How to deploy Sitecore 8.0 solution to Microsoft Azure Web App using Visual Studio

NOTE: On Azure Web Apps, Sitecore does not support scaling out App Service Plan due to shared WWWROOT directory between instances. Sitecore application has certain types of data that requires persistence in the file system.

After developing a Sitecore solution in Visual Studio, it is possible to manually publish this solution to the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform. This article provides a list of techniques that can be used to deploy a Sitecore solution to Microsoft Azure using Microsoft Visual Studio.

Important: It is highly recommended that you get acquainted with the Compute Hosting Options Provided by Azure and Microsoft Azure Fundamentals before following the instructions in this article.

Requirements:

• A work or school account / Microsoft account and a Microsoft Azure subscription with the following Azure services enabled:
  • Azure Web App
  • Azure Storage
  • Azure SQL Database
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 / 2015
• Microsoft Azure SDK 2.8.2 for .NET or newer
• Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2014 or newer
• MongoDB 2.6.1
• Sitecore® Experience Platform™ 8.0 rev. 160115 (8.0 Update-7) or higher

Note: To download the latest version of the Microsoft Azure SDK and Tool for Visual Studio, follow this link: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/

##Instructions

The recommended approach to deploy a Sitecore solution to Microsoft Azure using Visual Studio is as follows:

1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure Portal using the https://portal.azure.com URL.

   

2. In the Jumpbar, click the New button, then select the Web + Mobile section and click the Web App button. The Web App blade appears.

   

3. In the Web App blade, fill in the URL field and configure the other section if needed, then click the Create button.

   

4. In the Startboard, click on the Web App tile.

   

5. In the Web App blade, click the All settings button and select the Application settings section.

   

6. In the Application settings blade, configure the following groups and save the changes.

In the General settings group: + Set the PHP version switcher to the Off value. + Set the Platform switcher to the the 64-bit value. + Set the Always On switcher to the the On value. + [Optional] Set the Remote debugging switcher to the On value and select the Visual Studio version.

• In the Connection strings group:
  • Add the core, master, web, reporting and session SQL Database connection strings.
  • Add the analytics, tracking.live, tracking.history and tracking.contact MongoDB connection strings.

Note: For information on deploying Sitecore databases to Azure, see the section How to deploy Sitecore databases to Azure SQL Database.

Server=tcp:{server-name}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=Sitecore.Core;User ID={server-admin-login}@{server-name};Password={password};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True
Server=tcp:{server-name}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=Sitecore.Master;User ID={server-admin-login}@{server-name};Password={password};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True
Server=tcp:{server-name}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=Sitecore.Web;User ID={server-admin-login}@{server-name};Password={password};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True
Server=tcp:{server-name}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=Sitecore.Reporting;User ID={server-admin-login}@{server-name};Password={password};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True
Server=tcp:{server-name}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=Sitecore.Session;User ID={server-admin-login}@{server-name};Password={password};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True

mongodb://{user-name}:{password}@{thehost}/sitecore_analytics
mongodb://{user-name}:{password}@{thehost}/sitecore_tracking_lives
mongodb://{user-name}:{password}@{thehost}/sitecore_tracking_historys
mongodb://{user-name}:{password}@{thehost}/sitecore_tracking_contact 

Note: Use the above templates as an example of default Sitecore connection strings:

• For SQL Database connection strings, replace the {server-name} with the name of your Azure SQL Database service. The {server-admin-login} and {password} with SQL Server account credentials.
• For MongoDB connection strings, replace the {host} with the URL of your Mongo service. The {user-name} and {password} with your Mongo account credentials.

7. In the ASP.NET Web Application project, include the default Sitecore files, directories and subdirectories.

   Note: For information on creating an ASP.NET Web Application project for Sitecore, see the section How To Create ASP.NET Web Application Project.

   • For a Content Delivery environment:

     • \App_Browsers
     • \App_Config
     • \App_Data
     • \Areas
     • \bin
     • \Controllers
     • \layouts
     • \Models
     • \sitecore\services
     • \sitecore modules
     • \sitecore_files
     • \temp
     • \upload
     • \Views
     • \xsl
     • \Default.aspx
     • \default.css
     • \default.htm.sitedown
     • \default.js
     • \Global.asax
     • \Web.config
     • \webedit.css

   • For a Content Management environment, additionally include the following directories and files:

     • \sitecore\admin
     • \sitecore\Copyright
     • \sitecore\debug
     • \sitecore\images
     • \sitecore\login
     • \sitecore\portal
     • \sitecore\samples
     • \sitecore\service
     • \sitecore\shell
     • \sitecore\blocked.aspx
     • \sitecore\default.aspx
     • \sitecore\no.css

   

   Important: Visual Studio may freeze when including the entire \sitecore\shell directory at once because it contains a lot of files and subdirectories. Try to split all the subdirectories into portions, and then add them one by one.

8. For a Content Management environment, Visual Studio may throw the following build errors:

   Build: Cannot compile external modules unless the '--module' flag is provided.
   

   To address the above error, in the ASP.NET Web Application project's properties, switch to the TypeScript Build section and set the Module system property to the AMD value. Otherwise, exclude the following files from the project:

   • \sitecore\shell\client\Speak\Assets\lib\core\1.2\SitecoreSpeak.ts
   • \sitecore\shell\client\Speak\Assets\lib\core\1.2\SitecoreSpeak.d.ts

   Project file must include the .NET Framework assembly 'WindowsBase, PresentationCore, PresentationFramework' in the reference list.    
   

   To address the above error, in the Solution Explorer window, set the Build Action property to the Content value for the following item:

   • \sitecore\shell\ClientBin\EmptySplashScreen.xaml

9. In the Visual Studio, click the Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Packages Manager Console. Run the following command in the Package Manager Console window against the ASP.NET Web Application project:

   Install-Package Sitecore.Azure.Setup -Version 8.0.2

10. In the ASP.NET Web Application project, right-click the App_Data item. Add the license.xml and webdav.lic files using the Add -> Existing Item... command in the context menu.

11. In the ASP.NET Web Application project, right-click the Web.Debug.config and then Web.Release.config files. Use the Preview Transform command in the context menu to check that all transformations look correct as you expect them to be.

Note: For more details about Web.config transformation syntax for Web Project Deployment using Visual Studio, see the MSDN website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465326.aspx

12. Right-click the ASP.NET Web Application project, and then click the Publish... in the context menu. The Publish Web dialog box appears.

13. In the Publish Web dialog box, in the Profile step, click the Microsoft Azure Web Apps option and select the Web App that is created in created in Microsoft Azure Portal.

Note: For the basic information about the Publish Web Wizard, see the MSDN website: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465337(v=vs.110).aspx