Azure – how to deploy windows azure ServiceDefinition.csdef file

I would strongly recommend using Continuous Integration.

We use a combination of TeamCity for CI, Rake and Albacore for automating the build.

TeamCity will check the code out of your source code repository, then, using Rake, build the application, execute unit tests and even run your database scripts if you so desire. After a successful build you can package your source code in a zip file or copy it to a destination of your choice.

We use Git, although TeamCity works with all source control systems.

Using TeamCity and Rake would be similar to using CruiseControl and NANT, without the XML file editing. Of course, you can use TeamCity with NANT if you prefer.

A short sample pulled from a rakefile.rb which performs the build. IMHO, easier to read and debug than an XML file.

require 'albacore'
require 'rexml/document'
require 'find'

VERSION_NO = "1.0"

OUTPUT_PATH = "output"
WEBOUTPUT_PATH = "output/web"
ADMINOUTPUT_PATH = "output/admin"

CONFIG = "Release"

WEB_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Web"
ADMIN_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Admin"
PACKAGE_PATH = "build/package"
DB_SCRIPT_PATH = "Company.Website.DB"
SOLUTION = "Company.Website.sln"

ARTIFACTS_PATH = "d:/build/artifacts/"

DEPLOY_WEB_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/website/"
DEPLOY_ADMIN_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/admin/"

task :default => ['setuptest','assemblyinfo','config','msbuild','createdb','sqlcmd','deploy']


task :setuptest do |setup|
  if ENV['BuildNumber'].nil? then ENV['BuildNumber'] = "000" end

  VERSION_NO = VERSION_NO + '.' + ENV['BuildNumber']
  puts 'Version Number : ' + VERSION_NO

  ZIPFILE_WEB = 'Company.Website.Web.' + VERSION_NO
  ZIPFILE_ADMIN = 'Company.Website.Admin.' + VERSION_NO  

  DB_SERVER = "WEB2"
  DB_DATABASE = "Website"  
  CREATEDB_SCRIPT = "app/Company.Website.DB/00CreateDatabaseTEST.sql"
end

  assemblyinfotask do |asm|
    asm.version = VERSION_NO
    asm.company_name = "Company Name"
    asm.copyright = "Copyright 2010"
    asm.output_file = "CommonAssemblyInfo.cs"
  end

  task :config do
    FileUtils.cp 'NHibernate.test.config', 'NHibernate.config'
  end

  msbuildtask do |msb|
    msb.properties = { :configuration => :Debug }
    msb.targets [:Clean, :Build]
    msb.solution = "Company.Website.sln"
  end

  sqlcmdtask :createdb do |sql|
    puts "executing sql scripts..."
    sql.log_level = :verbose
    sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
    sql.server = DB_SERVER
    sql.database = "master"
    sql.scripts << CREATEDB_SCRIPT
  end

  sqlcmdtask do |sql|
    puts "executing sql scripts..."
    sql.log_level = :verbose
    sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
    sql.server = DB_SERVER
    sql.database = DB_DATABASE
    sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/01CreateTables.sql"
    sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/02InsertReferenceData.sql"
  end

  task :deployprep do

    FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Web/obj'
    FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Admin/obj'

  end

  ziptask :zipweb do |zip|
    puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_WEB
    zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Web"]
    zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_WEB  + '.zip'
    zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
  end

  ziptask :zipadmin do |zip|
      puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_ADMIN
    zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Admin"]
    zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_ADMIN  + '.zip'
    zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
  end  

Albacore is suite of Rake tasks specifically build for deploying .NET application.

The newly announced Azure VM role does allow you deploy a Windows VM configured anyway you like and you can RDP to this, so in that respect yes you could do this.

However, Azure vm's do have some difference to ordinary Hyper-V or VMWare VM's. You can't just spawn a new VM in Azure, RDP into it and configure it the way you want. Instead with Azure you create your VM on you own Hyper-V server and configure it how you want, then you configure a Golden Image that you upload to Azure and get's deployed to your VM. At any point Azure can shutdown your VM and create a new one from your golden image. So you need to be in a position where you can create this golden VM how you want locally first.

There is an added complication in that unlike with the Web and Worker role, the VM role is not manager by MS but by you and so you will need to apply any updates patches etc yourself. Again this means you need to not only update your running VM, but your golden image.

Finally you cannot really store any data on your VM, as MS does not guarantee the safety of this data, if your VM gets recreated from you master image, all you get back is what is on the image. Hence you need to store all you data in something like an azure database.