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Home CMS Documentation Home CMS 10 Development Special Topics for Developers Deploying DSS to Azure App Service

Deploying the DSS to Azure App Service

The Azure App Service is a Microsoft service for hosting web applications. See Microsoft: App Service Overview for details.

Note
  • Because the location of the published content is in App_Data\Content, it's recommended that you configure the DSS code deployment to the Web App so that it does not update App_Data at this time. We are working on alternate content pathing methods for Azure Web App and will update the steps below to reflect these changes, shortly.
  • Forms Builder pages are not supported within an Azure Web App deployment.
  • The instructions below assume that you have rights to create an App Service in an Azure subscription.
To deploy the DSS to Azure App Service:
  1. Install a CMS instance.
  2. After installation of the CMS instance, open the solution file located at [Drive]:\[path-to-cms-instance]\site\dss_preview in Visual Studio.
  3. In Visual Studio, use the Solution Explorer to navigate to the App_Data folder of the project.
  4. Right click App_Data and select Add > New Folder.
  5. Name the new folder Content. This folder will be the replication target in Kudu.
  6. In Visual Studio, expand the Web.Config node, and open Web.Debug.Config for editing.
  7. Change the PageFileslocation key value to the following: .\App_Data\Content. This location is where the CMS replication target will replicate its content.

    Web.Debug.Config

  8. Save Web.Debug.Config.
  9. Copy the above configuration to the Web.Release.Config file.
  10. Right click on the VS project and select Publish....
  11. Select Create New.

    Web.Debug.Config

  12. Click Publish.
  13. In the Create App Service dialog, create a new Azure resource group and an Azure service plan for the test application. (For this test, you can just accept the default names.)

    Create App Service Dialog

  14. Click Create to publish the site in Visual Studio. This action creates the Azure applications for you and may take a few minutes.
  15. Open a browser and go to the Azure portal ( https://portal.azure.com).
  16. Search for the new App Service with the Azure search-by-name feature.
  17. Choose the Credentials area and enter a username and password for replication. Keep these values on hand, as you will need them for configuration later.

    Azure App Services Credentials

  18. Go back to the App Service Overview page in Azure. There, you can see the full user name which will be in ResourceGroup\UserID format:

    ResourceGroup\UserID Format

  19. In the CMS, configure replication for the appropriate publishing target. See Replicating Content for details.
  20. Add a new FTP SSL replication target.
  21. Configure your server and user/password information similar to the capture below.

    Replication Settings for Azure App

    Important
    Ensure that the Root Path value is site/wwwroot/app_data/Content and that you have enabled the following FTP/SSL Options in Advanced Settings:
    • Implicit Mode on TLS/SSL
    • Passive Mode
    • Allow private certificates
  22. In the CMS, publish content to the publishing target that you just configured.
  23. Navigate to the Azure App Service and request a resource.