Lesson 8: Deploying Your .NET Backend in Azure (Free Tier) with CI/CD

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Lesson 8: Deploying Your .NET Backend in Azure (Free Tier) with CI/CD

Meta Description

Learn how to deploy a .NET backend with Firebase authentication to Azure for free. This tutorial covers step-by-step deployment, public API access, CI/CD setup with GitHub Actions, handling Azure subscription issues, and updating the live backend after making code changes.

1️⃣ What is Azure and Its Key Components?

Azure is a cloud computing platform that allows you to deploy and manage applications in a scalable and secure environment. Here are the key components used in this tutorial:

🔹 Resource Group

A logical container that holds related resources. Everything you deploy (App Service, Databases, etc.) will belong to a resource group.

🔹 App Service Plan

Defines the underlying infrastructure (CPU, memory, pricing tier) for hosting web apps. The free tier (F1) is good for development and testing.

🔹 App Service (Web App)

A platform-as-a-service (PaaS) hosting environment where your .NET backend will run. It provides a public URL and handles automatic scaling and security.

2️⃣ Handling Azure Subscription Issues

If you see the error “Retrieving subscription and tenants”, it may be due to an expired or canceled Azure subscription. To fix this:

Create a New Free Subscription

  1. Go to the Azure Portal (portal.azure.com)
  2. Click on “Subscriptions” in the left panel
  3. If your previous subscription is canceled, click “Create a new subscription”
  4. Select Azure Free Trial
  5. Complete the registration process (you may need a credit card for verification)
  6. After activation, run: 
    az account list --output table

    Select the new subscription ID and set it as default:

    az account set --subscription "YOUR_NEW_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"

✅ Now, you can proceed with deployment.

3️⃣ Prerequisites

Before deploying, make sure you have:

4️⃣ Step-by-Step Deployment to Azure Free Tier

Step 1: Create Azure Resources

1️⃣ Sign in to Azure:

az login

2️⃣ Create a resource group:

az group create --name CGZAPIResourceGroup --location centralus

3️⃣ Create an App Service Plan (Free Tier):

az appservice plan create --name CGZServicePlan --resource-group CGZAPIResourceGroup --sku FREE --location centralus

4️⃣ Create the Web App:

az webapp create --name CGZAPIBackend --resource-group CGZAPIResourceGroup --plan CGZServicePlan --runtime "DOTNET|8.0"

Step 2: Publish the .NET API to Azure (Using Visual Studio)

  1. Open your .NET project in Visual Studio
  2. Right-click the project → Publish
  3. Select “Azure” → “App Service (Windows)”
  4. Choose your subscription and App Service → Click Publish

Your API is now live! 🎉

✅ Live API URL:

https://CGZAPIBackend.azurewebsites.net

5️⃣ Deploying Using CLI

Instead of Visual Studio, you can deploy using Azure CLI:

1️⃣ Build and publish your .NET project:

dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish

2️⃣ Deploy to Azure:

az webapp deployment source config-zip --resource-group CGZAPIResourceGroup --name CGZAPIBackend --src ./publish

6️⃣ Setting Up CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Instead of manually publishing, set up continuous deployment (CI/CD) so that any change to your code is automatically deployed to Azure.

Step 1: Connect Azure with GitHub

  1. Go to Azure Portal → Find your App Service
  2. Click “Deployment Center”
  3. Select GitHub as the source
  4. Select your repository and branch (e.g., main)
  5. Click Save → Azure will generate a GitHub Actions workflow

Step 2: Create a GitHub Actions Workflow (if not generated automatically)

  1. Go to your GitHub repository
  2. Navigate to .github/workflows/ folder
  3. Create a new file: deploy-to-azure.yml

Paste the following YAML file:

name: Deploy to Azure

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Setup .NET
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
      with:
        dotnet-version: '8.0.x'

    - name: Build project
      run: dotnet build --configuration Release

    - name: Publish project
      run: dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish

    - name: Deploy to Azure Web App
      uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
      with:
        app-name: CGZAPIBackend
        publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE }}
        package: ./publish

Step 3: Add Azure Credentials to GitHub

  1. Go to Azure Portal → App Service
  2. Click “Deployment Center” → Get Publish Profile
  3. Go to GitHub Repository → Settings → Secrets and Variables
  4. Create a new secret named AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE
  5. Paste the publish profile XML content

✅ Now, every time you push code to GitHub, it will automatically deploy to Azure! 🚀

7️⃣ Updating the Live Backend

If you make changes to your .NET backend, Azure will automatically deploy updates if you have set up GitHub Actions CI/CD.

Updating Manually (if needed)

az webapp deployment source config-zip --resource-group CGZAPIResourceGroup --name CGZAPIBackend --src ./publish

8️⃣ Next Steps

Now that your .NET backend is live, next we will cover: ✅ Adding Google, Facebook, Apple, and AWS Authentication
✅ Securing your API with HTTPS & API Gateway

Let me know if you need any improvements or additional details! 🚀

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