Speed Up Your Azure Web App Deployment with WEBSITE_RUN_FROM

Quick Solution

If you're in a hurry to solve deployment time issues, simply add the WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE environment variable to your Azure Web App settings and set its value to 1. This change can significantly reduce your deployment times.

Why slow deployment in azure webapp ?

When deploying applications to Azure Web Apps without the WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE setting, the process typically involves:

Uploading Files: Your deployment pipeline uploads the application files to the Azure Web App.
Extracting Files: If the application is uploaded as a compressed package (like a ZIP file), the web app service extracts the contents to the file system.
Restarting the Web App: The web app might need to restart to pick up the new files.
File Synchronisation: The Azure Web App synchronises the new files with the existing file system.

Problems with Traditional Deployment

Long Deployment Times: Extracting and synchronising files can be slow, especially for large applications or many files.
File Corruption: There is a risk of file corruption during extraction or synchronisation.
Downtime: The web app might be unavailable during the file extraction and restart process, causing service disruption.

What `WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE` Does ?

The WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE setting simplifies the deployment process by running the application directly from a package file, such as a ZIP file. This eliminates the need to extract the files, reducing deployment times and potential issues.

Possible Values for `WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE`

1: This value tells Azure to run the web app directly from a package file that has been deployed. The app reads the package and executes it without extracting the contents.
URL: You can also set WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE to a URL pointing to a package file stored in Azure Blob Storage. This can be useful for scenarios where you manage your application packages in Blob Storage and want the web app to fetch the package directly from there.

How to Implement `WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE` ?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE in your deployment process:

Prepare Your Deployment Package
- Compress your application into a ZIP file. Ensure that the package contains all the necessary files for your application to run.
Upload the Package
- Use your CI/CD pipeline to upload the ZIP file to Azure. This can be done using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or any other CI/CD tool you prefer.

Set the WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE Setting

  az webapp config appsettings set --resource-group <group-name> --name <app-name> --settings WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE=1

Replace <group-name> and <app-name> with your resource group name and web app name.

Either do above step or simply add env in webapp manually from azure console

Example GitHub Actions Workflow

Here’s an example of how you can set up a GitHub Actions workflow to deploy your Node.js application using WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE:

# Docs for the Azure Web Apps Deploy action: https://github.com/Azure/webapps-deploy
# More GitHub Actions for Azure: https://github.com/Azure/actions

name: Build and deploy Node.js app to Azure Web App - my-webapp

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Node.js version
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: "20.x"

      - name: npm install, build, and test
        run: |
          npm install
          npm run build --if-present


      - name: Zip artifact for deployment
        run: zip release.zip ./* -r

      - name: Upload artifact for deployment job
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: node-app
          path: release.zip

  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    environment:
      name: "Production"
      url: ${{ steps.deploy-to-webapp.outputs.webapp-url }}
    permissions:
      id-token: write #This is required for requesting the JWT

    steps:
      - name: Download artifact from build job
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: node-app

      - name: Unzip artifact for deployment
        run: unzip release.zip

      - name: Login to Azure
        uses: azure/login@v1
        with:
          client-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_CLIENTID }}
          tenant-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_TENANTID }}
          subscription-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_SUBSCRIPTIONID }}

      - name: "Deploy to Azure Web App"
        id: deploy-to-webapp
        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
        with:
          app-name: "my-webapp"
          slot-name: "Production"
          package: .