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Introduction
This guide explains how to use GitHub Actions to build and deploy a Docker container to Azure App Service.
Note: If your GitHub Actions workflows need to access resources from a cloud provider that supports OpenID Connect (OIDC), you can configure your workflows to authenticate directly to the cloud provider. This will let you stop storing these credentials as long-lived secrets and provide other security benefits. For more information, see "About security hardening with OpenID Connect" and "Configuring OpenID Connect in Azure."
Prerequisites
Before creating your GitHub Actions workflow, you will first need to complete the following setup steps:
-
Create an Azure App Service plan.
For example, you can use the Azure CLI to create a new App Service plan:
Bash az appservice plan create \ --resource-group MY_RESOURCE_GROUP \ --name MY_APP_SERVICE_PLAN \ --is-linux
az appservice plan create \ --resource-group MY_RESOURCE_GROUP \ --name MY_APP_SERVICE_PLAN \ --is-linux
In the command above, replace
MY_RESOURCE_GROUP
with your pre-existing Azure Resource Group, andMY_APP_SERVICE_PLAN
with a new name for the App Service plan.See the Azure documentation for more information on using the Azure CLI:
- For authentication, see "Sign in with Azure CLI."
- If you need to create a new resource group, see "az group."
-
Create a web app.
For example, you can use the Azure CLI to create an Azure App Service web app:
Shell az webapp create \ --name MY_WEBAPP_NAME \ --plan MY_APP_SERVICE_PLAN \ --resource-group MY_RESOURCE_GROUP \ --deployment-container-image-name nginx:latest
az webapp create \ --name MY_WEBAPP_NAME \ --plan MY_APP_SERVICE_PLAN \ --resource-group MY_RESOURCE_GROUP \ --deployment-container-image-name nginx:latest
In the command above, replace the parameters with your own values, where
MY_WEBAPP_NAME
is a new name for the web app. -
Configure an Azure publish profile and create an
AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE
secret.Generate your Azure deployment credentials using a publish profile. For more information, see "Generate deployment credentials" in the Azure documentation.
In your GitHub repository, create a secret named
AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE
that contains the contents of the publish profile. For more information on creating secrets, see "Using secrets in GitHub Actions." -
Set registry credentials for your web app.
Create a personal access token (classic) with the
repo
andread:packages
scopes. For more information, see "Managing your personal access tokens."Set
DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_URL
tohttps://ghcr.io
,DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_USERNAME
to the GitHub username or organization that owns the repository, andDOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_PASSWORD
to your personal access token from above. This will give your web app credentials so it can pull the container image after your workflow pushes a newly built image to the registry. You can do this with the following Azure CLI command:az webapp config appsettings set \ --name MY_WEBAPP_NAME \ --resource-group MY_RESOURCE_GROUP \ --settings DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_URL=https://ghcr.io DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_USERNAME=MY_REPOSITORY_OWNER DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_PASSWORD=MY_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN
-
Optionally, configure a deployment environment. Environments are used to describe a general deployment target like
production
,staging
, ordevelopment
. When a GitHub Actions workflow deploys to an environment, the environment is displayed on the main page of the repository. You can use environments to require approval for a job to proceed, restrict which branches can trigger a workflow, gate deployments with custom deployment protection rules, or limit access to secrets. For more information about creating environments, see "Managing environments for deployment."
Creating the workflow
Once you've completed the prerequisites, you can proceed with creating the workflow.
The following example workflow demonstrates how to build and deploy a Docker container to Azure App Service when there is a push to the main
branch.
Ensure that you set AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME
in the workflow env
key to the name of the web app you created.
If you configured a deployment environment, change the value of environment
to be the name of your environment. If you did not configure an environment, delete the environment
key.
# This workflow uses actions that are not certified by GitHub. # They are provided by a third-party and are governed by # separate terms of service, privacy policy, and support # documentation. # GitHub recommends pinning actions to a commit SHA. # To get a newer version, you will need to update the SHA. # You can also reference a tag or branch, but the action may change without warning. name: Build and deploy a container to an Azure Web App env: AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME: MY_WEBAPP_NAME # set this to your application's name on: push: branches: - main permissions: contents: 'read' packages: 'write' jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: Set up Docker Buildx uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b - name: Log in to GitHub container registry uses: docker/login-action@8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d with: registry: ghcr.io username: ${{ github.actor }} password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} - name: Lowercase the repo name run: echo "REPO=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV} - name: Build and push container image to registry uses: docker/build-push-action@9e0f1a2b3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f with: push: true tags: ghcr.io/${{ env.REPO }}:${{ github.sha }} file: ./Dockerfile deploy: runs-on: ubuntu-latest needs: build environment: name: 'production' url: ${{ steps.deploy-to-webapp.outputs.webapp-url }} steps: - name: Lowercase the repo name run: echo "REPO=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV} - name: Deploy to Azure Web App id: deploy-to-webapp uses: azure/webapps-deploy@85270a1854658d167ab239bce43949edb336fa7c with: app-name: ${{ env.AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME }} publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE }} images: 'ghcr.io/${{ env.REPO }}:${{ github.sha }}'
# This workflow uses actions that are not certified by GitHub.
# They are provided by a third-party and are governed by
# separate terms of service, privacy policy, and support
# documentation.
# GitHub recommends pinning actions to a commit SHA.
# To get a newer version, you will need to update the SHA.
# You can also reference a tag or branch, but the action may change without warning.
name: Build and deploy a container to an Azure Web App
env:
AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME: MY_WEBAPP_NAME # set this to your application's name
on:
push:
branches:
- main
permissions:
contents: 'read'
packages: 'write'
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Set up Docker Buildx
uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f9a0b1c2d3e4f5a6b
- name: Log in to GitHub container registry
uses: docker/login-action@8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d
with:
registry: ghcr.io
username: ${{ github.actor }}
password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Lowercase the repo name
run: echo "REPO=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
- name: Build and push container image to registry
uses: docker/build-push-action@9e0f1a2b3c4d5e6f7a8b9c0d1e2f3a4b5c6d7e8f
with:
push: true
tags: ghcr.io/${{ env.REPO }}:${{ github.sha }}
file: ./Dockerfile
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
needs: build
environment:
name: 'production'
url: ${{ steps.deploy-to-webapp.outputs.webapp-url }}
steps:
- name: Lowercase the repo name
run: echo "REPO=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY,,}" >>${GITHUB_ENV}
- name: Deploy to Azure Web App
id: deploy-to-webapp
uses: azure/webapps-deploy@85270a1854658d167ab239bce43949edb336fa7c
with:
app-name: ${{ env.AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME }}
publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE }}
images: 'ghcr.io/${{ env.REPO }}:${{ github.sha }}'
Additional resources
The following resources may also be useful:
- For the original workflow template, see
azure-container-webapp.yml
in the GitHub Actionsstarter-workflows
repository. - The action used to deploy the web app is the official Azure
Azure/webapps-deploy
action. - For more examples of GitHub Action workflows that deploy to Azure, see the actions-workflow-samples repository.