| title | description | keywords | ms.assetid | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Configure apps in the portal |
Learn to configure common settings for an App Service app in the Azure portal. App settings, app config, connection strings, platform, language stack, container, etc. |
azure app service, web app, app settings, environment variables |
9af8a367-7d39-4399-9941-b80cbc5f39a0 |
article |
12/07/2020 |
devx-track-csharp, seodec18 |
This article explains how to configure common settings for web apps, mobile back end, or API app using the Azure portal.
In App Service, app settings are variables passed as environment variables to the application code. For Linux apps and custom containers, App Service passes app settings to the container using the --env flag to set the environment variable in the container. In either case, they're injected into your app environment at app startup. When you add, remove, or edit app settings, App Service triggers an app restart.
In the Azure portal, search for and select App Services, and then select your app.
In the app's left menu, select Configuration > Application settings.
For ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core developers, setting app settings in App Service are like setting them in <appSettings> in Web.config or appsettings.json, but the values in App Service override the ones in Web.config or appsettings.json. You can keep development settings (for example, local MySQL password) in Web.config or appsettings.json and production secrets (for example, Azure MySQL database password) safely in App Service. The same code uses your development settings when you debug locally, and it uses your production secrets when deployed to Azure.
Other language stacks, likewise, get the app settings as environment variables at runtime. For language-stack specific steps, see:
App settings are always encrypted when stored (encrypted-at-rest).
Note
App settings can also be resolved from Key Vault using Key Vault references.
Show hidden values
By default, values for app settings are hidden in the portal for security. To see a hidden value of an app setting, click the Value field of that setting. To see the values of all app settings, click the Show value button.
To add a new app setting, click New application setting. In the dialog, you can stick the setting to the current slot.
To edit a setting, click the Edit button on the right side.
When finished, click Update. Don't forget to click Save back in the Configuration page.
Note
In a default Linux app service or a custom Linux container, any nested JSON key structure in the app setting name like ApplicationInsights:InstrumentationKey needs to be configured in App Service as ApplicationInsights__InstrumentationKey for the key name. In other words, any : should be replaced by __ (double underscore).
To add or edit app settings in bulk, click the Advanced edit button. When finished, click Update. Don't forget to click Save back in the Configuration page.
App settings have the following JSON formatting:
[
{
"name": "<key-1>",
"value": "<value-1>",
"slotSetting": false
},
{
"name": "<key-2>",
"value": "<value-2>",
"slotSetting": false
},
...
]You can use the Azure CLI to create and manage settings from the command line.
-
Assign a value to a setting with az webapp config app settings set:
az webapp config appsettings set --name <app-name> --resource-group <resource-group-name> --settings <setting-name>="<value>"Replace
<setting-name>with the name of the setting, and<value>with the value to assign to it. This command creates the setting if it doesn't already exist. -
Show all settings and their values with az webapp config appsettings list:
az webapp config appsettings list --name <app-name> --resource-group <resource-group-name> -
Remove one or more settings with az webapp config app settings delete:
az webapp config appsettings delete --name <app-name> --resource-group <resource-group-name> --setting-names {<names>}Replace
<names>with a space-separated list of setting names.
In the Azure portal, search for and select App Services, and then select your app. In the app's left menu, select Configuration > Application settings.
For ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core developers, setting connection strings in App Service are like setting them in <connectionStrings> in Web.config, but the values you set in App Service override the ones in Web.config. You can keep development settings (for example, a database file) in Web.config and production secrets (for example, SQL Database credentials) safely in App Service. The same code uses your development settings when you debug locally, and it uses your production secrets when deployed to Azure.
For other language stacks, it's better to use app settings instead, because connection strings require special formatting in the variable keys in order to access the values.
Note
There is one case where you may want to use connection strings instead of app settings for non-.NET languages: certain Azure database types are backed up along with the app only if you configure a connection string for the database in your App Service app. For more information, see What gets backed up. If you don't need this automated backup, then use app settings.
At runtime, connection strings are available as environment variables, prefixed with the following connection types:
- SQLServer:
SQLCONNSTR_ - MySQL:
MYSQLCONNSTR_ - SQLAzure:
SQLAZURECONNSTR_ - Custom:
CUSTOMCONNSTR_ - PostgreSQL:
POSTGRESQLCONNSTR_
For example, a MySql connection string named connectionstring1 can be accessed as the environment variable MYSQLCONNSTR_connectionString1. For language-stack specific steps, see:
Connection strings are always encrypted when stored (encrypted-at-rest).
Note
Connection strings can also be resolved from Key Vault using Key Vault references.
Show hidden values
By default, values for connection strings are hidden in the portal for security. To see a hidden value of a connection string, just click the Value field of that string. To see the values of all connection strings, click the Show value button.
To add a new connection string, click New connection string. In the dialog, you can stick the connection string to the current slot.
To edit a setting, click the Edit button on the right side.
