Skip to content

02 - First Deploy

Deploy the ASP.NET Core 8 sample to Azure App Service in a few minutes by publishing the app locally and using az webapp up.

flowchart TD
    DEV[Developer machine] -->|dotnet publish| PUB[Published ASP.NET Core app]
    PUB -->|az webapp up| APP[Azure App Service\nB1 plan\n.NET 8]
    USER[Browser] -->|HTTPS| APP

    style APP fill:#0078d4,color:#fff
    style PUB fill:#E3F2FD
flowchart TD
    A[Set RG APP_NAME LOCATION] --> B[dotnet publish]
    B --> C[az webapp up]
    C --> D[Verify site]
    D --> E[View logs]
    E --> F[Cleanup]

Prerequisites

  • Completed 01 - Local Run
  • Azure CLI authenticated with az login
  • .NET 8 SDK installed

Need private networking later?

For VNet integration, private endpoints, and managed identity, continue with Private network deploy.

Main Content

Step 1: Set deployment variables

RG="rg-dotnet-guide"
APP_NAME="app-dotnet-guide-abc123"
LOCATION="koreacentral"
Command/Parameter Purpose
RG="rg-dotnet-guide" Defines the resource group name for the tutorial deployment.
APP_NAME="app-dotnet-guide-abc123" Sets a globally unique App Service app name.
LOCATION="koreacentral" Chooses the Azure region for the App Service resources.

Step 2: Build the app

Run dotnet publish from the repository root to create deployable output in ./publish.

dotnet publish "apps/dotnet-aspnetcore/GuideApi/GuideApi.csproj" --configuration Release --output "./publish"
Command/Parameter Purpose
dotnet publish "apps/dotnet-aspnetcore/GuideApi/GuideApi.csproj" --configuration Release --output "./publish" Restores, builds, and writes the App Service-ready files to the publish directory.
dotnet publish Runs the .NET publish pipeline for the specified project.
"apps/dotnet-aspnetcore/GuideApi/GuideApi.csproj" Points dotnet publish to the ASP.NET Core project file to build.
--configuration Release Produces optimized release artifacts instead of development output.
--output "./publish" Places the deployment files in a predictable folder for the next step.
Expected output 
Determining projects to restore...
All projects are up-to-date for restore.
GuideApi -> /.../publish/GuideApi.dll

Step 3: Deploy with az webapp up

Run the deployment from the publish directory so App Service receives the published artifacts.

cd "./publish"
az webapp up --name "$APP_NAME" --resource-group "$RG" --location "$LOCATION" --runtime "DOTNETCORE:8.0" --sku B1
Command/Parameter Purpose
cd "./publish" Moves into the folder that contains the published deployment payload.
"./publish" Specifies the directory that contains the published ASP.NET Core files.
az webapp up --name "$APP_NAME" --resource-group "$RG" --location "$LOCATION" --runtime "DOTNETCORE:8.0" --sku B1 Creates the resource group, App Service plan, and web app if needed, then deploys the current directory.
--name "$APP_NAME" Uses the globally unique web app name for the deployment target.
--resource-group "$RG" Places all created resources in the selected resource group.
--location "$LOCATION" Creates the App Service resources in the selected Azure region.
--runtime "DOTNETCORE:8.0" Selects the .NET 8 App Service runtime.
--sku B1 Uses the Basic B1 App Service pricing tier.
Expected output 
Creating Resource group 'rg-dotnet-guide' ...
Creating AppServicePlan 'appsvc_asp_Linux_koreacentral' ...
Creating webapp 'app-dotnet-guide-abc123' ...
Configuring default logging for the app...
Deployment successful.
You can launch the app at http://app-dotnet-guide-abc123.azurewebsites.net

Step 4: Verify deployment

WEB_APP_URL="https://$(az webapp show --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" --query defaultHostName --output tsv)"
curl --include "$WEB_APP_URL/health"
Command/Parameter Purpose
WEB_APP_URL="https://$(az webapp show --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" --query defaultHostName --output tsv)" Builds the app URL from the default hostname returned by App Service.
az webapp show --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" --query defaultHostName --output tsv Returns only the default hostname for the deployed app.
--resource-group "$RG" Queries the web app in the tutorial resource group.
--name "$APP_NAME" Selects the deployed ASP.NET Core app to inspect.
--query defaultHostName Extracts only the default hostname field from the response.
--output tsv Formats the hostname as plain text for shell substitution.
curl --include "$WEB_APP_URL/health" Calls the sample health endpoint to confirm the deployment is serving requests.
--include Includes the HTTP response headers in the curl output.
Expected output 
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{"status":"healthy"}

