Override SKU settings in .cscfg and .csdef files for Cloud Services (extended support)

  • Article
  • 08/23/2024

This article describes how to update the role size and instance count in Azure Cloud Services by using the allowModelOverride property. When you use this property, you don't need to update the service configuration (.cscfg) and service definition (.csdef) files. So you can scale the cloud service up, down, in, or out without repackaging and redeploying it.

Set the allowModelOverride property

You can set the allowModelOverride property to true or false.

  • When allowModelOverride is set to true, an API call updates the role size and instance count for the cloud service without validating the values with the .csdef and .cscfg files.

    Note

    The .cscfg file will be updated to reflect the role instance count. The .csdef file (embedded within the .cspkg) will retain the old values.

  • When allowModelOverride is set to false, an API call throws an error if the role size and instance count values don't match the values in the .csdef and .cscfg files, respectively.

The default value is false. If the property is reset to false after being set to true, the .csdef and .cscfg files will again be validated.

The following samples show how to set the allowModelOverride property by using an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template, PowerShell, or the SDK.

ARM template

Setting the allowModelOverride property to true here updates the cloud service with the role properties defined in the roleProfile section:

"properties": {
        "packageUrl": "[parameters('packageSasUri')]",
        "configurationUrl": "[parameters('configurationSasUri')]",
        "upgradeMode": "[parameters('upgradeMode')]",
        "allowModelOverride": true,
        "roleProfile": {
          "roles": [
            {
              "name": "WebRole1",
              "sku": {
                "name": "Standard_D1_v2",
                "capacity": "1"
              }
            },
            {
              "name": "WorkerRole1",
              "sku": {
                "name": "Standard_D1_v2",
                "capacity": "1"
              }
            }
          ]
        },

PowerShell

Setting the AllowModelOverride switch on the new New-AzCloudService cmdlet updates the cloud service with the SKU properties defined in the role profile:

New-AzCloudService ` 
-Name "ContosoCS" ` 
-ResourceGroupName "ContosOrg" ` 
-Location "East US" `
-AllowModelOverride  ` 
-PackageUrl $cspkgUrl ` 
-ConfigurationUrl $cscfgUrl ` 
-UpgradeMode 'Auto' ` 
-RoleProfile $roleProfile ` 
-NetworkProfile $networkProfile  ` 
-ExtensionProfile $extensionProfile ` 
-OSProfile $osProfile `
-Tag $tag

SDK

Setting the AllowModelOverride variable to true updates the cloud service with the SKU properties defined in the role profile:

CloudService cloudService = new CloudService
    {
        Properties = new CloudServiceProperties
            {
                RoleProfile = cloudServiceRoleProfile
                Configuration = < Add Cscfg xml content here>
                PackageUrl = <Add cspkg SAS url here>,
                ExtensionProfile = cloudServiceExtensionProfile,
                OsProfile= cloudServiceOsProfile,
                NetworkProfile = cloudServiceNetworkProfile,
                UpgradeMode = 'Auto',
                AllowModelOverride = true
            },
                Location = m_location
            };
CloudService createOrUpdateResponse = m_CrpClient.CloudServices.CreateOrUpdate("ContosOrg", "ContosoCS", cloudService);

Azure portal

The Azure portal doesn't allow you to use the allowModelOverride property to override the role size and instance count in the .csdef and .cscfg files.

Next steps