow requests -->
<slowRequests timeTaken="00:00:45" count="20" timeInterval="00:02:00" />
<!-- Scenario #3: Logging an event (or recycling) based on status code(s) -->
<statusCode>
<add statusCode="500" subStatusCode="100" win32StatusCode="0"
count="10" timeInterval="00:00:30"/>
</statusCode>
<!-- Scenario #4: Taking custom actions (or recycling/logging) based on
memory limit -->
<memory privateBytesInKB="800000"/>

34. Auto heal actions
</triggers>
<!-- Scenario #1 & #2 Action -->
<actions value="Recycle"/>
<!-- Scenario #3 Action -->
<actions value="LogEvent"/>
<!-- Scenario #4 Action -->
<actions value="CustomAction">
<customAction exe="d:
homeprocdump.exe" parameters="-accepteula
w3wp d:homew3wp_PID_%1%_" />
</actions>

35. Quiz
Why using auto heal
can kill your app?

36. Quiz
Why using auto heal
can kill your app?
If you face an issue
when recycling is not
enough to fix your app,
you will also face
infinite recycling loop.

37. Backup

38. What can I backup?
• Web app content
• Web app root folder and all folders underneath
• Application database
• Only those application databases, which have
connection strings in web app connection string
settings, not in web.config
• Configuration settings
• Configuration settings of web app

39. Quiz
Why I’m not 100%
happy with backup?

40. Quiz
Why I’m not 100%
happy with backup?
Usually I put my
unstructured content
(pictures, video, etc.)
into blob storage to
avoid storage limit of
web app pricing tier.
There is no way to
backup it using built-in
backup feature.

41. Questions?
Anton Boyko
Microsoft Azure
Ukraine Community
Founder
Microsoft Azure MVP,
MCP
Microsoft TE
boyko.ant@live.com
@BoykoAnt
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