How Azure Can Help Your Company Expand In Multiple Regions (3 Of 5)

In my previous article, we created an Azure SQL database resource, replicated it in Europe, and set it up to synchronize with Contoso’s primary database in Montana. In today’s article, I will move forward and creating an App Service resource, replicating it in North Europe, and setting up an Azure Front Door resource that will load-balance and forward the HTTP requests to the closest App Service.

Create a new App Service

Select Create a resource, filter the result for Web, and click on Web App.
In the creation tab, select a resource group, insert a name unique within Azure, select the Central US region (primary location of Contoso), and select a runtime and size.
In the monitoring tab, enable Application Insights and give it a descriptive name.
Click Review + create to create the web application.

Repeat this procedure for the instance of the application in North Europe.

Configure the app service

In this step, you are going to set the connection string of your App Services to the database in the same region. First, you need to get the database’s connection string, to do so:

Enter into the resource group with the resources that you created in the previous steps
Select the database located in the same region as your App Service.
Select the Connection Strings tab and copy the value into the clipboard.
Go back into your resource group and select your App Service
Select the Configuration tab and click New connection string
Enter a descriptive name, select the SQLServer type and paste the connection string that you previously copied.
Click OK
Click Save to confirm your changes

Repeat this procedure for the instance of the application in North Europe.

Create an Azure Front Door

Select Create a resource, filter the result for Networking, and click on Azure Front Door.
In the Basics tab, select the resource group with your resources.
Select the Configuration tab and in Frontends/domains select + to add a unique host name.
In Backend pools select + and add the App Services that we previously created.
In Routing rules select + to create a rule that will map your frontend host to the backend pool.
Give your rule a name and select Add
Click Review + Create, and then Create.

In the next article, we will continue discussing architecture implementation by setting up Azure DevOps.

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