Windows Azure Web Sites (WAWS) is a PaaS based web-hosting platform that supports multiple technologies, and programming languages (.NET, node.js, php, Python). Users with Windows Azure subscriptions can create Web Sites, and deploy content and code into the web sites. If you have done the traditional website deployment in the past, you know well that how difficult is to provision your own web server. Well Windows Azure comes to rescue. You don't have to deal with hardware and operating systems anymore with Windows Azure. You have to just concentrate on building your website and once it's ready, you have to push the code to Windows Azure web site using one of the deployment methods available that we will discuss shortly.
Windows Azure Web Sites is implemented as websites that are dynamically created on-demand on servers running Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8.0. When a client posts a request to a web site, Windows Azure Web Sites dynamically provisions the site on one of the Azure virtual machines pointing it at content stored in Azure Storage containers (just like in IIS you need to point to directory where content is stored).
Now Windows Azure offers several ways to host your web applications, such as Windows Azure Web Sites, Cloud Services, and Virtual Machines. What are the reasons you prefer Windows Azure Web Sites over Cloud service and Virtual machines?
Web Sites are easier to set up, manage, and monitor, but you have fewer configuration options. The key point is that when you do not have a compelling reason to place your web front-end on Cloud Services or Virtual Machines, use Windows Azure Web Sites.
Also Web Sites are best for running web applications that are relatively isolated (that do not require elevated security, remote desktop, network isolation etc.) and do not require installation of any applications (MSI, COM Object etc). In Web Sites, you cannot alter the VM instance at all.
The great thing about Windows Azure Web Sites is that you can start using it for free and then add more capabilities when you need them. For example, each free web site comes with a domain provided by Windows Azure (your_company.azurewebsites.net). When you’re ready to start using your own domain, you can add this. There are many other services and scaling options that allow the site to evolve with increased user demand.
The Azure Platform is supported by growing network of Microsoft-managed data-centers around the world that are capable of hosting WAWS and other Azure services. You can deploy your application to the data-center that is closest to your user base.
Azure Web Sites has the following advantages :
Enough of the theory, now let's do some practical and create our first Windows Azure Web Site (from now on we will refer as WAWS).
4. Click on "QUICK CREATE", which opens a panel to name your site. If this is the first site being created in a specific data center then it would be scaled to FREE mode by default. Also the name of the site will be <name>.azurewebsites.net . In order to give custom domain name, you will have to scale it to either SHARED or STANDARD. We will look into that later.
6. When the web site has been created, you will see the text Creating web site <web site name> succeeded. You can browse to the web site by clicking Browse at the bottom of the portal page.
Congratulations on creating your first website. This website is currently blank and we have to add content to it. We will add content to this website as well explore WAWS in depth in the subsequent tutorials.
Windows Azure Web Sites is implemented as websites that are dynamically created on-demand on servers running Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8.0. When a client posts a request to a web site, Windows Azure Web Sites dynamically provisions the site on one of the Azure virtual machines pointing it at content stored in Azure Storage containers (just like in IIS you need to point to directory where content is stored).
Now Windows Azure offers several ways to host your web applications, such as Windows Azure Web Sites, Cloud Services, and Virtual Machines. What are the reasons you prefer Windows Azure Web Sites over Cloud service and Virtual machines?
Web Sites are easier to set up, manage, and monitor, but you have fewer configuration options. The key point is that when you do not have a compelling reason to place your web front-end on Cloud Services or Virtual Machines, use Windows Azure Web Sites.
Also Web Sites are best for running web applications that are relatively isolated (that do not require elevated security, remote desktop, network isolation etc.) and do not require installation of any applications (MSI, COM Object etc). In Web Sites, you cannot alter the VM instance at all.
The great thing about Windows Azure Web Sites is that you can start using it for free and then add more capabilities when you need them. For example, each free web site comes with a domain provided by Windows Azure (your_company.azurewebsites.net). When you’re ready to start using your own domain, you can add this. There are many other services and scaling options that allow the site to evolve with increased user demand.
The Azure Platform is supported by growing network of Microsoft-managed data-centers around the world that are capable of hosting WAWS and other Azure services. You can deploy your application to the data-center that is closest to your user base.
Azure Web Sites has the following advantages :
- Near-instant deployment with deployment history / rollbacks
- github, local git, ftp, CodePlex, DropBox, BitBucket deployment support
- Much faster site provisioning and scaling
- Use the Application Gallery to quickly setup popular web applications, such as WordPress.
- Simple and fast to scale from free tier to shared tier to dedicated tier
- Friendlier in-built monitoring and diagnostics
- Multiple websites (deployed separately) on a single farm out of the box
Enough of the theory, now let's do some practical and create our first Windows Azure Web Site (from now on we will refer as WAWS).
At this point I assume that you have already taken the Windows Azure subscription either paid one or trial.
Follow these steps to quickly create a new WAWS :
1. Login to the Windows Azure Management Portal. (http://manage.windowsazure.com/)
2. Click the Create New icon in the context menu at the bottom left of the Management Portal.
3. A fly-out menu will appear. Go to COMPUTE -> WEB SITE. It will present three option for creating an Azure Web Site : Quick Create, Custom Create and From Gallery.
2. Click the Create New icon in the context menu at the bottom left of the Management Portal.
3. A fly-out menu will appear. Go to COMPUTE -> WEB SITE. It will present three option for creating an Azure Web Site : Quick Create, Custom Create and From Gallery.
4. Click on "QUICK CREATE", which opens a panel to name your site. If this is the first site being created in a specific data center then it would be scaled to FREE mode by default. Also the name of the site will be <name>.azurewebsites.net . In order to give custom domain name, you will have to scale it to either SHARED or STANDARD. We will look into that later.
5. Choose a unique name for your site. If your site name is unique, there will be little green check mark appears as shown in the figure. If it's not unique, an alert will appear and you have to choose unique name. Choose the region closet to you (we will go into the details later) and click the check mark next to Create Web Site on the bottom right corner of the page.
6. When the web site has been created, you will see the text Creating web site <web site name> succeeded. You can browse to the web site by clicking Browse at the bottom of the portal page.
7. If you click on WEB SITES link on the navigation panel on the left you can see your newly created site listed. Since there is no content so far for our newly created site, you can see the default page when you browse the site.
Congratulations on creating your first website. This website is currently blank and we have to add content to it. We will add content to this website as well explore WAWS in depth in the subsequent tutorials.
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