DeployApp - .NET Aspire Azure Deployment Sample

A sample .NET Aspire application demonstrating cloud-native development with Azure deployment capabilities. This project showcases a multi-service application with a web frontend, API service, and Azure integrations including Cosmos DB and Blob Storage.

🏗️ Project Structure

This solution contains the following projects:

• apphost.cs - The Aspire AppHost that orchestrates the application and defines cloud resources
• DeployApp.Web - Blazor web frontend application
• DeployApp.ApiService - ASP.NET Core Web API that provides weather forecast data
• DeployApp.ServiceDefaults - Shared service defaults and configurations

Infrastructure Components

• Azure Container App Environment - Hosting environment for containerized services
• Azure Cosmos DB - NoSQL database with preview emulator support for local development
• Azure Blob Storage - Object storage for images and files
• Bicep Templates - Infrastructure as Code definitions located in individual folders

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 9.0 SDK
• Docker Desktop (for local development)
• Azure CLI (for deployment)
• .NET Aspire CLI

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/captainsafia/aspire-azure-deploy-standalone-test.git
   cd aspire-azure-deploy-standalone-test

2. Install .NET Aspire CLI:

   curl -sSL https://aspire.dev/install.sh | bash

🔧 Local Development

Running the Application Locally

Use the Aspire CLI to run the entire application stack locally with orchestration:

aspire run

This command will:

• Start the Aspire dashboard at http://localhost:15000
• Launch all services with proper service discovery
• Initialize local emulators for Azure services (Cosmos DB, Storage)
• Provide real-time monitoring and logging capabilities

☁️ Azure Deployment

Manual Deployment

Deploy the application to Azure using the Aspire CLI:

aspire deploy

This command will:

• Build and containerize your applications
• Deploy infrastructure using the generated Bicep templates
• Deploy application containers to Azure Container Apps
• Configure service connections and environment variables

Required Azure Configuration

Before deploying, ensure you have authenticated with Azure via the az CLI, the Azure extension in VS Code, or in Visual Studio.

Deployment Output

After successful deployment, you'll receive:

• URLs for your deployed applications
• Resource group information
• Connection strings and endpoints

🔄 Continuous Deployment

GitHub Actions Workflow

The repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/deploy.yml) that automatically deploys the application when changes are pushed to the main branch.

Workflow Features

• Triggers: Pushes to main, pull requests, and manual dispatch
• Environment: Runs on Ubuntu latest
• Security: Uses OpenID Connect for secure Azure authentication
• Deployment: Automated Aspire CLI deployment to Azure

Setting Up Azure Authentication

The pipeline uses federated credentials to authenticate with Azure in the pipeline.

1. Create an Azure app registration using az ad app create --display-name "GitHub-Actions-App".
2. Create a service principal using az ad sp create --id <app-id-from-step-1>.
3. Configure the federated credentials:

az ad app federated-credential create \
  --id <app-id> \
  --parameters '{
    "name": "GitHub-Actions",
    "issuer": "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com",
    "subject": "repo:your-org/your-repo:ref:refs/heads/main",
    "audiences": ["api://AzureADTokenExchange"]
  }'

4. Configure the service principal with permissions to configure role assignments on the target subscription.

az role assignment create \
  --assignee <your-service-principal-id> \
  --role "User Access Administrator" \
  --scope "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>"

Required GitHub Secrets

Configure the following secrets in your GitHub repository:

Secret Name	Description	Example
AZURE_TENANT_ID	Azure Active Directory Tenant ID	xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
AZURE_CLIENT_ID	Service Principal Client ID	xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
AZURE_SUBSCRIPTIONID	Azure Subscription ID	xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
AZURE_LOCATION	Azure region for deployment	eastus
AZURE_RESOURCEGROUP	Target resource group name	my-aspire-app-rg
WEATHER_API_KEY	API key for weather forecast service	test-api-key

Workflow Steps

The deployment workflow performs the following steps:

1. Code Checkout - Retrieves the latest code
2. Environment Setup - Installs .NET SDK based on global.json
3. Azure Authentication - Securely authenticates using OIDC
4. Aspire CLI Installation - Downloads and installs the latest Aspire CLI
5. Deployment - Executes aspire deploy with environment variables