Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Note
This article applies to Azure Azure Cloud Services (extended support). On March 31, 2027, the Cloud Services (Extended Support) deployment model will be retired. As a result, the supporting Cloud Services tooling will not be available in the latest Visual Studio after this date. Cloud Services (Extended Support) tooling will continue to work in Visual Studio 2022 with general maintenance occurring until March 31, 2027. We recommend starting your migration planning now to ensure a smooth transition. See the official announcement for more information, including detailed guidance on migrating your apps to modern Azure services.
Azure Cloud Services relies on connection strings for authentication in some cases, such as for storage accounts. Connection strings and passwords are inherently insecure due to the risk of unintended exposure or compromise. Microsoft recommends using managed identities for authentication, and services such as Service Fabric managed clusters.
Visual Studio can publish an application directly to Azure, with support for both Staging and Production environments of a cloud service. When publishing, you select the deployment environment and a storage account that's used temporarily for the deployment package.
Prerequisites
- Visual Studio (see Visual Studio downloads) with the Azure development workload installed, and the Individual Component .NET Framework project and item templates installed. See Modify Visual Studio.
- An Azure account. If you don't have an Azure account, activate your Azure benefits for Visual Studio subscribers or sign up for a free trial.
Publish or package an Azure application from Visual Studio
When you publish your Azure application, you can do one of the following tasks:
Create a service package: You can use this package and the service configuration file to publish your application to a deployment environment from the Azure portal.
Publish your Azure project from Visual Studio: To publish your application directly to Azure, you use the Publish Wizard. For information, see Publish Azure Application Wizard.
To create a service package from Visual Studio
When you are ready to publish your application, open Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the Azure project that contains your roles, and choose Publish.
To create a service package only, follow these steps:
On the shortcut menu for the Azure project, choose Package.
In the Package Azure Application dialog box, choose the service configuration for which you want to create a package, and then choose the build configuration.
(Optional) To turn on Remote Desktop for the cloud service after you publish it, select Enable Remote Desktop for all Roles, and then select Settings to configure Remote Desktop credentials. For more information, see Enable Remote Desktop Connection for a Role in Azure Cloud Services using Visual Studio.
To create the package, choose the Package link.
File Explorer shows the file location of the newly created package. You can copy this location so that you can use it from the Azure portal.
To publish this package to a deployment environment, you must use this location as the Package location when you create a cloud service and deploy this package to an environment with the Azure portal.
(Optional) To cancel the deployment process, on the shortcut menu for the line item in the activity log, choose Cancel and remove. This command stops the deployment process and deletes the deployment environment from Azure. To remove the environment after deployment, use the Azure portal.
Include files in the service package
You might need to include specific files in your service package so that they are available on the virtual machine that is created for a role. For example, you might want to add an .exe or an .msi file that is used by a startup script to your service package. Or you might need to add an assembly that a web role or worker role project requires. To include files, they must be added to the solution for your Azure application.
To add an assembly to a service package, use the following steps:
In Solution Explorer, open the project node for the project that is missing the referenced assembly.
To add the assembly to the project, open the shortcut menu for the References folder and then choose Add Reference. The Add Reference dialog appears.
Choose the reference that you want to add and then choose OK. The reference is added to the list under the References folder.
Open the shortcut menu for the assembly that you added and choose Properties. The Properties window appears.
To include this assembly in the service package, in the Copy Local list, select True.
In Solution Explorer open the project node for the project that is missing the referenced assembly.
To add the assembly to the project, open the shortcut menu for the References folder and then choose Add Reference. The Add Reference dialog appears.
Choose the reference that you want to add and then choose the OK button.
The reference is added to the list under the References folder.
Open the shortcut menu for the assembly that you added and choose Properties. The Properties window appears.
To include this assembly in the service package, in the Copy Local list, choose True.
To include files in the service package that have been added to your web role project, open the shortcut menu for the file, and then choose Properties. From the Properties window, choose Content from the Build Action list box.
To include files in the service package that have been added to your worker role project, open the shortcut menu for the file, and then choose Properties. From the Properties window, choose Copy if newer from the Copy to output directory list box.
Related content
To learn more about publishing to Azure from Visual Studio, see Publish Azure Application Wizard.