Azure Getting Started Guide: How to Build Your First Azure Application

# Azure Getting Started Guide: How to Build Your First Azure Application In today's rapidly evolving cloud computing environment, Azure, as Microsoft's cloud computing platform, offers a wealth of services and tools to help developers and businesses achieve efficient data management and application deployment. This article will guide you through the specific steps to build your first Azure application, helping beginners get started quickly. ## 1. What is Azure? Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that supports a variety of services, including: - Compute services (such as virtual machines, Azure Functions) - Storage services (such as Azure Blob, Azure SQL Database) - Networking services (such as virtual networks, load balancers) - Artificial intelligence and machine learning services - Data analytics and big data services With its global data centers and rich features, Azure has become a popular choice for developers and businesses. ## 2. Preparation Before Getting Started Before you begin, you need to prepare the following steps: ### 1. Register for an Azure Account Visit [Azure Official Website](https://azure.microsoft.com/) and register for a free account, where you will receive one year of free access, including some free service quotas. ### 2. Install Azure CLI Azure CLI (Command Line Interface) is a powerful tool for managing Azure resources. You can install Azure CLI on your computer using the following commands: ```bash # For macOS brew update && brew install azure-cli # For Windows winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI # For Linux sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install azure-cli ``` ### 3. Log in to Azure After installation, log in to your Azure account using the following command: ```bash az login ``` This will open a browser and prompt you to enter your Azure credentials. ## 3. Create Your First Azure Application Next, let’s create a simple Azure web application. This application will be hosted using Azure App Service. ### 1. Create a Resource Group A resource group is a logical container used to organize and manage resources in Azure. You can create a new resource group using the following command: ```bash az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus ``` ### 2. Create an App Service Plan An App Service plan defines the environment in which the application runs. You can create a new App Service plan using the following command: ```bash az appservice plan create --name myAppServicePlan --resource-group myResourceGroup --sku FREE ``` ### 3. Create a Web Application Now, you can create a new web application using the following command: ```bash az webapp create --name myUniqueAppName --resource-group myResourceGroup --plan myAppServicePlan ``` Note: Ensure that `myUniqueAppName` is unique in Azure. ### 4. Deploy Application Code You can deploy code to the Azure web application in various ways. Here is an example using local Git to push code: #### 4.1 Initialize Git Repository First, initialize a Git repository in your application directory: ```bash git init ``` #### 4.2 Add Remote Repository Get the Git URL of the web application and add it as a remote repository: ```bash az webapp deployment source config-local-git --name myUniqueAppName --resource-group myResourceGroup ``` You will see the Git URL, use the following command to add the remote repository: ```bash git remote add azure ``` #### 4.3 Push Code Push the code to Azure: ```bash git add . git commit -m "Initial commit" git push azure master ``` ### 5. Access the Web Application Once the deployment is complete, you can view your application by visiting the following URL: ``` http://myUniqueAppName.azurewebsites.net ``` ## 4. Monitor and Manage Your Application ### 1. Azure Monitoring Azure provides various monitoring tools to help you track application performance. You can use Azure Monitor for real-time monitoring. ### 2. Application Logging You can enable application logging in the Azure portal to help you debug and analyze. ```bash az webapp log config --name myUniqueAppName --resource-group myResourceGroup --application-logging true --level information ``` ## 5. Summary Azure is a powerful cloud platform suitable for beginners and developers for application development and learning. Through this guide, you have successfully created your first Azure application and learned about basic management and monitoring tools. As you deepen your understanding of Azure, you can explore more services and features, such as using Azure Functions for serverless computing or using Azure Cosmos DB for globally distributed database hosting. Whether for business applications or personal projects, Azure can support your goals. ## 6. Next Steps Continue learning and exploring the following topics: - CI/CD deployment with Azure DevOps - Data management through Azure Cosmos DB - Model training and deployment using Azure Machine Learning