Quickstart: Create a Java app on Azure App Service

2025-07-11

Azure App Service provides a highly scalable, self-patching web app hosting service. In this quickstart, you use the Maven Plugin for Azure App Service Web Apps to deploy a Java web application to a Linux Tomcat server in Azure App Service.

If Maven isn't your preferred development tool, check out similar articles for Java developers:

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a trial account before you begin.

1 - Use Azure cli

2 - Create a Java app

Run the following Maven command in Cloud Shell to create a new app named helloworld:

mvn archetype:generate "-DgroupId=example.demo" "-DartifactId=helloworld" "-DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp" "-DarchetypeVersion=1.4" "-Dversion=1.0-SNAPSHOT"

Then change your working directory to the project folder by running cd helloworld.

Configure the Maven plugin

The App Service deployment process uses your Azure credentials from the Azure CLI automatically. If the Azure CLI isn't installed locally, then the Maven plugin authenticates with OAuth or device sign-in. For more information, see authentication with Maven plugins.

Run the following Maven command to configure the deployment by setting the App Service operating system, Java version, and Tomcat version.

mvn com.microsoft.azure:azure-webapp-maven-plugin:2.14.1:config

For Create new run configuration, type Y and then press Enter.
For Define value for OS, type 2 for Linux, and then press Enter.
For Define value for javaVersion, type 1 for Java 21, and then press Enter.
For Define value for webContainer, type 1 for Tomcat 10.1, and then press Enter.
For Define value for pricingTier, type 3 for P1V2, and then press Enter.
For Confirm, type Y and then press Enter.

The output should look similar to the following code:

Please confirm webapp properties
AppName : helloworld-1745408005556
ResourceGroup : helloworld-1745408005556-rg
Region : chinanorth2
PricingTier : P1V2
OS : Linux
Java Version: Java 21
Web server stack: Tomcat 10.1
Deploy to slot : false
Confirm (Y/N) [Y]: 
[INFO] Saving configuration to pom.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  01:36 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2025-04-23T11:34:44Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you confirm your choices, the plugin adds the plugin element and required settings to your project's pom.xml file, which configures your web app to run in App Service.

The relevant portion of the pom.xml file should look similar to the following example.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.microsoft.azure</groupId>
            <artifactId>>azure-webapp-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>x.xx.x</version>
            <configuration>
                <schemaVersion>v2</schemaVersion>
                <resourceGroup>helloworld-1745408005556-rg</resourceGroup>
                <appName>helloworld-1745408005556</appName>
            ...
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

The values for <appName> and <resourceGroup>, helloworld-1745408005556 and helloworld-1745408005556-rg for the demo app, are used later.

You can modify the configurations for App Service directly in your pom.xml file.

For the complete list of configurations, see Common Configurations.
For configurations specific to App Service, see Azure Web App: Configuration Details.

Deploy the app

With all the configuration ready in the pom.xml file, you can deploy your Java app to Azure with the following single command.

mvn package azure-webapp:deploy

Once you select from a list of available subscriptions, Maven deploys to Azure App Service. When deployment completes, your application is ready.

For this demo, the URL is http://helloworld-1745408005556.chinacloudsites.cn. When you open the URL with your local web browser, you should see the following app:

Screenshot of Maven Hello World web app running in Azure App Service.

Congratulations! You deployed a Java app to App Service.

Clean up resources

You created the resources for this tutorial in an Azure resource group. If you no longer need them, you can delete the resource group and all its resources by running the following Azure CLI command in Cloud Shell.

az group delete --name helloworld-1745408005556-rg --yes

The command might take a while to run.

If Maven isn't your preferred development tool, check out similar articles for Java developers:

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a trial account before you begin.

1 - Use Azure local Shell

2 - Get the sample app

Choose the appropriate tab and follow instructions to get the sample Spring Boot, Quarkus, or Embedded Tomcat web app.

Download and extract the default Spring Boot web application template, or clone it by running the following command. Running the Spring CLI command spring boot new my-webapp also clones the web app.

git clone https://github.com/rd-1-2022/rest-service my-webapp

Then change your working directory to the project folder by running cd my-webapp.

Generate a new Quarkus app named quarkus-hello-azure by running the following Maven command:

mvn io.quarkus.platform:quarkus-maven-plugin:3.21.3:create \
    -DprojectGroupId=org.acme \
    -DprojectArtifactId=quarkus-hello-azure  \
    -Dextensions='resteasy-reactive'

Change your working directory to the project folder by running cd quarkus-hello-azure.

Download and extract the embeddedTomcatExample repository, or clone it locally by running the following git clone command.
```
git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/java-docs-embedded-tomcat
```
Change your working directory to the project folder by running cd java-docs-embedded-tomcat.
Run the application by using the standard Tomcat class. See Main.java in the sample.

