Know about Azure App Service post-creation settings

After you've created an Azure App Service, there are several important post-creation settings and configurations that you'll want to be aware of in order to properly manage and optimize your web app.

Here's a breakdown of the key aspects.

App Service Plan Settings

1. Pricing Tier You can change the pricing tier to scale your app's resources (CPU, RAM, etc.). Options include Free, Shared, Basic, Standard, Premium, and Isolated, with varying capabilities for scaling, traffic load, and features.

2. Scaling You can adjust the number of instances or set up autoscaling. This will determine how many instances of your app run concurrently, based on traffic patterns or other metrics.

3. Manual Scaling Set a fixed number of instances.

4. Autoscaling Set rules based on metrics like CPU usage, memory, or HTTP request count.

Custom Domain and SSL Configuration

1. Custom Domain You can map your custom domain to the App Service by configuring DNS settings in your domain registrar.

2. SSL Certificates To ensure secure communication, you can set up SSL/TLS certificates for your custom domains. Azure supports free SSL certificates (via Azure App Service Managed Certificate) or you can upload your own certificates.

3. HTTPS Redirect Enforce HTTPS connections for security by enabling automatic HTTP to HTTPS redirects.

Application Settings

1. App Settings These are key-value pairs used to configure your application (e.g., database connection strings, environment variables). You can set them through the Azure portal, or in your appsettings.json (for .NET apps) or via the Azure CLI.

2. Connection Strings Store database connection strings securely here, avoiding hardcoding in your app code.

3. App Service Environment Variables These are useful for managing configurations for different environments (dev, staging, production).

Deployment Options

1. Deployment Slots If you're using slots for staging and production environments, you can deploy to these slots separately before swapping them to production. This helps with zero-downtime deployments and A/B testing.

2. CI/CD Integration Set up continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or other third-party services to automatically deploy your application on code changes.

3. Local Git, GitHub, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos You can configure automated deployments directly from your Git repositories.

Diagnostic and Monitoring Tools

1. Application Insights Enable Application Insights for real-time monitoring, logging, and performance tracking. This tool provides insights into your application's health, performance bottlenecks, and usage patterns.

2. Diagnostics Logs You can enable detailed logs (e.g., HTTP request logs, application logs, and error diagnostics) to track what’s happening with your app. Logs can be sent to Azure Monitor or other external systems like a Storage Account or a third-party service.

3. Health Checks Configure health checks to monitor the availability of your app and automatically restart instances that are unresponsive.

Authentication and Authorization

1. Azure Active Directory (AAD) You can configure your App Service to authenticate users via Azure AD. This is useful for enterprise apps or apps requiring integration with organizational accounts.

2. External Authentication Providers You can integrate with other external identity providers such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft Account, or Twitter for user authentication.

3. Authorization Rules Define who has access to the app using built-in role-based access control (RBAC) or custom authorization rules.

Networking and Security

1. VNET Integration If your app needs to connect to resources in a private virtual network, you can configure VNET Integration to allow communication between your App Service and Azure Virtual Network resources.

2. Private Endpoints You can expose your app over private IP addresses, making it accessible only within your virtual network.

3. Access Restrictions (IP Restrictions) You can define access rules to allow or deny traffic from specific IP addresses, ranges, or subnets, to control who can access your app.

4. Firewall Set up the App Service’s firewall settings for more granular control over access.

Backup and Recovery

1. App Service Backups: Configure automatic backups to protect your app’s data. You can schedule backups and store them in Azure Blob Storage or other locations.

2. Restore from Backup: If needed, you can restore a previous version of your app from the backup.

Scaling and Load Balancing

1. Vertical Scaling: Adjust the resource allocation (CPU, RAM, etc.) of your App Service Plan by changing the tier of the App Service Plan.

2. Horizontal Scaling: Increase or decrease the number of app instances based on load.

3. Load Balancer: Azure App Service automatically distributes incoming traffic to available instances of your app. However, you can influence load balancing behavior using custom domains and routing rules.

App Service Access and Management

1. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): You can set up role-based access controls to restrict who can manage the App Service.

2. Access to Kudu (Advanced Tools): Kudu provides advanced management tools for App Services, including SSH, file explorer, and command-line access.

3. Diagnostic Tools: From the Azure portal, you can access diagnostic tools like the "Diagnose and solve problems" feature for troubleshooting.

Custom Logging and Application Insights

1. Log Streaming: You can stream logs in real time for debugging purposes.

2. Custom Logs: Add your own application-specific logs for monitoring and troubleshooting.

Cost Management

1. Cost Optimization: Keep track of usage and costs to avoid overspending. Review your usage and scaling settings periodically to ensure you're on the correct plan for your needs.

2. Auto-scaling for Cost Control: Set auto-scaling rules to avoid over-provisioning and incur unnecessary costs during low-traffic periods.

App Service Security Best Practices

1. Managed Identity: Enable a managed identity for your App Service to securely access other Azure resources without needing to store credentials in your app.

2. Secrets Management: Store sensitive information (like API keys) in Azure Key Vault, not within the app’s code or environment variables.

3. DDoS Protection: If required, enable Azure DDoS Protection to mitigate risks of large-scale attacks.

App Service Environment (ASE) for Isolated Apps

If you're hosting an app that needs a higher level of security, isolation, or custom networking, you may want to deploy it in an App Service Environment (ASE).

ASE offers dedicated, isolated environments within a customer’s virtual network.

Summary

By configuring these post-creation settings, you can ensure your Azure App Service is well-optimized for performance, security, scalability, and manageability.

Each of these settings is customizable to suit different workloads and scenarios.