Demo: Create a web app by using the Azure Marketplace

Let’s take a look at how to create a web app from one of the templates available in the Azure Marketplace.

Log into the Azure portal. As seen in Figure 2-8, click New on the left side of the page, then click See All.

Figure 2-8 Go to the Marketplace Search blade.

2. This brings up the search screen for the Marketplace. All resources that can be deployed to Azure are listed in the Marketplace, including virtual machines, virtual networks, storage accounts, web apps, and so on. As shown in Figure 2-9, type in WordPress and press Enter to perform the search.

 

Figure 2-9 Search for WordPress.

3. You see a list of matches, as displayed in Figure 2-10.

 

4. Select the row with WordPress from publisher WordPress. This shows you the blade for WordPress; click Create at the bottom to create a WordPress site. You now see a blade where you can start configuring your WordPress site, as displayed in Figure 2-11.

 

5. Now, start filling in the fields on this blade:

 App Name This is used to create the URL to access your web app.

 Subscription If the account you are using is associated with multiple subscriptions, select the subscription you want to use.

 

 Resource Group This is a way of grouping multiple resources that are related to one another, such as a web app and a database. Select the resource group you used for the App Service plan you created earlier.

 App Service Plan Select the App Service plan you created earlier in this chapter.

 Click Database to see the database settings, as shown in Figure 2-12. WordPress uses MySQL by default. Set your Database Name and Type (Shared or Dedicated). For Location, select the same region in which your app is going to run. Click Pricing Tier and select the least expensive, which at this time is Mercury. Click OK to save the database settings.

 

 Back on the WordPress Settings blade for your new website, click Legal Terms. If you agree with the Legal Terms, click OK at the bottom of that screen, which will set Legal Terms to Accepted.

 You can use Web App Settings (Optional) to set the WordPress-specific settings shown in Figure 2-13; this is optional.

 

 Back on the WordPress blade, select the check box to pin the web app to your Dashboard, then click Create. Azure will create the WordPress site for you.

6. After Azure has finished publishing the web app, click the tile on your Dashboard to open its properties, as displayed in Figure 2-14. To open the site, click the URL. You are prompted for the rest of the details needed to create your WordPress site, such as language, site title, username, password, and

 

email address. After all the fields are filled in, click the Install WordPress button. After the WordPress installation is finished, you’re ready to go.

Figure 2-14 Open your new WordPress site by clicking its URL.

 

Note When your web app is created, Azure also creates an Application Insights instance. Application Insights is an analytics service that monitors your live application. It can help you resolve performance issues and understand how your application is used. Application Insights is outside the scope of this book. For more information, check out the Getting Started article about Application Insights: https://azure.microsoft.com/documentation/articles/app-insights-overview/.

You can see the Application Insights instances in the All Resources blade; it will have the same name as your web app, but it will be a different resource type.

My list of resources is displayed in Figure 2-15; the ones with the rectangle around them are the Application Insights instances. Note that they have a different icon from the Web Apps. Simply select those Application Insights resources and delete them. (When you select that resource, it will open a bunch of blades. Just close them until you get back to the first one, and select Delete from that blade.)