Configure the Maven plugin

The App Service deployment process uses your Azure credentials from Cloud Shell automatically. The Maven plugin authenticates with OAuth or device sign-in. For more information, see Authentication.

Run the following Maven command to configure the deployment by setting the App Service operating system and Java version.

mvn com.microsoft.azure:azure-webapp-maven-plugin:2.14.1:config

For Create new run configuration, type Y and then press Enter.
For Define value for OS, type 2 for Linux, and then press Enter.
For Define value for javaVersion, type 1 for Java 21, and then press Enter.
For Define value for pricingTier, type 3 for P1v2, and then press Enter.
For Confirm, type Y and then press Enter.

The output should look similar to the following code:

Please confirm webapp properties
AppName : <generated-app-name>
ResourceGroup : <generated-app-name>-rg
Region : chinanorth2
PricingTier : P1v2
OS : Linux
Java Version: Java 21
Web server stack: Java SE
Deploy to slot : false
Confirm (Y/N) [Y]: 
[INFO] Saving configuration to pom.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  47.533 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2025-04-23T12:20:08Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you confirm your choices, the plugin adds the plugin element and required settings to your project's pom.xml file, which configures your web app to run in App Service.

The relevant portion of the pom.xml file should look similar to the following example.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.microsoft.azure</groupId>
            <artifactId>>azure-webapp-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>x.xx.x</version>
            <configuration>
                <schemaVersion>v2</schemaVersion>
                <resourceGroup>generated-app-name-rg</resourceGroup>
                <appName>generated-app-name</appName>
            ...
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

The values for <appName> and <resourceGroup> are used later.

You can modify the configurations for App Service directly in your pom.xml file.

For the complete list of configurations, see Common Configurations.
For configurations specific to App Service, see Azure Web App: Configuration Details.

Deploy the app

With all the configuration ready in your pom.xml file, you can deploy your Java app to Azure.

Build the JAR file using the following command.
```
 mvn clean package
```
Tip

Spring Boot produces two JAR files with mvn package, but the azure-webapp-maven-plugin picks the right JAR file to deploy automatically.

Deploy the app to Azure by using the following command:

mvn azure-webapp:deploy

Once you select from a list of available subscriptions, Maven deploys to Azure App Service. When deployment completes, your application is ready, and you see the following output:

[INFO] Successfully deployed the artifact to <URL>
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  02:20 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2023-07-26T12:47:50Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open your app's default domain from the Overview page in the Azure portal, and append /greeting to the URL. You should see the following app:

Build the JAR file using the following command.
```
echo '%prod.quarkus.http.port=${PORT}' >> src/main/resources/application.properties
mvn clean package -Dquarkus.package.jar.type=uber-jar
```
Set the Quarkus port in the application.properties file to the PORT environment variable in the Linux Java container. Dquarkus.package.jar.type=uber-jar tells Maven to generate an Uber-Jar, which includes all dependencies in the JAR file.

Tip

Quarkus produces two JAR files with mvn package, but azure-webapp-maven-plugin picks the right JAR file to deploy automatically.

Deploy the app to Azure by using the following command:

mvn azure-webapp:deploy

Once you select from a list of available subscriptions, Maven deploys to Azure App Service. When deployment completes, your application is ready, and you see the following output:

[INFO] Successfully deployed the artifact to <URL>
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  02:20 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2023-07-26T12:47:50Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open your app's default domain from the Overview in the Azure portal, and append /hello to the URL. You should see the following app:

Build the JAR file using the following command.
```
mvn clean package
```
To make the application deploy using the azure-webapp-maven-plugin and run on Azure App Service, the sample configures the package goal as follows:
- Builds a single uber JAR file, which contains everything the application needs to run.
- Creates an executable JAR by specifying the Tomcat class as the startup class.
- Replaces the original artifact with the Uber-Jar to ensure that the deploy step deploys the right file.

Deploy the app to Azure by using the following command:

mvn azure-webapp:deploy

Once you select from a list of available subscriptions, Maven deploys to Azure App Service. When deployment completes, your application is ready, and you see the following output:

[INFO] Successfully deployed the artifact to <URL>
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  02:20 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2023-07-26T12:47:50Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open the URL for your app's default domain from the Overview in the Azure portal. You should see the following app:

Congratulations! You deployed a Java app to App Service.

Clean up resources

az group delete --name <resource group name>  --yes

For example, run az group delete --name quarkus-hello-azure-1690375364238-rg --yes. This command might take a while to run.

Quickstart: Create a Java app on Azure App Service

Prerequisites

1 - Use Azure cli

2 - Create a Java app

Configure the Maven plugin

Deploy the app

Clean up resources

Prerequisites

1 - Use Azure local Shell

2 - Get the sample app

Configure the Maven plugin

Deploy the app

Clean up resources

Related content

Additional resources