4.1.5. Manage App Service Resources

💡 First Principle: Azure App Service provides a fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling web applications and APIs, fundamentally abstracting away the underlying infrastructure to allow developers to focus on code.

Scenario: You need to deploy a new web application and a related API. Both need to be hosted on a scalable platform, share compute resources, and be accessible via custom domain names with SSL encryption. You also need to ensure zero-downtime deployments for updates.

This task delves into the practical application of managing App Service. You'll explore how to:

• Create and Configure App Service Plans: Define the underlying compute resources for your apps.
• Configure App Service Deployments: Implement agile, reliable, and zero-downtime application updates using various deployment methods.
• Configure Custom Domains and SSL Certificates: Establish professional branding and secure web traffic with HTTPS.

Mastering these concepts is crucial for the AZ-104 exam, as it assesses your ability to deploy and manage web applications effectively.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Creating a new App Service Plan for every single web app. This leads to underutilized resources and higher costs. Multiple apps can and often should share the same plan.

Key Trade-Offs:

• Shared Resources vs. Isolation: Hosting multiple apps on one plan is cost-effective but means they share resources (CPU/memory). A noisy neighbor could impact other apps. Critical applications may require their own dedicated plan for performance isolation.

Reflection Question: How do Azure App Service Plans and their associated deployment features (e.g., deployment slots, custom domains, SSL) collectively provide a comprehensive solution for managing web applications, balancing scalability, cost-effectiveness, and operational simplicity?