Set up a staging environment in Azure Spring Apps

This article explains how to set up a staging deployment by using the blue-green deployment pattern in Azure Spring Apps. Blue-green deployment is an Azure DevOps continuous delivery pattern that relies on keeping an existing (blue) version live while a new (green) one is deployed. This article shows you how to put that staging deployment into production without changing the production deployment.

Prerequisites

• An existing Azure Spring Apps instance on the Standard plan.
• Azure CLI.

This article uses an application built from Spring Initializr. If you want to use a different application for this example, make a change in a public-facing portion of the application to differentiate your staging deployment from the production deployment.

To set up blue-green deployment in Azure Spring Apps, follow the instructions in the next sections.

Install the Azure CLI extension

Install the Azure Spring Apps extension for the Azure CLI by using the following command:

az extension add --name spring

Prepare the app and deployments

To build the application, follow these steps:

1. Generate the code for the sample app by using Spring Initializr with this configuration.

2. Download the code.

3. Add the following HelloController.java source file to the folder *\src\main\java\com\example\hellospring*:

   package com.example.hellospring;
   import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
   import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
   
   @RestController
   
   public class HelloController {
   
   @RequestMapping("/")
   
     public String index() {
         return "Greetings from Azure Spring Apps!";
     }
   
   }
   

4. Build the .jar file:

   mvn clean package -DskipTests
   

5. Create the app in your Azure Spring Apps instance:

   • Standard plan

   az spring app create \
       --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
       --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-instance-name> \
       --name demo \
       --runtime-version Java_17 \
       --assign-endpoint
   

6. Deploy the app to Azure Spring Apps:

   az spring app deploy \
       --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
       --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-instance-name> \
       --name demo \
       --artifact-path target\hellospring-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
   

7. Modify the code for your staging deployment:

   package com.example.hellospring;
   import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
   import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
   
   @RestController
   
   public class HelloController {
   
   @RequestMapping("/")
   
     public String index() {
         return "Greetings from Azure Spring Apps! THIS IS THE GREEN DEPLOYMENT";
     }
   
   }
   

8. Rebuild the .jar file:

   mvn clean package -DskipTests
   

9. Create the green deployment:

   • Standard plan

   az spring app deployment create \
       --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
       --service <Azure-Spring-Apps-instance-name> \
       --app demo \
       --name green \
       --runtime-version Java_17 \
       --artifact-path target\hellospring-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
   

View apps and deployments

Use the following steps to view deployed apps.

1. Go to your Azure Spring Apps instance in the Azure portal.

2. From the navigation pane, open the Apps pane to view apps for your service instance.

   

3. Select an app to view details.

   

4. Open Deployments to see all deployments of the app. The grid shows both production and staging deployments.

   

5. Select the URL to open the currently deployed application.

   

6. Select Production in the State column to see the default app.

   

7. Select Staging in the State column to see the staging app.

   

If you visit your public-facing app demo at this point, you should see the old page without your new change.

Set the green deployment as the production environment

1. After you've verified your change in your staging environment, you can push it to production. On the Apps > Deployments page, select the application currently in Production.

2. Select the ellipsis after Registration status of the green deployment, and then select Set as production.

   

3. Confirm that the URL of the app displays your changes.

   

Modify the staging deployment

If you're not satisfied with your change, you can modify your application code, build a new .jar package, and upload it to your green deployment by using the Azure CLI:

az spring app deploy \
    --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
    --service <service-instance-name> \
    --name demo \
    --deployment green \
    --artifact-path demo.jar

Delete the staging deployment

To delete your staging deployment from the Azure portal, go to the page for your staging deployment and select the Delete button.

Alternatively, delete your staging deployment from the Azure CLI by running the following command:

az spring app deployment delete \
    --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
    --service <service-instance-name> \
    --name <staging-deployment-name> \
    --app demo

Next steps

• CI/CD for Azure Spring Apps