When finished, click Update. Don't forget to click Save back in the Configuration page.
To add or edit connection strings in bulk, click the Advanced edit button. When finished, click Update. Don't forget to click Save back in the Configuration page.
Connection strings have the following JSON formatting:
[
{
"name": "name-1",
"value": "conn-string-1",
"type": "SQLServer",
"slotSetting": false
},
{
"name": "name-2",
"value": "conn-string-2",
"type": "PostgreSQL",
"slotSetting": false
},
...
]In the Azure portal, search for and select App Services, and then select your app. In the app's left menu, select Configuration > General settings.
Here, you can configure some common settings for the app. Some settings require you to scale up to higher pricing tiers.
-
Stack settings: The software stack to run the app, including the language and SDK versions.
For Linux apps and custom container apps, you can select the language runtime version and set an optional Startup command or a startup command file.
-
Platform settings: Lets you configure settings for the hosting platform, including:
-
Bitness: 32-bit or 64-bit. (Defaults to 32-bit for App Service created in the portal.)
-
WebSocket protocol: For ASP.NET SignalR or socket.io, for example.
-
Always On: Keeps the app loaded even when there's no traffic. When Always On is not turned on (default), the app is unloaded after 20 minutes without any incoming requests. The unloaded app can cause high latency for new requests because of its warm-up time. When Always On is turned on, the front-end load balancer sends a GET request to the application root every five minutes. The continuous ping prevents the app from being unloaded.
Always On is required for continuous WebJobs or for WebJobs that are triggered using a CRON expression.
-
Managed pipeline version: The IIS pipeline mode. Set it to Classic if you have a legacy app that requires an older version of IIS.
-
HTTP version: Set to 2.0 to enable support for HTTPS/2 protocol.
[!NOTE] Most modern browsers support HTTP/2 protocol over TLS only, while non-encrypted traffic continues to use HTTP/1.1. To ensure that client browsers connect to your app with HTTP/2, secure your custom DNS name. For more information, see Secure a custom DNS name with a TLS/SSL binding in Azure App Service.
- ARR affinity: In a multi-instance deployment, ensure that the client is routed to the same instance for the life of the session. You can set this option to Off for stateless applications.
-
-
Debugging: Enable remote debugging for ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, or Node.js apps. This option turns off automatically after 48 hours.
-
Incoming client certificates: require client certificates in mutual authentication.
This setting is only for Windows apps.
In the Azure portal, search for and select App Services, and then select your app. In the app's left menu, select Configuration > Default documents.
The default document is the web page that's displayed at the root URL for a website. The first matching file in the list is used. To add a new default document, click New document. Don't forget to click Save.
If the app uses modules that route based on URL instead of serving static content, there is no need for default documents.
In the Azure portal, search for and select App Services, and then select your app. In the app's left menu, select Configuration > Path mappings.
Note
The Path mappings tab may display OS-specific settings that differ from the example shown here.
For Windows apps, you can customize the IIS handler mappings and virtual applications and directories.
Handler mappings let you add custom script processors to handle requests for specific file extensions. To add a custom handler, click New handler mapping. Configure the handler as follows:
- Extension. The file extension you want to handle, such as *.php or handler.fcgi.
- Script processor. The absolute path of the script processor to you. Requests to files that match the file extension are processed by the script processor. Use the path
D:\home\site\wwwrootto refer to your app's root directory. - Arguments. Optional command-line arguments for the script processor.
Each app has the default root path (/) mapped to D:\home\site\wwwroot, where your code is deployed by default. If your app root is in a different folder, or if your repository has more than one application, you can edit or add virtual applications and directories here.
From the Path mappings tab, click New virtual application or directory.
-
To map a virtual directory to a physical path, leave the Directory check box selected. Specify the virtual directory and the corresponding relative (physical) path to the website root (
D:\home). -
To mark a virtual directory as a web application, clear the Directory check box.
You can add custom storage for your containerized app. Containerized apps include all Linux apps and also the Windows and Linux custom containers running on App Service. Click New Azure Storage Mount and configure your custom storage as follows:
- Name: The display name.
- Configuration options: Basic or Advanced.
- Storage accounts: The storage account with the container you want.
- Storage type: Azure Blobs or Azure Files.
[!NOTE] Windows container apps only support Azure Files.
- Storage container: For basic configuration, the container you want.
- Share name: For advanced configuration, the file share name.
- Access key: For advanced configuration, the access key.
- Mount path: The absolute path in your container to mount the custom storage.
For more information, see Access Azure Storage as a network share from a container in App Service.
See Configure a custom Linux container for Azure App Service
- Configure a custom domain name in Azure App Service
- Set up staging environments in Azure App Service
- Secure a custom DNS name with a TLS/SSL binding in Azure App Service
- Enable diagnostic logs
- Scale an app in Azure App Service
- Monitoring basics in Azure App Service
- Change applicationHost.config settings with applicationHost.xdt