• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Configuring the Website
• Deploying on Target Servers
• Deploying on Microsoft Azure
• Deploying on a Windows Server
• Down-Syncing Websites to Target Servers

Configuring the Website

Before deploying your website on one or more target servers you need to set up its host name / port bindings and configure some other parameters.

You have to access the blob storage and edit the website configuration file there.

We recommend using CloudBerry Explorer for Azure Blob Storage to access files in the storage. (We assume that you've downloaded and installed CloudBerry Explorer and configured it to access your blob storage.)

As you have no website configuration file at this point, you should create it locally and upload it to the blob storage with the CloudBerry Explorer.

Creating the website configuration file

To create the website configuration:

1. Create an XML file naming it "WebsiteConfiguration.xml".
2. Add the following to its content:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Configuration>
     <Runtime writeback="false" websiteType="composite-c1" />
     <Bindings>
       <Binding port="80" />
     </Bindings>
   </Configuration>

   ^{Listing 1: Website configuration sample}

3. Save the file.

Use one or more <Binding/> elements to bind one or more host names and / or port numbers to the website. Set up SSL support if needed.

In the sample configuration above, the host name assigned by default to a target server will be used for website access at port 80 (<Binding port="80" />), and the host name set up on the web server for the default website will be used. You can however add your own host name.

For information on parameters in WebsiteConfiguration.xml, please see "WebsiteConfiguration.xml".

For information about configuring SSL support, please see "SSL".

Uploading website configuration to the blob storage

To upload the website configuration to the blob storage:

1. Open your blob storage in CloudBerry Explorer.
2. Open the website container.
3. Create a folder named "Configuration".
4. Upload “WebsiteConfiguration.xml” to this folder.

Whenever you need to change parameters in this configuration file:

1. Download it to your local computer.
2. Edit it locally.
3. Upload it back to the blob storage overwriting the existing “WebsiteConfiguration.xml”.

Please note that if you have multiple websites on the same server, you need to configure each website creating or updating WebsiteConfiguration.xml in the corresponding website containers in the storage. (Please see "Multiple Websites" for more information.)

Disabling write-backs from live websites

In the scaled-out scenario, since you push changes to your multiple live website copies on target servers, consider preventing the live websites from writing back (up-syncing) to the website’s blob storage container.

1. Edit the "WebsiteConfiguration.xml" file.
2. Set the “writeback” attribute to “false”.
3. Save the changes.

Example:

<Runtime writeback="false" websiteType="composite-c1" />

^{Listing 2: Disabling write-backs in the website configuration file}

In the scaled-out scenario, the latest version will thus be on the staging website and you can always push the latest version to all the live website copies. Write-backs from the live websites to the website copy in the blob storage are highly undesirable because this can lead to unpredictable results, and must be disabled as suggested above.

In the simple-site scenario, changes on a single live website can be synchronized back to the website’s blob storage container. This allows the latest version of the website to be copied from the container back to the target server with the live site, if the target server has been redeployed etc.