Hello World! Windows Azure Spring Release is Here! (IaaS, Media Services, Web Sites…) – Part 3 Web Sites

In the first two parts of this series we have learned about the new Virtual Machines feature (Windows VMs and Linux VMs). But, there are not the only new features included in the Spring Release; a new and very interesting feature is Web Sites.

Web Sites is a feature that allow you to quickly and easily deploy sites to a highly scalable cloud environment that allows you to start small and scale as traffic grows. You can use any tool or OS to build a web site with ASP.NET, PHP or Node.js and with database support (SQL Azure or MySQL).

OK, less talk and more do; Do you remember how we created a VM (Windows or Linux) in Part 1/Part 2 and deploy a Wordpress server in the VM?. Let us try the same with the Web Sites feature:

Go to your Windows Azure Management Portal and sign in. Click on Manage and enter in your new Windows Azure control panel. Go to Web Sites and there you can create new Web Site instance. Click on Create a Web Site.
click From Gallery
Browse the Gallery and select Wordpress, click next.
Configure your App. Click next.
Specify the MySQL database configuration. Click OK.
Wait a few minutes until your web site become ready.
… And that’s it.

 

So, if your objetive is deploy a web site (as our Wordpress web site), or any other of the applications available in the gallery (Acquia Drupal 7, DasBlog, DotNetNuke Community Edition/Professional Edition, Drupal Commerce Kickstart, Joomla! 2.5, mojoPortal, Orchard CMS, Umbraco CMS 5, Wordpress) or even a blank Web Site with or without database and you are ok having less customization of your server, Is more easy use the Web Site feature. Let us review the full funcionality of the Web Site feature:

Go to your Windows Azure Management Portal and sign in. Click on Manage and enter in your new Windows Azure control panel. Go to Web Sites and there you can create new Web Site instance. Click on Create a Web Site. Then Create With Database.
Specify the URL for your web site, choose create a new SQL database and the region where you prefer. Click Next.
Speficy your database setting. Take care of the DB Edition thta you choose (Web edition only allow you 1GB or 5GB DB; Business Edition allow you more capacity). Click Next.
You can choose from the existing SQL Database server the where you want create the web site database. Click OK.
… And after a few minutes you have your first Azure Web Sites deployed.
From de Management Portal, if you select the Web Site generated you can identify in the Web Site dashboard the quick glance section where you have the options to connect the web site with your Git account, set up TFS publishing or download your publish profile .
If you select Monitor, you will find a basic performance KPIs dashboard If you select Configure you will able to configure settings as Framework/PHP availability, hostnames, diagnostics, etc.
If you select Scale you will find interesting options as choose the web site mode (shared or reserved). Also, you can specify the shared or reserved capapcity assigned to your web site.
Finally, if you select Linked Resources you can manage linked resources as a database or a blob storage to the web site.
To deploy a web site you can use any tool (ex. WebMatrix): - Install WebMatrix from the management portal.
Once installed try creating a new web site using the Photo Gallery template.
Try it locally and configure your settings To upload the web site: Go to the web site Dashboard, click Download publish profile, clic Save it in your PC Now, from WebMatrix click Publish Click Import publish settings, click select your settings file, click Click save and upload de web site
… And here is your web site.

Another way to deploy web sites is using Git, to use it just go to the web site dashboard and click Set up Git publishing, configigure your account credentials, and now you are connected with your Git repository.

Web Sites is an excellent alternative to deploy Web Sites .NET, PHP or node.js in a managed infrastructure (shared or reserved). Enjoy it.