Step 5: View logs

az webapp log config --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" --application-logging filesystem --level information
az webapp log tail --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME"
Command/Parameter Purpose
az webapp log config --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" --application-logging filesystem --level information Enables filesystem application logging so you can stream recent app events.
--resource-group "$RG" Targets the resource group that contains the web app.
--name "$APP_NAME" Selects the web app to configure for logging.
--application-logging filesystem Stores application logs on the App Service filesystem.
--level information Captures informational, warning, and error log events.
az webapp log tail --resource-group "$RG" --name "$APP_NAME" Streams live application logs from the deployed web app.
--resource-group "$RG" Reads logs from the tutorial resource group.
--name "$APP_NAME" Streams logs for the deployed ASP.NET Core app.

Step 6: Cleanup

az group delete --name "$RG" --yes --no-wait
Command/Parameter Purpose
az group delete --name "$RG" --yes --no-wait Deletes the resource group and all App Service resources created by this tutorial.
--name "$RG" Targets the tutorial resource group for deletion.
--yes Skips the interactive confirmation prompt.
--no-wait Starts deletion asynchronously so the shell returns immediately.

Verification

  • az webapp up completes successfully
  • /health returns HTTP 200
  • Log streaming connects without errors

Troubleshooting

App name already taken

App Service names are globally unique. Change the app name and rerun deployment.

APP_NAME="app-dotnet-guide-$(date +%s)"
Command/Parameter Purpose
APP_NAME="app-dotnet-guide-$(date +%s)" Creates a more unique app name when the original name is unavailable.
date +%s Generates a Unix timestamp to make the app name unique.

Health check fails after deployment

  • Wait a minute for startup to finish and retry the request.
  • Review az webapp log tail output for startup exceptions.
  • Confirm the publish step completed successfully before deployment.

Run It in the Portal

Portal view: Web App Overview blade - first-deploy verification surface

Azure portal Overview blade for app-test-20251107 (Web App) with a command bar (Browse, Stop, Swap, Restart, Delete, Refresh, Download publish profile, Reset publish profile, Share to mobile, Send us your feedback) and an Essentials panel showing Resource group rg-test-20251107, Status Running, Location Korea Central, Subscription Visual Studio Enterprise Subscription, Subscription ID 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000, Default domain app-test-20251107.azurewebsites.net, App Service Plan asp-test-20251107 (P0v3: 1), Operating System Linux, and Health Check Not Configured. The Properties tab is selected (next to Monitoring, Logs, Capabilities, Notifications (1), Recommendations) and surfaces Web app (Publishing model: Code, Runtime Stack: Python - 3.11, Runtime status: Healthy), Domains (2 Domains View all), Hosting (Plan Type: App Service plan, Instance Count: 1, SKU and size: Premium0V3 (P0v3) with Scale up link), Deployment Center (Last deployment: Successful on Thursday, November 6, 10:58:01 PM, Deployment provider: None), Application Insights (Name: ai-test-20251107, Region: Korea Central), and Networking (Inbound IP addresses: 20.200.197.3, 2603:1040:f05:3::208, Private endpoint connections: 0 private endpoints, Virtual network integration: Not configured). Left nav under the search box lists Overview (selected), Activity log, Access control (IAM), Tags, Diagnose and solve problems, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Events (preview), Log stream, AI (preview), Resource visualizer, with collapsed groups Deployment, Settings, Performance, App Service plan, Development Tools, API, Monitoring, Automation, and Support + troubleshooting.

After running az webapp up --runtime "DOTNETCORE:8.0" in this tutorial, the Overview blade is the first Portal verification surface. This particular screenshot was captured from a Python deployment, so the visible Operating System: Linux and Runtime Stack: Python - 3.11 reflect that deployment; for this .NET 8 tutorial the equivalent values read Windows and .NET 8 because az webapp up provisions a Windows App Service plan with the specified DOTNETCORE:8.0 runtime. The OS-agnostic Essentials fields — Status: Running, Default domain, and the attached App Service Plan — are the values you compare against the CLI deployment output, and the Default domain value is what you open in a browser to perform the curl $WEB_APP_URL/health verification step from this tutorial.

See Also

Sources